Things Many White People Seem To Not Understand

[MaryL]

I ask myself on a daily basis, "What do I have that I didn’t earn?"
-- Peggy MacIntosh​

1. White Privilege is being able to move into a new neighborhood and being fairly sure that your neighbors will be pleasant to you and treat you with respect.
   
2. White Privilege is being able to watch a movie, read a book and open the front page of a newspaper and assume that unless otherwise indicated, you and every white person whom you know or can imagine could well be the protagonist; you and your race is widely represented and spoken for. It's also being about to encounter any narrative about non-whites and empathetically dissociate yourself from it.
3. White Privilege is being able to seek legal, financial and medical help without having your race work against you.
4. White Privilege is living in a world where you are taught that people with your skin tone hold the standard for beauty.
5. White Privilege is never being told to, “get over slavery”.
6. White Privilege is having the prevalence and importance of the English language and finding amusement in ridiculing people of color/immigrants for their accents and their difficulty in speaking a language that is not their native tongue.
7. White Privilege is arrogantly believing that reverse racism actually exists and believing it is something other than racism.
8. White Privilege is being able to stay ignorant to the fact that racial slurs are part of a systematic dehumanization of entire groups of people who are and have historically been subjugated and hated just for being alive.
9. White Privilege is not having your name turned into an easier-to-say Anglo-Saxon name.
10. White Privilege is being able to fight racism one day, then ignore it the next.
11. White privilege is having your words and actions attributed to you as an individual, rather than have them reflect members of your race.
12. White Privilege is being able to talk about racism without appearing self-serving.
13. White Privilege is being able to be articulate and well-spoken without people being surprised.
14. White Privilege is being pulled over or taken aside and knowing that you are not being singled out because of your race/colour.
15. White Privilege is not having to teach your children to be aware of systematic racism for their own protection.
16. White Privilege is not having to acknowledge the fact that we live in a system that treats people of color unfairly politically, socially and economically and being able to choose, instead, -- if/when it suits you -- to believe that people of color are inherently less capable.
17. White Privilege is not having your people and their culture stereotyped and subsequently appropriated, romanticized or eroticized for the gain and pleasure of other white people.
18. White Privilege is being able to ignore the consequences of race.

Now, if as or after you read the list above, what crossed your mind was/were:

• ways to discredit the statement(s) rather than ways in which the statement(s) is so, and/or
• whether a statement is binarily applicable either in general or specifically,
• whether the inapplicability of one statement -- broadly or specifically -- to you or the white people whom you know has something to do with whether White Privilege exists,
• whether a single statement or the whole list sought to describe or label you specifically or white people in general rather than a body of cultural attitudes and experiences,

well, that's not white privilege, it's an outcome of White Privilege. What that is at least one of thee things -- white guilt, denial or racial bias -- but not knowing you personally, I can't say which. I suppose it could also be be incomprehension, but there's no "fancy" language there, so hopefully none of the literalists (or anyone else) here show us that they truly didn't get the substantive themes and contexts of the statements.

Lastly, to be clear, I didn't create the OP seeking to irk folks, truly. I want folks -- black and white -- to recognize that on a daily basis, whites enjoy a set of advantages and immunities that are a direct result of the oppression of people of color. I also want blacks to realize that often enough and unconsciously they feed the beast too and to that end, they aren't helping eradicate it. That's how deeply ingrained White Privilege is in American culture.

Interestingly, I didn't actually come to understand White Privilege until I discovered my own angst and apprehension when I spent a year living and traveling in places where there were no white people, or if there were I never saw them. And to be honest, it was some months later that I understood the emotions I'd felt . It was years later before the term "White Privilege" made its way to me and I came to have a tidy little label for what I'd experienced and discovered.

How you perceive the notion of that even being possible and indeed happening? Makes you squirm in your chair a bit and maybe feel a little uncomfortable, right? But here’s the thing – I’m not "on about" White Privilege to make you feel comfortable, that’s not my aim. I've created this thread to ideally erase the invisibility of the privileges you have that continue to help maintain white supremacy, yet I realize that's probably far too optimistic an objective. I’m trying merely to offer a few palpable illustrations of what White Privilege is in the hope that maybe one day, not necessarily one day soon, when you see it manifest, you'll recognize it for what it is and maybe even know that it's not fair that we enjoy a privilege no other Americans do, and in recognition of that, do something about ending it.


