SubscribeWhite 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.Tell that to Jamie Lynn Spears. I think "white privilege" here is actually more "republican privilege"
Racism exists, people say, but then they will fight you tooth and nail over any instance you point out to them, unless it's a dude with a white hood on with a "we r racist" banner across the front of a business.This comes from the fact that, in racism stories, white folks are almost always the explicit villians.
That's assuming a zero-sum game, of course.Re-read what I said. Competing against black workers on an even keel would erode, which is the word I used - erode, the black-white wealth gap. Zero sum game or not.
Poor whites are rarely typified as pathological, dangerous, lazy or shiftless to anywhere near the extent the black poor are. Nor are they demonized the way poor Latino immigrants tend to be. When politicians want to bash welfare recipients they don't pick Bubba and Crystal from the trailer park; they choose Shawonda Jefferson from the projects, with her five kids. . . .I find his actually essays are of better quality than his quick blog posts. Still, it's amusing how easily some people can dismiss everything he says.
None of this denies that poor whites are being screwed by an economic system that relies on their misery. But they retain a leg up on poor or somewhat better off people of color thanks to racism.
#1 - White people get unearned advantages in American society based on their skin colorTim Wise on:
#2 - #1 is bad.
#3 - Having acknowledged #1 & #2 we should do something about it.
That's part of the guilt trip right there!So if he uses a guilt trip, that's bad. OK, I can buy at least some of that.
Who seriously thinks Fox new's position is based on Palin being white? I'd like a show of hands on this one. I find it hard to believe that Condoleezza Rice's daughter would be being dragged through the streets by Sean Hannity. The media gave the Bill Clinton a pass because he's a white man, right?Where did Wise say race was the ONLY determinate of "unfair" media coverage?
By counter example, I have showed that racism probably has little to do with it. Do you understand the argument now?This has little to do with my understanding, but rather a case of over-generalizing. He listed his list of specific incidents he thinks are racially caused, your listing of ones that clearly have nothing to do with race don't constitute a counter-example - unless you thought he was saying everything is always racial.
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posted by The Straightener at 8:08 AM on September 15, 2008 [9 favorites]