Reflecting on race and white privilege in the 2008 elections

It's a shame this isn't getting more votes because white privilege is such important issue and probably why a lot of black people feel like racism exist.

"...but they are human and they are not always right, and to automatically defer to them because of their skin color is just as racist as trying to hold them back because of their skin color"

No one is saying being black or white or yellow or brown makes you right or wrong more often, and it's not a question of whether or not to "defer", as you call it, to someone on the basis of their race. The whole point is that while privilege forces people of color to defer to whites without their being given a choice, which is exactly why I agree that forced deferment is "just as racist as trying to hold them back because of their skin color."

Here's the problem though, affirmative actions programs, which is what I assume you mean when you say we "defer" to someone based on race, is a program that was created at the demand of the public exactly because their was a consensus that in fact blacks and other communities of color HAD IN FACT been discriminated against because of their skin color, and therefore it was necessary to force that discrimination to stop by outlawing its practice in the workforce and in public.

"Affirmative action is discrimination, no matter how you try to justify it, it is."

Again, coments like this suggest to me that you don't understand what affirmative action is, how it works, or the history behind it. Sadly, this is a tired conservative argument against affirmative action that comes up again and again, no matter how many times study after study prove the claim is hollow, and that in fact, often the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action are white women, as someone mentioned above.

If you seriously engage and read the scholarship and research on affirmative action you will find that it has helped improve the changes for people of color getting a better chance at a job, but it has hardly "forced qualified white folks out of a job they deserved just because they were white," as many conservative critics like to claim. The reality simply doesn't support that myth, I'm sorry.

JohnA

Again, I think you're missing the point, so let me try to reframe this a second time. Again, your points in quotes, mine following.

"Or it could be that 57% don't agree with the article. I voted it down because I doubt it's validity."

This is a hard one to argue with, since your doubting of the validity of white privilege can only support the fact that you benefit from it. I'm going to put myself in an awkward place and guess that you are white, or identify as Anglo/European in your ancestry. I say that because I would have a really hard time imagining your post coming from a person of color. Even as a largely white male living in the US, the everyday role of white privilege manifests around me multiple times daily, and I know it would be even more pronounced were my skin a different color. So for me, doubting it's validity would require basically saying that what I see and hear around me every day is in fact all a fiction. But don't take my work for it, find out yourself. Tomorrow, or this week, ask ten or fifteen of your friends who are not white if they have experienced racial discrimination from whites because of their skin color or race?

"Blacks are at the end of the day only 13% of the total population. So why would it be suprising that they do not dominate the society and workplace. It will always be so that whites have the privileges he claims, simply because there are more of them, not because of any insipid evil plot by white people."

-I think you're missing the point here. It doesn't matter that blacks only make up about 13% of the population, or Latinos only make up 15%, etc. What matters is the fact that the dominant racial group, namely whites, have used their historical and curren positions of power to maintain a power dynamic that gives preferential treatment based on skin color or race. That is what is important, not the numbers. Just because you are part of the majority racial group does not give you any special license to set the rules for other races, but that is exactly what happens in the US, and most of the world, because of white privilege. Think about what you said again in that context: 'It will always be so that whites have the privileges he [Tim] claims, simply because there are more of them' So because there are more whites its ok for them to hold all the power and privilege, even if it is necessary to use force and discrimination to maintain it? That is what you statement argues. Is that your position?

"What are we supposed to do? What is his solution?"

-There are a lot of solution, not just one. But the very first and most important step is in realizing that white privilege does exist in virtually every aspect of our lives, naming it as such, and then understanding how it works. Once you have taken that first step, then it moves into actually challenging the manifestations of white privilege and combatting racism through education and at times, social action (Selma, Little Rock and so many other places). We could talk about strategy all day (and indeed we should).

"Blacks have been successful in every realm of human endeavor, music, the arts, sports, science, and certainly politics..."

-Ok, then let me give you a challenge, if you think this to be true. Give me a list of five prominent African American figures in any of the following areas (both men and women) over the last fifty years:

-Wall Street
-Fortune 500 CEOs
-Higher Education Presidents
-US President
-US Vice President
-US Secretary of State
-House Speaker
-House Majority Leader
-Senate Majority Leader
-Supreme Court Justice
-Attorney General
-Hollywood Director
-State Governors
-Nobel Peace Prize Winners
-Superbowl winning quarterback
-World Cup winning goalie
-World Series winning pitcher
-Heavyweight champion boxer
-Purple Heart Recipient
-Secretary of Education
-Secretary of Labor
-US Treasury Secretary
-Secretary of Defense
-Billboard top ten album
-Billboard Platinum album
-Broadway musical director

Funny the blacks I know who choose to be responsible contributing members of society are put down by those blacks who like many whites and Latinos, have chosen to let 'big brother' run their lives. 'Big brother', those politicians who have enslaved blacks a second, who feed them rather than teaching them how to fish.