Additional Reading:

• THE ORIGINS OF “PRIVILEGE” -- An interview
  
• WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MALE PRIVILEGE: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies
  
• UNDERSTANDING WHITE PRIVILEGE
  
• The Invisibility of White Privilege

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites......

Playing the victim again, Mexico Mary?

You are the perfect example of a alt Leftie. Japanese digbat.

What the hell does any of that mean, MM?

Um, I misspelled ding bat... You aren't going ape shit? OK. Illegals always play the victims, just like the Japanese when the anniversary of Hiroshima rolls around. But how you side with either. Japan and Mexico, both make them selves out to be victims of the backlash they created.

 

[westwall]

I ask myself on a daily basis, "What do I have that I didn’t earn?"
-- Peggy MacIntosh​

1. White Privilege is being able to move into a new neighborhood and being fairly sure that your neighbors will be pleasant to you and treat you with respect.
   
2. White Privilege is being able to watch a movie, read a book and open the front page of a newspaper and assume that unless otherwise indicated, you and every white person whom you know or can imagine could well be the protagonist; you and your race is widely represented and spoken for. It's also being about to encounter any narrative about non-whites and empathetically dissociate yourself from it.
3. White Privilege is being able to seek legal, financial and medical help without having your race work against you.
4. White Privilege is living in a world where you are taught that people with your skin tone hold the standard for beauty.
5. White Privilege is never being told to, “get over slavery”.
6. White Privilege is having the prevalence and importance of the English language and finding amusement in ridiculing people of color/immigrants for their accents and their difficulty in speaking a language that is not their native tongue.
7. White Privilege is arrogantly believing that reverse racism actually exists and believing it is something other than racism.
8. White Privilege is being able to stay ignorant to the fact that racial slurs are part of a systematic dehumanization of entire groups of people who are and have historically been subjugated and hated just for being alive.
9. White Privilege is not having your name turned into an easier-to-say Anglo-Saxon name.
10. White Privilege is being able to fight racism one day, then ignore it the next.
11. White privilege is having your words and actions attributed to you as an individual, rather than have them reflect members of your race.
12. White Privilege is being able to talk about racism without appearing self-serving.
13. White Privilege is being able to be articulate and well-spoken without people being surprised.
14. White Privilege is being pulled over or taken aside and knowing that you are not being singled out because of your race/colour.
15. White Privilege is not having to teach your children to be aware of systematic racism for their own protection.
16. White Privilege is not having to acknowledge the fact that we live in a system that treats people of color unfairly politically, socially and economically and being able to choose, instead, -- if/when it suits you -- to believe that people of color are inherently less capable.
17. White Privilege is not having your people and their culture stereotyped and subsequently appropriated, romanticized or eroticized for the gain and pleasure of other white people.
18. White Privilege is being able to ignore the consequences of race.

Now, if as or after you read the list above, what crossed your mind was/were:

• ways to discredit the statement(s) rather than ways in which the statement(s) is so, and/or
• whether a statement is binarily applicable either in general or specifically,
• whether the inapplicability of one statement -- broadly or specifically -- to you or the white people whom you know has something to do with whether White Privilege exists,
• whether a single statement or the whole list sought to describe or label you specifically or white people in general rather than a body of cultural attitudes and experiences,

well, that's not white privilege, it's an outcome of White Privilege. What that is at least one of thee things -- white guilt, denial or racial bias -- but not knowing you personally, I can't say which. I suppose it could also be be incomprehension, but there's no "fancy" language there, so hopefully none of the literalists (or anyone else) here show us that they truly didn't get the substantive themes and contexts of the statements.

Lastly, to be clear, I didn't create the OP seeking to irk folks, truly. I want folks -- black and white -- to recognize that on a daily basis, whites enjoy a set of advantages and immunities that are a direct result of the oppression of people of color. I also want blacks to realize that often enough and unconsciously they feed the beast too and to that end, they aren't helping eradicate it. That's how deeply ingrained White Privilege is in American culture.

Interestingly, I didn't actually come to understand White Privilege until I discovered my own angst and apprehension when I spent a year living and traveling in places where there were no white people, or if there were I never saw them. And to be honest, it was some months later that I understood the emotions I'd felt . It was years later before the term "White Privilege" made its way to me and I came to have a tidy little label for what I'd experienced and discovered.

