There has been a lot of discussion over the last few years regarding the idea of “white privilege” and especially “white male privilege.” It has always been a topic that vexed me because, as a straight white man, in many ways the deck has always been stacked against me. I have enjoyed some privileges in life: I have parents that are married and who were wise enough to get married before they had kids, and I am also blessed enough to have had a father who modeled hard work and entrepreneurship for me, as he ran his small business that he built from the ground up. Although I have these blessings, they have nothing to do with my skin colour and everything to do with parents that don’t have short time preferences or an entitlement complex. Also, as far as I can tell, married parents with a work ethic isn’t what people mean by “white privilege” anyway. They seem to think it is some magical property imbued by a lack of melanin that means I have access to some special club.
Now this idea got me thinking. You know what, as a white man, I do have entry to a special “white man only” club (although really anybody can gain entrance, as you will see) because of my sex and skin colour. It isn’t what you think though. As a man, there aren’t any special “women’s only” scholarships for me, and being white, there aren’t any special “minority only” scholarships either. There aren’t any special programs to help me out, no bonus points on a job application because I tick the right “diversity” boxes, nothing like that. In reality, my skin colour and sex count for nothing in that regard because such things count for literally nothing, if they aren’t actually handicapped in our “diversity” obsessed age.
But in spite of all that, I actually am blessed with an incredible privilege as a white man that no woman or minority can ever know at this time in history. I can be sure if I earn something, if I work at it and I succeed, then I can be sure I have earned it on my merits. I never have to worry that someone is taking pity on me, that I am a diversity hire, or that people would fear to offer me criticism because of a discrimination or harassment accusation. If I fail, I fail, and if I succeed, I succeed. It is in my own power to do so. The deck may be stacked against me, but when I succeed, I never have to wonder if I really achieved anything of value.
I’m a science fiction fan, and much was made of the sweep of women winning the once prestigious Hugo award this year, but I’ve seen the writing of N. K Jemisin and her best award-winning novel, and she certainly has some ability. Still, she clearly knowns she is the token black woman and people vote for her or invite her onto projects as an act of virtue signaling. It must suck to wonder if you are any good, only to have the sorts of things that might provide you with some measure of that being turned into something to make a bunch of racist leftists feel better about themselves. Maybe she doesn’t care, but how does the stigma of “diversty hire” ever wash off?
Win, lose or draw, I know whatever I achieve, I will never have to wonder if is is some pity award because of the colour of my skin.
Moonbats, as usual, have things exactly wrong. White male privilege, like straight privilege or thin privilege, is subjective to the point of being nonsensical. You cannot measure it (how much does thin privilege weigh?). All they can do is assert its existence based on divergent group outcomes. Tall people have tall privilege because NBA salaries are higher than janitorial ones. QED.
Privilege is by (their) definition an advantage you didn’t deserve. However, earn something (like being thin) and they will quickly start calling that privilege as well: https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/thin-privilege-worked-for-body/. So even their own definitions are jettisoned when convenient. Because the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution.
How about a more objective standard? If you want to see who is truly privileged in a society, discover that class against whom you may not discriminate, or who has exclusive rights under power of law.
If, to pick one example it is legal* to create a X for my group, but not-X cannot create the same for his group, then X is privileged. One can hardly argue with the definition, as X is privileged to do something that not-X is forbidden by the system from doing. That’s what oppression is.
Some obvious examples of X creations are:
Women-only gyms that may exclude men, where men-only gyms must admit women
Black student unions where white student unions are forbidden
In such cases, white men are forbidden by the system from enjoying a right that others enjoy because of their sex or race. And yet in this case, Moonbats assert that it is those to whom rights are forbidden who are privileged.
Or take a second example, If one can fire a white teacher for incompetence, but a similarly-incompetent black teacher has an entire division of the Federal DOJ that will litigate you to penury if you fire him, who is truly privileged?
But the bottom problem is that the whole argument is nonsense. Blacks and women and homos and fatties in America, objectively measured by assets and freedom of action, are among the most privileged people who have ever lived. The only group of people in America who are truly oppressed are the unborn, who can be killed without appeal upon the word of another person.
The moonbats won’t tell you that the system is oppressing the killed, but the killers. That’s because moonbats ARE the system.
* or socially acceptable, which on campus means the same thing
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Just ask the Whites who live in Appalachia or the Deep South if they have any White Privilege. Slave wages, low standards of living and shoddy heath care are our daily fare. I live in Arkansas and I have to work three jobs just to keep body and soul together.
Speaking as a straight, white, male, and married w/children here. Assuming for the sake of argument that there is indeed “white privilege” (there isn’t, and for the record, there is ample evidence to suggest, as the article points out, that it is actually a detriment), and that I and others like me are its beneficiaries, I say we should proclaim it as our birthright! By doing so, we flip the argument from denying that such a thing exists, to instead, champion not only it’s continued existence, but to also launch a crusade to reclaim the parts that have been eroded and stolen from us! It will also have the added benefit of causing cranial ruptures in the prog/alt-left/BLM/anti-whites.
Let’s look at this White Privilege that gives me an “unfair” advantage over others:
I have the privilege of being raised by both my mother and my father in a stable home where drugs, alcohol, and crime never intruded.
I have the privilege of being raised by parents who understood the value of education and insisted that I and my siblings take learning seriously.
I have the privilege of being taught at an early age that making sacrifices today in order to have something better tomorrow is one of the keys to progress.
I have the privilege of having grandparents who taught my parents these same values – and generation upon generation before them.
I have the privilege of learning about the Western European culture – the music, the literature, the science, the art – that has enriched the lives of all who care to take advantage of that culture; freely bestowed on all who care for the finer things of mankind.
I have the privilege of having a strong work ethic instilled in me from a young age.
I have the privilege of being raised in a Christian home and taught about the wholly undeserved love of a God who would sacrifice His only Son to pay for my sins.
All these privileges were given to me, completely undeserved and unearned. They were given to me by the generations that came before me because they put the best interest of their children above all else. If other races or other groups of people choose to live for their own immediate gratification with little thought for the fate of their descendants, then that is their choice. It is my fondest hope – and expectation – that one day my grandchildren, when accused of White Privilege, will proudly proclaim “Guilty As Charged”.
Hello, Good Sir! Glad you are able to comment now!
Fantastic list. I share the same affliction.