White privilege 101: Here’s the basic lesson Paul Ryan, Tal Fortgang and Donald Sterling need

[ismnotwasm]

Last edited Mon May 12, 2014, 11:03 PM - Edit history (1)

And all the DUers that don't understand what the fuck White privilege is. While this article is somewhat intellectual in tone, I'm sure all the ones who are defining their arguments against white male privilege will have no problems understanding it.

And yet, Katie McDonough correctly argued, his denial of racism and his own privileged position represents a new majority view among whites, who think they’re more discriminated against than blacks, despite all manner of evidence to the contrary (more on that below). And this is where the danger and the challenge to progressives lies — as well as the challenge to the Democratic Party. If—as recent research suggests — whites grow increasingly conservative as perceived minority voting power grows, then the “Rising American electorate” argument itself is in danger. It could be every bit as much a fantasy, in its own, much more sophisticated way, as the Tea Party fantasy that the GOP can just double down on where it is, and get by on better messaging and a sprinkling of more diverse spokes/front people.

There is a way to fight back against this very real, and so far unrecognized, threat. And that is for white people — especially white men — to step up and push back (lovingly or forcefully, as the situation dictates) against this sort of polarizing rhetoric and the thinking and feeling that’s connected to it. It’s not just a matter of paternalistically “helping out” women and minorities when they’re attacked. The fortunes of white working-class men have plummeted since the early ’70s — not because women and minorities have stolen their cheese, but because they’re snookered into thinking like that, making themselves easy marks for far more sophisticated actors to take advantage of. And what’s long been true for working-class white men will increasingly become true of white men with college degrees as well. One of Thomas Piketty’s central points is that any sort of labor, however skilled it may be, is going to lose out to inherited capital in the long run, if the basic structures of today’s capitalist economy aren’t changed.

So how do white men fight back, not just for the sake of others, or society as a whole, but for themselves, as well? There are lots of ways they can do this, but here I’d like to focus on just one: by gaining a much a more solid, objective understanding of what minorities (especially blacks) and women already largely understand as a basic fact of life — how racial and gender privilege work, with white male ignorance as a key component. It’s only by unifying against an already unified economic elite that Americans of all races and ethnicities can keep hope alive for a more prosperous future.

Before going any further, I just want to quote from McDonough’s article, where she references a sampling of the information already out there:

It’s likely that Fortgang will have the opportunity at Princeton to learn about the racial wealth gap, the legacy of red-lining, the unemployment rate among college educated men of color versus their white counterparts, the convergence of racism and sexism that leaves women of color disproportionately impacted by domestic violence, the gender pay gap experienced by black women, the deadly violence faced by black children and the myriad other manifestations of racism in the United States. Basically all of the things that he will never have to experience as an extraordinarily privileged white man.

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/09/white_privilege_101_heres_the_basic_lesson_paul_ryan_tal_fortgang_and_donald_sterling/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. inherited capital

Last edited Mon May 12, 2014, 09:54 AM - Edit history (1)

classicism.

boils down to green.

who has it. how they will keep it. how they will lord it over us. over all of us.

how much green a person has is/will be the only color/thing that matters.

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. Unless you are not White.....

privilege is not JUST about money....

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. not now it isn't but, it is quickly getting to that stage. There will be a heirarchy even then, yes.

House serfs vs. field slaves to use the old vernacular.

It really is almost there now.

[VanillaRhapsody]

24. My grandparents were Sharecroppers....

both Half White and Native Americans.....so you don't have to tell me what is coming. But first we have to get the stupid to see......

[Tuesday Afternoon]

27. Old white men need to realize we are not their

Problem. Never have been. They are new to this and are in the denial stage. They are lashing out. Some of the more enlightened ones understand. 2014 and 2016 elections will tell the story. Full disclosure here I am of mixed blood, too. Only 1\16th Black.