How you perceive the notion of that even being possible and indeed happening? Makes you squirm in your chair a bit and maybe feel a little uncomfortable, right? But here’s the thing – I’m not "on about" White Privilege to make you feel comfortable, that’s not my aim. I've created this thread to ideally erase the invisibility of the privileges you have that continue to help maintain white supremacy, yet I realize that's probably far too optimistic an objective. I’m trying merely to offer a few palpable illustrations of what White Privilege is in the hope that maybe one day, not necessarily one day soon, when you see it manifest, you'll recognize it for what it is and maybe even know that it's not fair that we enjoy a privilege no other Americans do, and in recognition of that, do something about ending it.


Additional Reading:

• THE ORIGINS OF “PRIVILEGE” -- An interview
  
• WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MALE PRIVILEGE: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies
  
• UNDERSTANDING WHITE PRIVILEGE
  
• The Invisibility of White Privilege

What a fucking joke. I was born poor and lived in a truck for 6 years when I was a kid. Where the hell do I have to go for my "white privilege"?

 

[ptbw forever]

I have refuted the OP numerous times.

"White privilege" is almost as much of an impossibility as a flat earth at this point in history.

Some of us can see it; some of us can't. I suppose it doesn't automatically make anyone a racist, a real black-hater, if they don't agree whites have a better chance of success in this country. Whites do, actually, and I've seen plenty of folks on threads like this eventually reveal the hatred and resentment they really feel for black people. I'm not saying you're one of them. I don't know if you are or not. But although the writer quoted in the OP might have waxed a bit emotional, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. You may have had plenty of challenges in life, maybe you still do. You can rest assured that if you had been born African American, you would have had an additional challenge to overcome. It is still real. Ask any African American.

Racial profile much.
Some white people have a better chance at success than some black people.

But, some black people have a better chance at success than some white people. (The president's daughters for example have near 100% probability of success).

In America, most people have an excellent opportunity of being successful if they get off their butts, get educated, learn a skill, and get to work. And don't give up because there is a setback or perceived unfairness. The world will never be complete "fair". Almost everyone can point a finger at someone who was luckier at the birth lottery. Those that persevere can insure that their children are more privileged than themselves.

All of those things are true (except that I'm "racial profiling" lol). What the OP is getting at is the more subtle influences in our society that handicap a lot of African Americans because of the "birth lottery," as you call it. I will grant you that things are a lot better than they were when I was a girl, but it's not a done deal yet that we live in a colorblind society.

You literally said "white people are racists", THAT is racial profiling.

Go die in a ditch grandma.

No, I didn't literally say that. I do not automatically look at a white guy and say "Racist;" fortunately that is nowhere near the truth. White privilege isn't the same as racism. White privilege is a subtle frame of mind that, through ignorance, makes it difficult for some people to understand that there is still an unspoken handicap at play if you are an African American. If it doesn't apply to you, move on and shut your trap.
If I've got you losing your temper, though, I have hope I'm hitting a nerve.
I look forward to reading your argument here on Monday. Maybe it will help me understand your position and the position of many of your Buds here.

Nothing you have told me so far explains your responses to me or why you have made it a habit to mock and disrespect my views in every thread for weeks now with a "funny." I doubt if it is your way of building my "Likes" total.
I'm beginning to wonder if you, Sir, are part of that "Alt Right" crew which is being equally vehemently denied elsewhere on this board.

what is the alt right?

"Why do they hate whites? Because whites are racist"

Get out of here with your bullshit grandma.

 

[MaryL]

UNKOKATRE: Where DO you LIVE, anyway? What country are you from, Asian, wealthy and isolated, where the hell are you coming from? You have been wonderfully ambiguous. Well, enough. Give it up.

 

[320 Years of History]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

 

[westwall]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

Bullshit. The only determiner of what you can do, or not do, is money. Oprah there can buy me 100 times over. Guess what, that BLACK woman has far more privilege than I ever will. Your statements are ridiculous.

 

[ptbw forever]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

Anyone in the US would say the 1st picture in the last set has the best looking woman.

Megyn isn't even good looking. Try comparing them to Ainsley Earhart or Jenna Lee if you want to use Fox News women next time.

 

[westwall]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

Anyone in the US would say the 1st picture in the last set has the best looking woman.

Megyn isn't even good looking. Try comparing them to Ainsley Earhart or Jenna Lee if you want to use Fox News women next time.

They're ALL good looking women. Even Oprah when she's made up looks good. At her age that is good genes.

 

[320 Years of History]

Why is it so many folks here are internalizing this and making it about yourself? It's not about you, Billy, Bob, Mary, Lucy, Helen, etc. Step away from yourself for just a moment and think in terms of classes of people rather than whether you get the short end of the stick at times.

Are you driving at the fact that some whites have more privilege than other whites? Okay fine, some whites do have more privilege than do others. That's not the point. The point is that whites as a class have privileges that non-whites as a class simply cannot, don't and won't have, at least not anytime soon.

 

[320 Years of History]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

Bullshit. The only determiner of what you can do, or not do, is money. Oprah there can buy me 100 times over. Guess what, that BLACK woman has far more privilege than I ever will. Your statements are ridiculous.

Good Lord. It's not about you. It's not about Oprah. It's about white folks as a group of people, as a class; it's about minorities as a group, as a class. It's about the comparative societal advantages the group members have in a general sense.

 

[ptbw forever]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

Anyone in the US would say the 1st picture in the last set has the best looking woman.

Megyn isn't even good looking. Try comparing them to Ainsley Earhart or Jenna Lee if you want to use Fox News women next time.

They're ALL good looking women. Even Oprah when she's made up looks good. At her age that is good genes.

You have low standards.

Oprah was not even the least bit attractive when she was young.

 

[MaryL]

Sorry. I like monoculturalism Western norms from the 50's. I AM GOOD WITH the 50'S . No mass shootings or illegal aliens, Just commies. Imaginary enemies. I would step back there in a second, this fear of reality is even worse.

 

[ptbw forever]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites, so what PRIVILEGE?

Try not internalizing/personalizing the concept of white privilege. It's not about you, MaryL, specifically. Does every privilege noted in the OP apply to you? Perhaps not; I wouldn't expect every single one does, but every single one doesn't need to for white privilege to still exist.

It's about the fact that the majority or plurality group has benefits that other groups do not. Since in the U.S., white folks are the majority group, they get the benefits of being the majority. Thus it's called "white privilege." I think earlier in this thread (maybe a different thread? I don't recall) about Han privilege which exists in China. The Han are the majority ethnic group in China, thus "Han privilege."

A few minutes ago I wrote about how white privilege is in one contexts about extents of control over one's destiny be it the next 10 minutes or the next ten years, frankly. In terms of that, you may find that in your localized community, you don't have any particular privilege because you are not among the majority. However, in the larger context, the one that isn't constrained by your immediate circumstances, you absolutely have privileges/benefits that, say, blacks do not.

For example, consider point #4 in the OP. Think carefully and honestly about that. Ask yourself (I'm not asking you to tell us the answer if you don't want to) whether when you look at an individual your "bar" for assessing their beauty is given by the standards of Western culture, white culture or by the standards of the culture to which the individual belongs.

I can't speak for you, but of the women above, one can think what one wants, but I don't think the last woman is "hot" at all. Yet in her own culture, she's "all that and a bag of chips" and there's no way my wife or daughter would even, in her world, come close.

The following women are I suspect most white Americans would say they are pretty, but compared with Megyn Kelly, whom do you think would be thought more or less pretty? Again, I'm not asking about an individual's preferences, I'm asking about how they'd be viewed on a cultural level.

Bullshit. The only determiner of what you can do, or not do, is money. Oprah there can buy me 100 times over. Guess what, that BLACK woman has far more privilege than I ever will. Your statements are ridiculous.

Good Lord. It's not about you. It's not about Oprah. It's about white folks as a group of people, as a class; it's about minorities as a group, as a class. It's about the comparative societal advantages the group members have in a general sense.

You couldn't hope to prove half of this stuff on even the smallest scale.

 

[westwall]

Why is it so many folks here are internalizing this and making it about yourself? It's not about you, Billy, Bob, Mary, Lucy, Helen, etc. Step away from yourself for just a moment and think in terms of classes of people rather than whether you get the short end of the stick at times.

Are you driving at the fact that some whites have more privilege than other whites? Okay fine, some whites do have more privilege than do others. That's not the point. The point is that whites as a class have privileges that non-whites as a class simply cannot, don't and won't have, at least not anytime soon.

Why are you internalizing it? The black experience is no different from the Slavic experience. They were all slaves at one point in their history. The blacks STILL enslave their people in Africa. Face it, the whole concept of "white privilege" is bullshit designed to absolve a group of people for their inability to advance themselves. They aren't pathetic because they're black. They are pathetic because they're lazy pricks who want something for nothing.

