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White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by tinkerbell, Nov 11, 2007.

  1. tinkerbell

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    Beckyg mentioned this in a post of hers that I can't figure out how to link. It was about how easy straight people have life.
    This is how easy white people go through life.

    1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
    2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
    3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
    4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
    5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
    6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
    7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
    8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
    9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
    10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.
    11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
    12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
    13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
    14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
    15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
    16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.
    17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
    18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
    19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
    20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
    21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
    22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
    23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
    24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.
    25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
    26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
    27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
    28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
    29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
    30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
    31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
    32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
    33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.
    34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
    35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
    36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
    37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.
    38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
    39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
    40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
    41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
    42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
    43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
    44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.
    45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.
    46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.
    47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.
    48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
    49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
    50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.
     
  2. beckyg

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    Thanks for finding that!
     
  3. CrimsonThunder

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    I think most of those are un-true... But then again, I am white and I do live in australia. (we are very multi-cultural)
     
  4. 24601

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    I kind of agree. I admit, it's not yet truly equal, but some of these seem pretty far out. Then again, I'm white...
     
  5. Anton

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    I think it is safe to say this was written by an American and cannot apply to all white people of the world?
     
  6. malachite

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    Since I don't have time to pick apart everyone one of these ignorant statements. I'll just post a few, and leave you with the fact that this post is racist in itself, but maybe racism is only a one way street.:eusa_sile

    If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

    :tantrum:Why does everyone assume there is some magic white treasury that just gives white folk money? If such a place exists please tell me because I haven’t found it.

    I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

    :eusa_naug So, if you’re white then you won’t ever have asshole neighbors?

    I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

    :eek:That's funny, if that little beeping alarm goes off on me those store clerks on me pretty quick, but maybe if I were a lighter shade of white I could blend in with the wall then they would never find me.

    I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

    :roflmao:Yeah, George Bush, Sean Hannity, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, we got the cream of the crop.

    I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

    :shrug:Do you even know what half these words mean?

    If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

    :bang:Again, where is this white button everyone presses to get whatever they want? I can’t find it.

    I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

    :eusa_shhhThat is true. Whenever I’m with a group of my black friends, and I open my mouth, they all say: “Oh, on a sec guys a white man is talking.”

    I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented.

    :icon_lol:Are you trying to bait me into making a rap joke? Because it isn’t going to work.

    Into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions.

    :icon_rollMy cultural tradition? So, because all of us white folk are exactly the same, all out cultural foods can be found in the public deli. I’m Irish and if it’s not St. Patrick’s day good luck fining corn beef and cabbage.



    Into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

    :laugh:Not sure about that, I tried to get my hair highlighted once and the lady deep fried it.
     
  7. Markio

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    How are the statements ignorant? They aren't supposed to be correct unless it applies to you, at which point you check them off.
     
  8. malachite

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    "This is how easy white people go through life."

    pretty much from there the ignorance starts.
     
  9. xequar

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    I can tell you're white. People who are unaware of their priviliged station in life usually think that any commentary on that privilege is ignorant or made-up.

    You picked out the housing thing. Have you ever heard of redlining? The effects of redlining are still widely felt today. Before you scream ignorance, perhaps you should read up a bit more.
     
  10. malachite

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    Good because I wasn't trying to hide it. I'm simply trying to say people tend to think the whites have it so easy in life.

    and since we're passing out reading material here is alittle for you.
    http://www.racismeantiblanc.bizland.com/005/08-02.htm
     
  11. Markio

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    I wouldn't say white people have it easy, but I'd say most white people have it easier than most racial minorities.
     
  12. GhostDog

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    Aye. When someone has privilege, it's pretty easy to be completely unaware of it. You have the privilege of... ignoring it. Like how a guy and a girl wouldn't even have to think twice about holding hands in public, but two guys might have to stop and wonder if it was a safe area for them to do so. That sort of thing. If you haven't grown up on the wrong end of some kind of privilege, you have to learn to look for it.

