[ExI] Tim Wise on White Privilege

[Emlyn]

If I could vote for Obama I surely would. If you guys screw this one
up, god help us!

otoh, have people here read this article on Edge.org?

WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN? [9.9.08]
By Jonathan Haidt
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html

It's a really good answer to that nagging question about W, ie: "WTF???!?!?!?"

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com - my home
http://point7.wordpress.com - downshifting and ranting
http://speakingoffreedom.blogspot.com - video link feed of great talks
on eCulture


2008/9/16 Olga Bourlin <fauxever at sprynet.com>:
> Over the years I've read several people's opinions here on the subject of
> "race."
>
> The following article gets to the heart of the matter - it's the nitty
> gritty, it's succinct, and I have observed (starting with Bristol Palin's
> pregnancy, then going down the line - check, check, check ...) and thought
> about every single obvious point made in this piece.  But I must be missing
> something, because I can't understand why the presidential race is as close
> as it supposedly is.  I just don't get it.
> Link to the article is below the copied text that follows:
>
> This is Your Nation on White Privilege
>
> By Tim Wise
>
> For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
> constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
> list will help.
>
> White 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.
>
> White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
> Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
> you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
> shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
> great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
>
> White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
> like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
> returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
> one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
> person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
> probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
> action.
>
> White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
> than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
> same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
> you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
> themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
> Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
>
> White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God"
> in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding
> fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from
> holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
> and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
> reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
> Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
> it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
>
> White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
> immediately scared of you.
>
> White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an
> extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union,
> and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or
> that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to
> come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of
> school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.
>
> White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
> work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
> vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
> labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
> question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
> foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
> being mean, or even sexist.
>
> White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
> with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
> anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
> confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
> "second look."
>
> White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your
> political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
> typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
> knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
> must be corrupt.
>
> White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
> pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
> W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
> nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
> principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
> in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
> everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
> you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
> Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
> the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
> and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
> America.
>
> White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
> reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
> "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
> answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
> or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
>
> White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything
> at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
> experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
>
> And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
> someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
> of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
> homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
> opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
> thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
> years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
>
> White privilege is, in short, the problem.
>
> from Tim Wise's page:
>
> from www.timwise.org, then go to BLOG (The Red Room)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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