How do I know this? Because there are a whole bunch of white folks who do, and behave the same. It's not a color issue. It's a character issue. They have bad characters and they've been able to convince a bunch of morons that it isn't their fault, but the morons fault.

Hello moron...

 

[320 Years of History]

You know what else it's about? It's about the fact that every one of us knows that in the U.S. we have very real race issues and to improve things we need to ameliorate those issues, yet people actually have read the OP, and despite the fact that they know there are many minorities for whom the denial of the existence of white privilege is a source of distrust of whites, yet folks here, presumably white folks, think being told how minorities see it is funny.

There's nothing funny about it. There's nothing funny about the race issues in the U.S. There's nothing funny about the fact that our nation is divided and people in the majority, rather than trying to understand the entirety of the emotional and tangible nature of what minorities assert they observe, a material share of the majority group discount, or fully deny, the verity of those people's claims and expressions of dismay and hurt as foolish, absurd, zero-sum positioning, etc., and yet think they should be trusted and believed when, as members of the majority, one says they are not biased or that one is indifferent about race. Do you truly not see how taking that stance does not engender trust by people who in their very being are certain they've been slighted, and both they and the majority know who is and who is not in possession of the power of majority?

I don't know what most folks learn about conflict and trust resolution, but I can tell you that denying the genuinely offered pleas of the other party to the conflict isn't ever going to lead to any sort of win-win resolution.

 

[Unkotare]

I ask myself on a daily basis, "What do I have that I didn’t earn?"
-- Peggy MacIntosh​

1. White Privilege is being able to move into a new neighborhood and being fairly sure that your neighbors will be pleasant to you and treat you with respect.
   
2. White Privilege is being able to watch a movie, read a book and open the front page of a newspaper and assume that unless otherwise indicated, you and every white person whom you know or can imagine could well be the protagonist; you and your race is widely represented and spoken for. It's also being about to encounter any narrative about non-whites and empathetically dissociate yourself from it.
3. White Privilege is being able to seek legal, financial and medical help without having your race work against you.
4. White Privilege is living in a world where you are taught that people with your skin tone hold the standard for beauty.
5. White Privilege is never being told to, “get over slavery”.
6. White Privilege is having the prevalence and importance of the English language and finding amusement in ridiculing people of color/immigrants for their accents and their difficulty in speaking a language that is not their native tongue.
7. White Privilege is arrogantly believing that reverse racism actually exists and believing it is something other than racism.
8. White Privilege is being able to stay ignorant to the fact that racial slurs are part of a systematic dehumanization of entire groups of people who are and have historically been subjugated and hated just for being alive.
9. White Privilege is not having your name turned into an easier-to-say Anglo-Saxon name.
10. White Privilege is being able to fight racism one day, then ignore it the next.
11. White privilege is having your words and actions attributed to you as an individual, rather than have them reflect members of your race.
12. White Privilege is being able to talk about racism without appearing self-serving.
13. White Privilege is being able to be articulate and well-spoken without people being surprised.
14. White Privilege is being pulled over or taken aside and knowing that you are not being singled out because of your race/colour.
15. White Privilege is not having to teach your children to be aware of systematic racism for their own protection.
16. White Privilege is not having to acknowledge the fact that we live in a system that treats people of color unfairly politically, socially and economically and being able to choose, instead, -- if/when it suits you -- to believe that people of color are inherently less capable.
17. White Privilege is not having your people and their culture stereotyped and subsequently appropriated, romanticized or eroticized for the gain and pleasure of other white people.
18. White Privilege is being able to ignore the consequences of race.

Now, if as or after you read the list above, what crossed your mind was/were:

• ways to discredit the statement(s) rather than ways in which the statement(s) is so, and/or
• whether a statement is binarily applicable either in general or specifically,
• whether the inapplicability of one statement -- broadly or specifically -- to you or the white people whom you know has something to do with whether White Privilege exists,
• whether a single statement or the whole list sought to describe or label you specifically or white people in general rather than a body of cultural attitudes and experiences,

well, that's not white privilege, it's an outcome of White Privilege. What that is at least one of thee things -- white guilt, denial or racial bias -- but not knowing you personally, I can't say which. I suppose it could also be be incomprehension, but there's no "fancy" language there, so hopefully none of the literalists (or anyone else) here show us that they truly didn't get the substantive themes and contexts of the statements.