Many "white" people fear facing the facts about white privilege because it really gives them no excuse to be unsuccessful in the world.
I actually noticed your post when I was attempting to post it myself and Current directed me here. I agree wholeheartedly and often get into trouble trying to explain my viewpoint. People have a hard time listening to someone who seems to not want to take full advantage of a system that is clearly in their favor. I want be aware of my own role and do my best not to perpetuate inequality.

Or it could be that 57% don't agree with the article. I voted it down because I doubt it's validity. Blacks are at the end of the day only 13% of the total population. So why would it be suprising that they do not dominate the society and workplace. It will always be so that whites have the privileges he claims, simply because there are more of them, not because of any insipid evil plot by white people. What are we supposed to do? What is his solution? Blacks have been successful in every realm of human endeavor, music, the arts, sports, science, and certainly politics, but they are human and they are not always right, and to automatically defer to them because of their skin color is just as racist as trying to hold them back because of their skin color. Affirmative action is discrimination, no matter how you try to justify it, it is.

I also think it's really telling that Current viewers, who I would wager are predominantly white, have thumbed down this story 57%...nicely illustrating the article's truth :)

"I would like to hear his view on affirmative action, discrimination against white males based on the color of their skin. Funny, most of the white people I know struggling to feed their families and keep from being foreclosed on somehow don't feel all that privileged."

-Again, your comments betray the existence of white privilege in action, but you don't seem to recognize them.

First, affirmitive action is not discrimination against whites, no matter how many times the conservative-right throws that myth out there. It is a system of federal policy meant to respond to both historical and contemporary power dynamics that place whites in a preferential position for all aspects of social progress, from school to sports, employment to housing. It is not a form of anti-white bias, no matter how many times conservatives claim it is.

Second, at least your white friends have houses to be forclosed on. Home ownership for many people of color is still only a dream, as discriminatory lending and housing practices, as well as real estate discrimination, continues to make owning a home nearly impossible. I won't go into details, but there are plenty of studies showing the discrimination in housing markets, even in 2008. That's not to say I am not sympathetic to their position, because I am, especially someone who grew up and lived in Appalachian Ohio for most of my life, I know very well how poor whites can be, especially in rural areas like there, but that still does not change the racial privilege dynamics, it simply makes the class issues more apparent while hiding the race issues.

For the record, you should visit his web site or read some of his materials to better understand his position.
He has some videos posted dealing with affirmitave action, fyi, on his Red Room site: http://www.redroom.com/author/tim-wise
His personal site is: http://www.timwise.org.

Also, I would recommend a few links for more resources and details on white privilege:

http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/whiteprivilege.htm

JohnA,
I think you're missing the whole point of his critique, but I'll do my best to answer for my part how I would respond as a fellow anti-racist activist to your concerns. If you want to see his response to a lot of letters like yours that he got, you can see it right here for yourself:
http://www.afro-netizen.com/2008/09/explaining-whit.html
Your comments in quotes, my response below.

"So does he believe all white people are inheritently racist?"

-I don't know specifically if he has said that, but I would argue that at the end of the day yes, we (speaking as a predominantly white male) whites are all "racist" in that we enjoy the benefits and privileges of a society structured by white privilege, no matter how we may feel about those benefits. Now, that doesn't mean we cannot also be anti-racist activists or seriously committed to racial equality or racial justice as well. It's the paradox that all dominant peoples in a given place have to deal with, even if we don't like to think (or don't think) of ourselves as being "racist".

"Did we choose to be white or choose how society at large views us?"

-Actually, yes to both of those. White as a racial category is a social construct first and foremost, and we always need to keep that in mind. As far as society goes, by continuing to access and uphold a society based on racial hierarchy and privilege, we are in fact actively and daily upholding the way society views us, and in turn, other social groups, be they race, class or gender based.

"Does he believe only whites are racists and there is no racism against white people?"

-Again, and this is an important distinction that perhaps that article did not make clear as he (and others) do elsewhere, but there is an important distinction between racism in the form of white privilege and racism in the form of prejudice. Anyone, and really everyone in some way, is prejudiced against another group, but it may not always be based on race. It could be class, social ideas, gender norms, sexual mores, etc. So you might say that prejudice is blind to human social distinctions, and a white can just as easily be treated prejudicially as a black, Mexican, Pakistani, etc.

But white privilege is a different matter altogether, and that was the focus of his essay. This is something that is distinct and unique ONLY to the dominant anglo/white culture and social group, and eminates from a nexus of social, political, economic, religious and ideological control that is exerted over entire countries, if not even further. So in that sense no, there is no racism against whites, at least not in the context of white privilege, because it is impossible. You cannot discriminate against a group already in power by being that very group in power. It's about control of all social elements that really matters, and that is in the hands of whites.

So does he believe all white people are inheritently racist? Did we choose to be white or choose how society at large views us? Does he believe only whites are racists and there is no racism against white people? I would like to hear his view on affirmative action, discrimination against white males based on the color of their skin. Funny, most of the white people I know struggling to feed their families and keep from being foreclosed on somehow don't feel all that privileged.

White privilege is voting a very valid view point down because it calls you out on your racist tendencies so that no one else will read the article.

Great post! Thanks rvmedia.