[VanillaRhapsody]

29. Yep...the fact that even on DU so many White men are freaking out over the term White Privilege

really truly makes it obvious there is still so much to do ......we have a long way to go yet to fix these problems...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

33. Agree.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

14. It. Is. Not!! I have two Masters Degrees and a Doctorate. I earn a 6-figure income.

I am black. I am a woman.

I STILL get followed around when I go into ANY store--high- or low-end.

I am STILL questioned regarding my intelligence!

I STILL earn less than my white male counterparts despite more education, more experience, no children (so they can't use that as an excuse).

I STILL earn slighly less than my white *female* counterparts even with the same level of education, expertise, and experience.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

16. it *will* is what I said/meant. it is coming to that. there will still be a hierarchy. By no means

am I discounting your experience, I am speaking to a future that, if not changed, will be a future of inherited capital whereby none of us really matter to the 1% except for what we can do for them. *In my opinion* this is one of the reasons we are seeing so much push back from Old White Men on this site. They are just now starting to feel the effects of being *underprivileged* and they don't like it.

At some point, if we do not turn things around, it will come down to INHERITED CAPITAL.

The louder we hear Middle Class Old White Men scream, whine, moan and carry on the more it proves that it is happening.

It is a conundrum because they are just now feeling it and they don't like it.

Hell, Welcome to the club Old White Men. We haven't LIKED IT FOR A LONG FUCKING TIME.

[VanillaRhapsody]

25. Until then...White male privilege exists now....

[Tuesday Afternoon]

30. Yes. It does. Did not mean to imply otherwise.

Sorry for any misunderstanding/confusion.

[VanillaRhapsody]

31. Okay sorry if I misunderstood!

[mercuryblues]

2. +1

The fortunes of white working-class men have plummeted since the early ’70s — not because women and minorities have stolen their cheese, but because they’re snookered into thinking like that, making themselves easy marks for far more sophisticated actors to take advantage of. And what’s long been true for working-class white men will increasingly become true of white men with college degrees as well. One of Thomas Piketty’s central points is that any sort of labor, however skilled it may be, is going to lose out to inherited capital in the long run, if the basic structures of today’s capitalist economy aren’t changed.

People also have a need to place blame. The Right has succeeded in this area. By shifting the cause onto the other, deflecting from real cause. It is real easy to do when people don't like to think, they like being told why. I call them Faux newz viewers. There is some laziness involved. Some is that people are working hard at their jobs and just getting by. They are too tired when they come home, so they let the media think for them.

After a few years of this they have become entrenched and addicted to the cycle.

[Starry Messenger]

3. I see white men who know this, but don't want income parity.

They see it as a threat to their power. They'd rather shoot themselves in the ass rather than see anyone else have a chance at being raised higher.

Exhibit A: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024940971

[VanillaRhapsody]

5. Exactly....and the fact that so many on DU have the nerve to suggest this doesn't exist

only emphasizes this point...and many cannot see past money....they think privilege means wealth. If they themselves are rich...they cannot see how they could have ever benefitted from having their skin and gender in the U.S.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. that OP is a mess.

[sheshe2]

8. Excellent article, ismnotwasm.

We white folks are caught in a perceptual double-bind: We can’t find our spectacles without our spectacles. That’s why we need to borrow, to take our training from what blacks have learned to see. It’s not a burden they are trying to lay on us — it’s a blessing, if only we can find the eyes to see it for what it truly is.

[riqster]

10. Plato's Cave Allegory seems applicable here.

Whether someone put themselves in that cave, or is there through no fault of their own: either way, it's dark in there, and until they get the guts to crawl out into the light, they won't be able to see for shit.

[Fred Sanders]

9. White entitlement is maybe a better term, white privilege is a term that seems to get people's backs

up for the reasons indicated in the post.

White entitlement is a mindset, a product of historical privilege that carries in the gene pool and culture to this day.