Lastly, to be clear, I didn't create the OP seeking to irk folks, truly. I want folks -- black and white -- to recognize that on a daily basis, whites enjoy a set of advantages and immunities that are a direct result of the oppression of people of color. I also want blacks to realize that often enough and unconsciously they feed the beast too and to that end, they aren't helping eradicate it. That's how deeply ingrained White Privilege is in American culture.

Interestingly, I didn't actually come to understand White Privilege until I discovered my own angst and apprehension when I spent a year living and traveling in places where there were no white people, or if there were I never saw them. And to be honest, it was some months later that I understood the emotions I'd felt . It was years later before the term "White Privilege" made its way to me and I came to have a tidy little label for what I'd experienced and discovered.

How you perceive the notion of that even being possible and indeed happening? Makes you squirm in your chair a bit and maybe feel a little uncomfortable, right? But here’s the thing – I’m not "on about" White Privilege to make you feel comfortable, that’s not my aim. I've created this thread to ideally erase the invisibility of the privileges you have that continue to help maintain white supremacy, yet I realize that's probably far too optimistic an objective. I’m trying merely to offer a few palpable illustrations of what White Privilege is in the hope that maybe one day, not necessarily one day soon, when you see it manifest, you'll recognize it for what it is and maybe even know that it's not fair that we enjoy a privilege no other Americans do, and in recognition of that, do something about ending it.


Additional Reading:

• THE ORIGINS OF “PRIVILEGE” -- An interview
  
• WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MALE PRIVILEGE: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies
  
• UNDERSTANDING WHITE PRIVILEGE
  
• The Invisibility of White Privilege

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites......

Playing the victim again, Mexico Mary?

You are the perfect example of a alt Leftie. Japanese digbat.

What the hell does any of that mean, MM?

Um, I misspelled ding bat... You aren't going ape shit? OK. Illegals always play the victims, just like the Japanese when the anniversary of Hiroshima rolls around. But how you side with either. Japan and Mexico, both make them selves out to be victims of the backlash they created.

Again, you fail to answer a question, MM.

 

[MaryL]

I am poor white and live with Mexican illegals and blacks. Boy howdy do they LOVE to lord that over poor whites......

Playing the victim again, Mexico Mary?

You are the perfect example of a alt Leftie. Japanese digbat.

What the hell does any of that mean, MM?

Um, I misspelled ding bat... You aren't going ape shit? OK. Illegals always play the victims, just like the Japanese when the anniversary of Hiroshima rolls around. But how you side with either. Japan and Mexico, both make them selves out to be victims of the backlash they created.

Again, you fail to answer a question, MM.

Really. Speaking of failures. I actually came clear as to where I come from, Both my great grand parents came from legal immigrant European background. From the mid to late 1890's. Your turn, Unkotare.

 

[Unkotare]

UNKOKATRE: Where DO you LIVE, anyway? What country are you from, Asian, wealthy and isolated, where the hell are you coming from? .....

I've only posted about 1000 times that I am an American of Irish ancestry. Not Asian, not wealthy, not isolated. Got it, MM? Try to pay attention during your brief and infrequent lucid moments.











One great (or great-great?) grandmother came over as an indentured servant when just a young child. One great grandfather left Ireland a brash young lad, hopping on a ship just hours ahead of the British Military, who were quite upset about something. Oh, and there are other tales I could tell, but no one wants to be bored with all that.

 

[MaryL]

UNKOKATRE: Where DO you LIVE, anyway? What country are you from, Asian, wealthy and isolated, where the hell are you coming from? .....

I've only posted about 1000 times that I am an American of Irish ancestry. Not Asian, not wealthy, not isolated. Got it, MM? Try to pay attention during your brief and infrequent lucid moments.

Erin go bragh, all the time we have posted together, can I remember you ever stating that. Thank you.

 

[320 Years of History]

They are pathetic because they're lazy pricks want something for nothing.

Asserting or acknowledging the verity of white privilege neither asks for anything (in the sense of your post) nor gives anything. It's nothing more than recognizing that the majority group has advantages other groups don't. In the U.S. the majority group is white people and we have privileges as a result of being the majority. In China, the majority is Han, and they have privilege that non-Han just don't. In Muslim countries, it's Muslim privilege. It's the same basic concept; it's just that in the U.S. it derives from whiteness rather than ethnicity, or faith.