    Bristling in response to commentary on X privilege generally isn't the way to go, either. Maybe you, personally, haven't done anything to propagate it. Maybe you don't even have every privilege that people assume you do based on your race or gender or whatever. But when people complain about privilege, they are generally not talking about you, personally. They're talking about widespread, societal problems that have affected them.

    And, in such cases? "Wait, that's not how it is at all!" is not a good response. Ever. For one thing, it's perceived as, "Hey, wait, your perception of The Way Things Are is not in line with mine, let me correct that for you. Let's make this about my worldview!" And when someone has grown up with their perspective not being given its fair due because of what color, gender, or sexuality they are, they are never going to respond, "Hey, you're right! Let's make this discussion about what you think!" It's just going to make people angry.

    For another, who's to say that's not how it's like for them? It's hard enough to imagine what it's like to be someone who's similar to you in race and culture, let alone someone who isn't. I have no idea what it's like to be anything but white in American society. I can't, therefore, claim that whatever observations they make about racism are wrong. How would I know?

    "But how would they know what it's like to be white if they're not, then? Isn't this list going against what you just said?" Perhaps, but I maintain that being surrounded by a privilege that you, yourself don't have makes you keenly aware of what you're missing. I walk through video and bookstores, grumbling that "Romance" is full of hetero couples, whereas something that represents me is likely to be a very small percentage of the shelf or in its own special section. I doubt straight people ever have to consider that. They don't have a problem with being represented because they have the privilege, so they simply aren't likely to be aware that my problem exists unless I say so.

    And, yes, I keep bringing it back to sexuality, but it's the best way I know how to understand what it's be like to be someone who doesn't have some other kind of privilege. Not being white and not being straight both carry their own sets of problems, but it's good to keep in mind that problems for minorities absolutely exist, even when the dominant group is unaware of them or dismisses them.

    The best thing to do when someone brings it up? Listen. Maybe you can't do a damn thing about someone else's problems with discrimination, but listening to them is infinitely better than claiming their complaints aren't valid, "because it's not all sunshine and daisies being a white person either!". It's not all sunshine and daisies being anyone; that doesn't mean racism (or sexism or heterosexism) isn't still a problem.

    And "reverse" racism (which is still racism) is a problem too. A historically repressed minority is going to harbor resentment for the people who did the repressing, which still doesn't make racism right, either. But the group in power is still the group in power, and isn't going to have as many problems as a result. Yeah, there are places I won't go because I'm a young white female and I am afraid of what would happen to me, but those places are generally not good neighborhoods. But I can walk around the rich yuppie suburbs in a town that's 95% white and not feel like I'm some kind of pariah. I'm pretty sure I got the better end of that deal. (I grew up in a predominantly white, affluent neighborhood and you could feel tension in the air whenever a group of black people walked into a store or something. It was sad.)

    Yes, racism is still a problem. It doesn't mean you're a terrible person because you're white, or that you've personally repressed anyone, or that you live in some happy magical white-people land free of problems. But there are very real problems people still have because they're not white. Listening to them, without getting defensive, is the least you can do. Even if you can't do anything, it helps to know someone's listening.
     
    #12 GhostDog, Jan 11, 2010
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2010
  13. RaeofLite

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    I have to agree for the most part on these statements. It's the sad truth of much of the world...

    For the most part (that I've seen), Canada seems at least 'tolerant' of other races which is fortunate although I'm sure this doesn't apply in all situations (even in Canada.) :frowning2:

    This hit home for me because I didn't fully realize I had "priviledge" til I came out as 'gay' and was then seen as a minority and treated more differently than if I had remained closeted which was a sad wake up call.

    I love people of all colours/ethnicities/backgrounds etc. Celebrate diversity. :grin: :thewave:
     
  14. malachite

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    alright, I can agree with that.
     
  15. olides84

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    Very impressive post, Ghost Dog :slight_smile:

    I looked up what brought about this thread, and it was this post about Straight Privilege: