whitefolk: you gotta love them

WEDNESDAY

hello world, now you know me, i like to think ima champion, not no victim and i
shy away from addressing myself explicitly to pointing out whitefolks peculiarities

however this white privilege blast been getting around, bonnie forwarded it from black anthropology list

its been getting around

one darlene gray post it w/o attribution on newsweek stumper article on palins falling favorability numbers

true author seem to be tim wise, author of white like me and speaking treason fluently

kinda unethical not to attribute it, whoever wrote it its good to go: ima account it whole:

==================

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are

constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this

list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin

and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a

personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,

because 'every family has challenges,' even as black and Latino families

with similar 'challenges' are regularly typified as irresponsible,

pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a '***' redneck,' like

Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with

you, you'll 'kick their ***' ass,' and talk about how you like to 'shoot

***' for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a

great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years

like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then

returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no

one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a

person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and

probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative

action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller

than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the

same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes

you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on

themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state

Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're 'untested.'

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words 'under God'

in the pledge of allegiance because 'if it was good enough for the founding

fathers, it's good enough for me,' and not be immediately disqualified from

holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s

and the 'under God' part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that

reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the

Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires

it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people

immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband

who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to

secede from the Union, and whose motto was 'Alaska first,' and no one

questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and

your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with

her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being

disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the

work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to

vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child

labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely

question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no

foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow

being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree

with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate

anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired

confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a

'second look.'

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your

political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a

typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely

knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you

must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose

pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George

W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian

nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological

principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict

in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and

everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if

you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin

Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often

the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism

and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates

America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a

reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a

'trick question,' while being black and merely refusing to give one-word

answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,

or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything

at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and

experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a 'light' burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow

someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent

of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their

homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world

opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole 'change'

thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more

years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Comments

[full a grace]

Lets not forget to add to that the
Male privilege list

Have you checked that out the way we want white people to check out their list?

I work in production.
I'm dealing with blatantly obvious, sexism everyday in the film industry.
It's messin' with me, but, I keep at it. I am strong, I work twice as hard for half the credit (the other half goes to ANY male nearby).

And with both lists, I have to remember not to let it make me too prejudice against whites and males.
Not all of em are aware. Not all are going t accept the information. Even fewer will see their privilege as a responsibility.
One guy at work said, "well then, you should have been born Jewish" when someone pointed out that his position was purely a fact of nepotism and that his brothers connection that gt him the job he had were from his parents.
He was wearing an Obama t-shirt.
gotta love it and laugh- what else can I do?

[full a grace]

Sarah Palin was hired to put sexy back into the rep party.
She could evicerate a human on live TV and they would be able to spin it.
Anything to distract from the ugliness of the old, white, man running.
That machine is based in patriarchy and promotes patriarchy as "tradition".
Tradition my ass!
If anyone wants tradition
they can go to Britain and witness the royal family.
That is tradition-
looks rotten to me.

[Lesley-Ann Brown]

Tell it like it is Arthur!
the lab

[Lesley-Ann Brown]

Tell it like it is Arthur!
the lab

[CS]

Well, all I can add is... amen...