Is white privilege real? To what extent?

[Mister Agenda]

Among the few privileges of disadvantaged minorities is being able to organize around their ethnic or religious commonalities with very few people considering it unfair that they get to do this without much criticism when it would strike many as unfair elitism were a more privileged group to do the same thing.

[Losty]

Why do people always get defensive about it? It's so weird to me.

My white female privilege:

I can get out of pretty much any traffic violation just by existing.
People assume I know how to have an intelligent conversation with basic vocabulary and grammar skills before I start speaking.
No one thinks I'm going to steal stuff when I go shopping.
If I walk down a dark street people ask me if I need help instead of being afraid of me.

I'm sure there's more that I don't even notice.

My white guilt: none

No one asks to be born whatever race they are born. White privilege isn't about putting white people down or calling white people racists. Little things that make life easier that are not earned but instead just kind of happen because you're white.

I bet that you pretty much always exit an elevator first too.

I'll bet I take the steps. I fucking hate elevators. I'd be tempted to test your theory if it wasn't in an elevator.

[RobertE]

I bet that you pretty much always exit an elevator first too.

I'll bet I take the steps. I fucking hate elevators. I'd be tempted to test your theory if it wasn't in an elevator.

"My white female privilege:

I can get out of pretty much any traffic violation just by existing. 
People assume I know how to have an intelligent conversation with basic vocabulary and grammar skills before I start speaking. 
No one thinks I'm going to steal stuff when I go shopping. 
If I walk down a dark street people ask me if I need help instead of being afraid of me. "


My white english privilege:

 I can walk around anywhere in France without an identity card, in spite of my rugged looks, I am never stopped and searched. (Note that all people are searched in France, be they white, black, arab, jewish or Chinese) because I don't draw attention to myself.

Same as you for the second affirmation with regards to the conversation. Being English living in a French speaking community.
Again, same as you, I pay for my shopping with either card or cash, nobody needs to worry.
For the last one, people come up to me and say either "Bonjour", or "Bonsoir."

Having impeccable matters in a strange country goes a long way and it makes the French nervous too, since they can be rude at times. 
For me, it was imperative that I integrated into a strange society right away, because we know the opinions of the French about the British, but as long as laugh along with them, then all of that is forgotten. I know full well that if I had stayed within an English speaking community in France, I wouldn't have had as much success, that is for sure.

[The Grand Nudger]

And I agree with everything you've said, my conclusion is that it's racially bias to attach the racial advective white before the word privilege if it just means advantages people have that others don't.

 
-and the other foot falls.  I'm glad you;ve found a way to describe the very -recognition- of white privilege as somehow racist or racially biased, good for you.  I hear the klan has openings in PR.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Gee.  I wonder what would have happened to a black guy who did this.... assuming the cops even bothered to take him alive?

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/sarah-pa...e-dropped/



I'm sure Reynaldo or Jawann would have gotten the exact same treatment!

Why not Siddarth, why not Choi-Hing suk, why not Tadashi, why not Cheng?

Again, the colour of someones skin shouldn't be relevant if we all think that evolution is the key to our existence, and not religious texts.

Of course it shouldn't, but the sad fact is that in American society, it is, and all the moral imperatives don't change that raw fact.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Your gripe appears to be with the english language and it's use in describing a demonstrable phenomenon.....rather than the phenomenon itself.  

If I called white privilege "fixat", would you still have objections to the existence and extent of fixat?

I have a gripe with the English language because I use words the way they are defined in the dictionary?

Dictionaries document usage, and almost always lag behind the current usage.

Language evolves. Dictionaries track linguistic evolution. They do not freeze it.

Furthermore, simply because two groups enjoy privilege doesn't mean you cannot examine one group's privileges in detail. And it certainly doesn't mean that there can be no overlap in privileges.

Both my sis and I, as kids, had the privilege of staying out late so long as we behaved. That doesn't mean we were treated equally.

[Silver]

There should be no such thing as privilege, but rather tolerance and understanding.

[paulpablo]

I have a gripe with the English language because I use words the way they are defined in the dictionary?

Dictionaries document usage, and almost always lag behind the current usage.

Language evolves. Dictionaries track linguistic evolution. They do not freeze it.

Furthermore, simply because two groups enjoy privilege doesn't mean you cannot examine one group's privileges in detail. And it certainly doesn't mean that there can be no overlap in privileges.

Both my sis and I, as kids, had the privilege of staying out late so long as we behaved. That doesn't mean we were treated equally.

I agree with all of this. The only difference being possibly the conclusions drawn in light of all this being true.

If it's true then that privileges overlap races then why label them relating to one particular race?

Personally I don't do that with much else like this. I don't call rap music black music. I don't call shooting cops a black crime. I don't say basketball and running are black sports.

I'm all for examining the privilage of one particular race, but don't create a phrase implying exclusivity to whites people relating to it.

Examine the crime rate of black people, come up with statistics, but don't call certain crimes black people statistically are more likely to commit black crimes.

Imagine if there was a crime that black people were committing as a racial group the second highest in the US and Asians were the number 1 perpetrators of that crime and we called that crime black crime.

I'm not saying being privileged is a crime, just pointing out the similarity in saying something is a white privilege when Asians are more privileged in that area.

Which as I've said isn't always the case, I have said there are some things white people genuinely are more privileged than any other race in.

[BrokenQuill92]

http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/07/lett...ack-lives/

[Thumpalumpacus]

We label them to one or another race to discuss them in detail. It's pretty hard to discuss white-on- black racism in America without reference to the privileges that whites in general enjoy, and introducing other races clouds the discussion. As Rhythm noted above, our history, with its white-dominated power structure, "peculiar institution" and "strange fruit", rather demand it for the sake of accuracy.