How to explain it without offending is a real challenge.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. it is at the point now that people do not really care if they have offended the offensive.

let them be offended. about time they learn how it feels.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

15. See, this is the problem. Black people have been taught from the craddle to do everything

in their power not to offend white people. And yet, there are whites (of ALL political persuasions) that can say anything and do anything to offend us and not even think about it. They tell us to "get over it" and that "racism no longer exist" and "it's not as bad" and "stop being so sensitive or angry".

But, you see, whites who make these declarations aren't black. So how do they know how things are if they aren't black. How can they speak from our experiences? How can they tell us how we should feel if they are not us?

I understand what you mean about entitlement. Yes, whites who think this way are entitled but they are also privileged because they don't have to think about what it means to have black or brown skin. The thought never crosses their mind. It never enters their consciousness. That's not their fault. I'm not blaming them. No black person is blaming them. All we're asking them to do is understand that because they don't have black or brown skin, they need to come to terms with the fact that they benefit inherently from that. They don't have to have the discussions with their children that we are forced to have with ours, such as how we must behave around white people so as not to offend. Or, how black boys must carry themselves or dress in public, especially around cops. I remember my parents telling me to always sit at the front of the classroom if I was the only black kid in class because I would stick out like a sore thumb. If class attendance in college counted against you and you were one of few blacks in class, you had better show up because the professor will know that the darkie is missing. These are just a few examples of white skin privilege.

[IronLionZion]

22. I think those are two separate things

a sense of entitlement is worse than being oblivious to the adversity you don't have to go through.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. Or White Advantage....

[uponit7771]

11. Amen to the white collar jobs in same peril as blue collar jobs, H1 abuse could rise overnight

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. We only pretend not to know what "white privilege" is. Maybe we should change the term to

"white SKIN privilege". Perhaps then we'll get it. Perhaps then we'll stop pretending not to understand. Only when unfortunate events happen, e.g., a Trayvon is murdered or some innocent black or Brown person is followed/accosted are we *shocked* that racism exists and yet we fail to understand (or ignore) how skin color alone is the cause of these unwarranted violations?

Let's us stop pretending, people.

Let's us stop being willfully ignorant.

If we are truly sincere about addressing racism;

If we are truly serious about irradicating any and all forms of "isms," then let's stop with this self-imposed victimhood.

We know damn well what white privilege is.

Let us open our eyes!

Let us speak out!

Let us work to change our mindset.

We need to unlearn what we have learned, what we've been taught all out lives.

Then, and only then can we work together to eradicate racism once and for all.

But if we continue to play the victim and get angry when someone tells us the truth, then we're not addressing the situation; we're making things much worse!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. ^this^

But if we continue to play the victim and get angry when someone tells us the truth, then we're not addressing the situation; we're making things much worse!

[JustAnotherGen]

18. Keep speaking/writing L_S

You're voice is strong and clear!

[elias7]

19. I think part of the problem is that being told to "check your privilege" is provocative

A number of pieces written including a Salon piece did bring up this separate issue. I have tried to read through the many threads here and I can't tell if the disagreement is whether a white male acknowledges his privilege or if the framing of the issue as accusatory/provocative is raising people's hackles.

I'm guessing what Tal said in class that caused someone to tell him to check his privilege was pretty severe (I think about homelessness or food stamps or something), but being told to check your privilege is akin to being told to STFU, and is a rhetorical move.

[BainsBane]

21. That could be

but on DU we face the opposite side of it where some feel entitled to tell others, including African American members, that they shouldn't use the word privilege. They also declare threads about the topic, or virtually any relating to racism and sexism, as flamebait. Accusing people who post about racism and sexism of being trolls or sockpuppets is clearly an effort to shut down the discussion.

[elias7]

23. While I think there are unwitting racists or sexists on DU,

I think there are those that, as some have put it, are on the "all about me" train, and they automatically feel put on the defensive because they feel lumped into the cretin group of racists and sexists. This pushes buttons (even spousal ones) and they push back in sometimes ugly ways, despite the fact that they may not even remotely be sexist or racist.

