On ‘White Privilege’ and Truth By Any Other Name
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What’s in a name? A whole lot, if you ask me.
There’s been one of those things going around Facebook like a forest fire: a picture of lettuce with the message that Romaine lettuce has killed more people than undocumented aliens. It’s not true of course and Politifact does a good job of debunking it – but it’s a great example of confirmation bias causing people who want it to be true spreading it around like – well, like e-coli at a Church picnic.
But again, what’s in a name? Food borne disease actually does kill more people and that’s because undocumented aliens aren’t any more likely to commit a crime (and possibly less) than someone with Mayflower descendants. The difference between food and lettuce means a lot; a lot more than citizenship in this argument.
Same goes for another popular meme: “White Privilege.” As I see it, it’s a term designed to prejudice or anger the reader, depending on his politics, and to distract from the facts. In my opinion majority privilege or perhaps majority advantage are more politically neutral and more accurate in most cases.
In fact many factors – even hereditary factors predispose people to success. Tall people, good looking people, smart people have a definite advantage in life. Of course it’s unfair and I agree, tall people should be punished – but – being in some way part of a traditional majority is similar and that’s true around the world most of the time.
We talk about Majority rule with some degree of equanimity, but if we substitute “white,” which still describes a relative majority of people in America, we can smell the anger.
We’re describing the same reality with two different terms. One is fraught with different cargo than the other. But there’s humor everywhere where passions and righteousness reside. There’s nothing funnier than mistaken righteousness in my opinion.
CNN legal analyst Areva Martin lashed out in condescending contempt at Fox contributor David Webb on a SiriusXM radio show yesterday. She said the show’s host, who is black, has benefited from “white privilege.” Has the charge become a bit too facile? A bad habit for lazy thinkers; perhaps a prejudice?
The names we use: the words, the epithets and tone in which we use them can say more about us than the dictionary definitions might imply. They speak of our own ego defenses and our own hidden prejudice even when we are criticizing the egotism and prejudice and honesty and worth of others.
“Seek and ye shall find” wrote Matthew and it sure is true. Old saying notwithstanding, the Devil here is in the generalizations and the truth in the details.
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That’s part of the problem Glenn. You have people in every group that are always on a rant about other people. I have excepted the fact that I can’t control what the idiots, regardless of race, think or say. I am too damned old to give a rat’s ass. Let them believe what they choose to be and I will be me. I am just tired of getting upset about what they say anymore.
While there is certainly certain benefits to being a certain figure at a certain place at a certain time, it is generally just that, a coinciding of of a person with certain qualities being at that certain place at that certain time. Others can and do attribute it to racial characteristics, or looks, or manner of speech, it is actually, most often that the individual put themselves at that place of opportunity when opportunity presented itself. I have been a person of good fortune for most of my life, at least I think so. Nope, I am far from being rich, powerful, or the most liked person in America. But, for a poor kid who is a high school dropout, who has traveled a good bit around the world, had a good bit of success in most things I have attempted to do to the point of being able to teach and retire from the most prestigious universities in my state I have done quite well for myself. Perhaps not so by someone else’s standards but I learned long ago that in this life if I was going to try to please anyone other than myself I was in for a long hard ride. Similarly, if I worried about what everyone else thought about me, I should be prepared to jump through a lot of hoops that I did not like. I learned that I would be who and what I am and people could take it or leave it. I don’t just walk to the beat of a different drummer, I just walk. People could, and have, take me exactly as I am or shove it up their ass. I try to be a good person based on my on value system, but I am not seeking anyone else’s approval. If you don’t approve of it, fuck you. Works for me. I am not worried about whether someone says it is white privilege, black privilege, male or female or something in between. I cannot and will not be worried about nor controlled by what other people think, or say or do.
No opposition to what you’re saying, but I can’t seem to ignore the constant ragging on white people for being white or the pretense that I share some kind of bigotry or sense of superiority because of my ancestry. I don’t think the prime minister of Finland is being referenced by the countless articles starting with “White people” and yes he’s blonde.
To me, one loses the moral high ground by wading in the same mud as you pretend some opponent is wallowing. I am no different than any other individual and imputing race based measures of worth or rights is bigotry. I don’t like bigotry. I stumbled into a magazine recently where a weekly columnist writes a weekly column about white people. White people this and white people that. Hence this post. Most black people are nice and decent and intelligent – and so are most people in general. Can’t we just get along?
I loathe the term “white privilege” and am insulted by the connotations. Folk on FB love to bandy it about.