Sunday, April 16, 2017

White Privilege

I am white.  Until recently, I never gave serious thought about white privilege. Sometimes I speed on the highway, past a cop, and I do not get pulled over.  I have gotten many warnings, instead of tickets.

In school, I always got the benefit of the doubt, that I was capable of doing the work. I never had much trouble with job interviews. In court, I am treated with respect,by lawyers, judges, and litigants.

We were poor when I was growing up, but my sister and I always felt that we could succeed. She is a mathematical genius.  We were put in the accelerated classes for the smart kids. We knew we were going to college, even though we needed scholarships and financial aid to get through.

White men had it even easier than we did. They looked for part-time jobs in the "men's" section of the want-ads and got paid more. They were, and generally still are, the bosses. We worked hard at our typing jobs working through college and did okay.

I know of Black executives and politicians who routinely are subject to traffic stops. Most bosses are white men, not people of color. We don't hear the "n" word like I heard it as a kid, but implicit bias is a real thing. The people with the most power are still predominantly white and predominantly men.

I do not know when or if society will change. Change terrifies those with power. People don't willingly give up power, especially when they refuse to acknowledge that they hold the power. Just look at Fox News. A bastion of white, male privilege.  Roger Ailes was bought out for $40,000,000. Let's see what happens to Bill O'Reilly.  I bet neither Ailes nor O'Reilly believes in white privilege, while they continue to profit from despicable behavior.

3 comments:

  1. Blacks abort over a third of their unborn.

    Since they have chosen to do this, they have ensured their demographic marginalization by the middle of the century.

    Its over, no matter how much you cry about privilege.

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  2. HOW CAN AN ATTORNEY BE SO DUMB???

    After last writing to Governor Greitens, declaring her Jewish roots, in a forlorn attempt to sway his opinion, now we see Lynn Bratcher is confessing her "Whiteness"! You know, for a discrimination attorney, Ms. Bratcher sure seems to see people according to their skin color/religion/race/gender.

    Besides the title of her post, Bratcher's first obvious mistake here is in equating the absence of a traffic stop or ticket with her ethnic race. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. But, because Ms. Bratcher is a brainwashed politically liberal Democrat, who never met a bleeding heart she didn't believe, and still thinks the corporate media is unbiased and truthful, I suppose we can't expect too much from her.

    Next, in what appears to be a revisionist history from her prior comments, Ms. Bratcher claims she was always treated with respect in school, job interviews, and the courtroom. I for one, certainly can recall Lynn Bratcher writing on her blog about the difficulties women faced in law school and the courtroom, when the profession was still dominated by men. Perhaps this is her way of retracting those earlier false statements and setting the record straight.

    If she hadn't elicited your sympathy yet, Bratcher next plays the "poor when I was growing up" card. Have you ever met anyone who admitted to being "rich and comfortable growing up"? No sooner does she make the declaration of being poor, before contradicting herself with "white men had it even easier than we did."

    One of her next points is really stupid, and it bothers me that she still whines about it decades after the fact. Ms. Bratcher, if you worked as a typist while in college, it's because that is what you settled for. If you wanted to make more money, the burden was on you to find a higher paying job and/or convince someone that you were capable of competing with anyone else for higher wages. Please take responsibility for your own actions or lack thereof.

    Continuing forward with her stream of prejudiced consciousness, Ms. Bratcher laments that white men still retain most power in society. This from a white woman who works in a law firm composed entirely of white female attorneys! Can you say H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. ^^a white man^^

    ReplyDelete