Is white privilege real? To what extent?
July 14, 2016 at 8:43 pm
(This post was last modified: July 14, 2016 at 8:57 pm by paulpablo.)
I was looking at another thread where I sensed an argument about white privilege is about to begin and since I already argued about this term for several pages with several different people in another thread I thought the topic might deserve it's own thread everyone who has an opinion about it doesn't have to keep regurgitating the same points in several different threads.
First of all let me clarify the definition of privilege.
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of their position or because they are rich
The main problem I encountered last time several people on this forum had a discussion about white privilege is that people were sometimes bring up circumstances saying these things don't happen to white people, when they do. Or they were saying white people have it better in this situation than black people have, but then forgetting that other racial groups have it better than white people in that same situation.
I would say that's an important point to make, that if other racial groups have it better than white people in this specific thing that's supposed to be a white privilege, it can't be a white privilege.
My opinion on it is that it's probably real in certain circumstances but it's not as prevalent as a lot of people make it out to be.
I think it's real in a very fluid and conditional way.
If you're white and you outnumber non whites and ontop of that the whites around you aren't liberal left wing people and they have an ingroup preference you'd probably have an advantage.
Obviously this isn't a strong solid set of circumstances, I for example, live in England, a white majority country. My specific area is majority white but with a very large pakistani community who have a very strong in group preference.
For example there was a car accident in my area involving a Romanian crashing into a Pakistani car, around 5 Romanians came to help the Romanian who had been pulled out of his car, and then around 30 or more Pakistanis came to control the situation.
In a dispute over a car accident or something like that in my area, I wouldn't feel privileged when I'm around another racial group that can call on that kind of tight nit support so fast. I can call the police, but I live in this community and they all know where I live, I'd be at a heavy disadvantage in any dispute of this kind.
So you COULD call that a privilege, but then that's the privilege all other racial groups get when they outnumber other racial groups.
I could understand white privileged being used as a comment about how white people have it easier in some circumstances, in the courts for example, where females also have a lot of female privilege.
My opinion is basically the opposite of how buzzfeed views white privilege.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon....xuzAdQZDA
If anyone can be bothered to click the link and view the list of examples of white privilege these are my short and sweet rebuttals to the list.
1) Not true. Without a doubt.
2) Not true. Without a doubt.
3) Possibly true if you don't live in certain countries.
4) Not true. Without a doubt.
5) Debatable.
6) Not true. Without a doubt.
7) Don't even know what this one is trying to imply, probably not true in certain circumstances aswell.
8) Not true. Without a doubt.
9) Not true. Without a doubt.
10) The premise is based on you having lighter skin than other people so technically true I suppose.
11) Absolutely not true.
12) Not true.
13) Don't know what this means.
14) Without a doubt not true.
15) Debatable.
16) Not even worth responding to.
17) HAHAHAHAHAA. Laughable.
If anyone wants me to go into those rebuttals in more serious detail I'm willing to if anyone thinks they are worth taking seriously.
This is my main problem with the way some people come up with examples of White privilege.
It's basically, think of something bad that happened to a black person, claim it doesn't happen to white people even if it does, who cares? That's the white privilege.
Anyway to conclude, I think white privilege can be real in specific circumstances, just not to the extent most people view it as being so prevalent, world wide, and without exceptions.
Also if you're going to start adding the word privilege to adjectives there's a long long list of them.
Female, male, tall, short, attractive, clever, rich.
First of all let me clarify the definition of privilege.
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of their position or because they are rich
The main problem I encountered last time several people on this forum had a discussion about white privilege is that people were sometimes bring up circumstances saying these things don't happen to white people, when they do. Or they were saying white people have it better in this situation than black people have, but then forgetting that other racial groups have it better than white people in that same situation.
I would say that's an important point to make, that if other racial groups have it better than white people in this specific thing that's supposed to be a white privilege, it can't be a white privilege.
My opinion on it is that it's probably real in certain circumstances but it's not as prevalent as a lot of people make it out to be.
I think it's real in a very fluid and conditional way.
If you're white and you outnumber non whites and ontop of that the whites around you aren't liberal left wing people and they have an ingroup preference you'd probably have an advantage.
Obviously this isn't a strong solid set of circumstances, I for example, live in England, a white majority country. My specific area is majority white but with a very large pakistani community who have a very strong in group preference.
For example there was a car accident in my area involving a Romanian crashing into a Pakistani car, around 5 Romanians came to help the Romanian who had been pulled out of his car, and then around 30 or more Pakistanis came to control the situation.
In a dispute over a car accident or something like that in my area, I wouldn't feel privileged when I'm around another racial group that can call on that kind of tight nit support so fast. I can call the police, but I live in this community and they all know where I live, I'd be at a heavy disadvantage in any dispute of this kind.
So you COULD call that a privilege, but then that's the privilege all other racial groups get when they outnumber other racial groups.
I could understand white privileged being used as a comment about how white people have it easier in some circumstances, in the courts for example, where females also have a lot of female privilege.
My opinion is basically the opposite of how buzzfeed views white privilege.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon....xuzAdQZDA
If anyone can be bothered to click the link and view the list of examples of white privilege these are my short and sweet rebuttals to the list.
1) Not true. Without a doubt.
2) Not true. Without a doubt.
3) Possibly true if you don't live in certain countries.
4) Not true. Without a doubt.
5) Debatable.
6) Not true. Without a doubt.
7) Don't even know what this one is trying to imply, probably not true in certain circumstances aswell.
8) Not true. Without a doubt.
9) Not true. Without a doubt.
10) The premise is based on you having lighter skin than other people so technically true I suppose.
11) Absolutely not true.
12) Not true.
13) Don't know what this means.
14) Without a doubt not true.
15) Debatable.
16) Not even worth responding to.
17) HAHAHAHAHAA. Laughable.
If anyone wants me to go into those rebuttals in more serious detail I'm willing to if anyone thinks they are worth taking seriously.
This is my main problem with the way some people come up with examples of White privilege.
It's basically, think of something bad that happened to a black person, claim it doesn't happen to white people even if it does, who cares? That's the white privilege.
Anyway to conclude, I think white privilege can be real in specific circumstances, just not to the extent most people view it as being so prevalent, world wide, and without exceptions.
Also if you're going to start adding the word privilege to adjectives there's a long long list of them.
Female, male, tall, short, attractive, clever, rich.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