I read a lot more threads than I post in, and I work to understand the dynamics within a heated thread. For example, if I see a rape culture thread started outside of HoF, I just wait for the fireworks. Sometimes the arguments seem disconnected, in that it is often about semantics, not content. Where there is fundamental agreement on the larger issue, this often goes unnoticed since a quagmire has formed around definitions, but the emotional pitch has risen to a point of no return.

Your tactic of pointing out these issues again and again though is highly effective in desensitizing the sensitive and educating those who aren't really affected (the often ignorant but well meaning white male).

[1StrongBlackMan]

46. Your comment about ...

Some "feeling lumped in" is all the more reason DUers should read this article ... it speaks directly to that sentiment.

[bettyellen]

28. check your privilege is akin to asking you to consider (before speaking) the POV and experience of

others. The problem is, too many people are happy to spew off on these issues with no backround, and very limited personal experiences. And they ignore or dismiss the other information out there, as well anecdotal info from people who are actually much more experienced than they. Ignorance can be bliss, if you were assigned a place at the top of the heap!

[elias7]

34. I understand what check your privilege is meant to convey

But the problem is that people are not being asked to consider the POV and experience of others. They are hearing someone putting them in their place, putting them down, making them feel ignorant/uniniformed by being told to "check your privilege".

Once people have heard this a few times and have thought it through, they realize what it means, and what it doesn't mean. But it is causing problems here for some because it sounds like a put down to the uninitiated.

Walking people through a new literacy is more helpful than calling them "ignorant or dismissive", or undercutting them in subtle fashion by labelling them as being "assigned a place at the top of the heap". Where one hears blame and anger on one party's part, there will be defensiveness and resistance on the other party's part.

[bettyellen]

35. Yes-it sounds a put down to some of the initiated too though. God don't we love lectures on tone....

from those people whio literally could not give a fuck about the issue.

[elias7]

36. Agreed, those who are tone deaf should not lecture those on tone

Especially if it comes from a privileged voice.

Of course, some folks are quite influenced by tone.

[ismnotwasm]

45. Racism exists

Has existed and I personally don't know a single soul who isn't aware of it. When we have meme's like "check your privilege" and get an overwhelming negative response FROM the privileged, I think the attack or idea that that privledge is wrong and damaging is what's threatening. In other words, the threat of lising ones privledge. This shouldn't be-- and it's been discussed and taught, discussed and taught for years. Plus, there are horrible examples of privledge gone wrong to puruse every day of every life, if one takes the time to see.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. Great catch ...

Great OP.

[MadrasT]

32. I have literally zero time for these jackasses

who are blathering on about white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege, or cissexual privilege not being real and/or important "Because wealth and class!!1!!!".

Zero. Fucking. Time.

[BainsBane]

37. Because MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[nomorenomore08]

40. Seems they really *have* no politics except being (perhaps justifiably) jealous of rich people.

[1StrongBlackMan]

47. As I've posted before ...

Many of those calling for systemic change are really just speaking to their place in the system, rather than the failings of the system.

Give them wealth and they would be perfectly happy in the system that continues to oppress ... so long as it's not them.

[nomorenomore08]

48. +1

[ismnotwasm]

38. I've been at work all day

I'm very gratified to see this article so well received--to me one if the problems of online argument is the subjective and anecdotal argument, I thought one did a good job bypassing those, and bringing truth and common sense to the topic.

[1StrongBlackMan]

39. This post is probably the most relevant post on privilege ...

I have seen. It speaks to/addresses every point raised regarding privilege.

No wonder it sunk like a rock.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

41. do you mean the post or the OP?

[1StrongBlackMan]

42. The OP. eom.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

44. agreed. this one and I personally like the Louis CK one in GD, too. But this one speaks to the

future in a way that no other has addressed.

[ismnotwasm]

43. Heh!

This is the kind of thing that always sinks--you have to think, and not just knee jerk react.