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Raise your hand if the words "white privilege" make you feel...icky. Or if that phrase gets your hackles up or makes you feel attacked. If your hand is up, I wanna share something with you that I learned not too long ago myself:
There is widespread confusion and misinformation about what people mean by "white privilege." Although some people feel it is used as a club to smack white people around and put them down, that is not the actual meaning! This is my current understanding of white privilege.
White privilege doesn& #39;t mean being white is bad. It doesn& #39;t mean that white people have easy lives, or easy access to money, or guaranteed success—at anything. It doesn& #39;t mean white people don& #39;t have difficult lives. What it DOES mean is their race isn& #39;t a factor in the struggles
White folks have the "privilege" of not having to think about our race or be affected by it, because we are members of the "default racial majority" in the United States. That& #39;s it. Pretty reasonable and hard to disagree with, right?
Although I think "privilege" describes it perfectly, if you& #39;re triggered by the word "privilege" I encourage you to replace it with something that& #39;s less triggering for you, so you can listen to the underlying message ("white experience" or "whiteness"?), and please keep reading!
White privilege (or, if you find that word difficult, "white experience") means that white people have never received inferior medical care BECAUSE of their race. They may have gotten shitty healthcare, been uninsured, or screwed over in other ways, but it wasn& #39;t race-related.
Black people, on the other hand, have significantly higher rates of death from cancer, childbirth, etc that cannot statistically be explained by income, and other demographic factos. Please Google "Institute of Medicine racial disparities in healthcare" for more info.
White privilege means that white people have not been overlooked for a job or promotion BECAUSE of their race. They may have been unfairly overlooked, sexually harrassed, fired, etc, but race wasn& #39;t the reason. (Google "Harvard racial disparities in hiring.")
White privilege means that white people have not been denied bank loans or mortgages BECAUSE of their race. (Google "racial disparities in mortgage lending.")
It means white people have not been pulled over by a police officer BECAUSE of their race. (Google "racial disparities in traffic stops.")
Slavery "ended" 155 years ago. But prejudice and racism didn& #39;t. The KKK was founded in 1865, the same year as the 13th Amendment that ended slavery was ratified.
In 1921, armed white men, some of whom were deputized by local officials, attacked and burned down the entire affluent, African-American Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa. In 1932, Tuskegee Institute scientists experimented on black men for decades without their knowledge.
In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and lynched by two white men who were later acquitted by an all-white jury. Let this sink in: Ruby Bridges, the Black kindergartner who had to be protected by US Marshals while integrating a school in the South, is only 66 years old!
If you don& #39;t believe that people& #39;s experiences affect their children and their children& #39;s children, please Google "epigenetics." These traumas absolutely—through both family life and rearing, and actual DNA changes—get visited upon future generations.
Skipping way, way ahead and over way, way many more tragedies: In 2015, Dylan Roof shot and killed nine Black worshippers in a church. In 2017, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed walking home to his dad& #39;s house from a convenience store, with Skittles in his pocket.
In 2020, Black 25-year-old jogger Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by white vigilantes who "mistook" him for a burglar.
White privilege means not being mistaken for a burglar and killed by a fellow citizen when you& #39;re walking home from 7-11 or jogging.
White privilege means not being mistaken for a burglar and killed by a fellow citizen when you& #39;re walking home from 7-11 or jogging.
White privilege is a logical concept—and a fact of life in America and many other countries—not an indictment of whiteness or a political position. It makes me sad that so many people are misinformed. I hope this helps even one person gain a different understanding.
