What is White Privilege & does it Really Exist?
Whites today, like all other people of course, are helpless victims of circumstance having inherited the legacy of those before them...albeit a much better set of circumstances. However, un-educating them out of the conventional wisdom of their colonial forebears regarding the quiet and subtle control of a numerous proletariat i.e. minority is a task only they can undertake with any real hope of success; in much the same way blacks must fight to see themselves positively in a world where they are practically dead last in virtually every facet of society.
As a black man, I find that a good number of whites and those who might easily identify with them are oftentimes annoyed by - if not, indifferent to - the stark realities that blacks and other non-whites must endure on a variety of levels and in a number of countries. Apparently, it isn't yet conceivable to many them how their "white privilege" - centuries in the making - will inevitably imperil the so-called "Democratic freedoms of expressions" which are currently taken for granted by an incredible mass of Americans. On the other hand, they can very easily see how it has afforded them virtually an automatic creditability in nearly every corner of the globe usually at the expense of the indigenous populations they inevitably subsume or annihilate outright; the Indians, Africans, and even the Asians (to a certain extent) have an intimate knowledge of being the helpless victims of white supremacist ideology, which of course has many forms. In fact, no other group has the distinguished record of causing so much death, destruction, and mayhem all in order to maintain a death grip at the top of the power pyramid. History illustrates this point nicely: Consider Alexander the Great of Macedon who actually led the first European forays into Africa (332 B.C.E.), or Caesar of Rome (100 B.C.E.), the Vikings (789 A.C.E.), Los Conquistadores que sojuzgaron a los Aztecas de México guiado por Hernán Cortés desde España en los principios del siglo 16th, Hitler of Germany in WWII (1939-1945), the infamous fascist coward Mussolini who thought it noble to invade (1935) a shoeless
Ethiopian army without any provocation whatsoever ...all for the purpose of bolstering Italy's waning influence and prestige in World Affairs, and let's not forget the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade of the 16th century in which, every social class of the western world greedily engaged. To Many people, white is synonymous with craftiness especially since they have caused so much dissension in the camps of others. Divide and Conquer is the game plan and they are good at executing it. They divided the land of the Indians in the South and North; they carved up all of Africa and even had a discussion about who gets what @the Berlin Conference of 1884. The sad truth is that despite the incredible amount of historical evidence of White barbarism, the rest of the world shamefully bears the stigma of savage inferiority...while the white figures of antiquity with little exception are essentially white-washed
of all wrong-doing and therefore justified by the insidious Hollywood entertainment industry. Since childhood we've all been weaned on their fictitious stories of selfless heroism, we've been taught to revere them and therefore aspired to be like them as much as humanly possible. The history books they wrote extolled their European heritage as benevolent bringers of civilization; Their scientist operating out of a racist paradigm suggested that other ethnic groups (blacks especially) suffered from an intellectual deficit compared to whites and were therefore slightly more prone to criminal urges. In America and certainly back in our ancestral home on the African Continent, whites beat us into submission and we love them for it. ...ultimately, whites go on feeling generous and even smug in their empathetic displays toward the less favored races who wait patiently at their beck & call. Whenever they need to make room by cutting down the population, strengthen their free-market economy, or have need of a convenient scapegoat of some sort in a failed scheme they cooked up, we minorities pay for it in loss of status or blood (usually both).
Of Late: They've created a phantom media image of "the opportunistic terrorist", who is just itching for a chance to blow the altruistic white American society back into the stone age; now, Iran is in it's cross-hairs for wanting to become a truly independent nation (energy-wise) and is therefore accused of enriching Uranium for development of nuclear weapons - never mind their willing compliance to the United Nations' IAEA DEPARTMENT [ Incidentally, A cursory keyword search: Iran, will easily verify their observance of International Law on Uranium Enrichment for peaceful purposes per UN guidelines by clicking the highlighted .pdf document: IAEA DEPARTMENT ]
Not Surprisingly, middle and lower class whites along with everyone else are perceived as potential terrorist threats by the superstructure of (mainly white & usually untouchable) elites and are therefore treated accordingly. These concerns have only begun to take center stage because an inordinate amount of white people have suffered. Fortunately, Tim Wise is one who digs deep and shares his observations with those who need it most, OTHER WHITE PEOPLE. My sincere hope is that more of them will acknowledge these truths, but not for our (black people) benefit - by no means! I want them to do so for the good of the world because many of them are now starting to feel the crushing weight of many of the systemic contradictions of Casino-Capitalism and other mechanisms that until recently had benefited virtually the whole lot of the them. For better or for worse, they (whites) will remain at the vanguard (at least for the foreseeable future) of whatever becomes of us all. If you (the person reading this now) are anything like me, you are slightly more trusting of self-fulfilling prophecies than of mythological ones written in the ancient texts of long ago and far away places, foreboding the absolute devastation of all mankind. If the white man is somehow able to turn the page of imperialism and finally break with that horrid past perhaps then, some measure of equanimity within the common thread of humanity might begin to finally take root and eventually bear much fruit. Until many more of the various white ethnic subdivisions/groups stop preaching to the choir i.e. minorities, and confront their own brethren who are indeed exploiting many of them now, the white man's burden won't be anything else...but himself.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Paul Mooney: Analyzing White America
[WARNING: Dark Comedy Edition]
