I thought this was a very interesting piece. Of course as most of you know, those who read my blog and pay attention anyway, I am an avid supporter of the position Tim Wise (a white literary scholar/author/historian/etc) has on white privilege in this country, and how its lack of acknowledgement continues to disintergrate the very fabric of this country (well....maybe I am being a little dramatic right....since this country was created as a result of white privilege....lol).
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What Privileges Do McCain and Palin Receive Because They're
White?
http://www.alternet.org/rights/ 98915
13 ways McCain and Palin have enjoyed preferential treatment in
the presidential race.
What Privileges Do McCain and Palin Receive Because They're White?
By Tim Wise, BuzzFlash
Posted on September 18, 2008, Printed on September 18, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/98915/
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 17 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-size 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 eight-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 United States 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 churchgoing 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 having 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 that 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 United States 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.
AlterNet is a nonprofit organization and does not make political
endorsements. The opinions expressed by its writers are their own.
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me
http://www.powells.com/partner/32513/biblio/9781933368993 (Soft
Skull, 2005, revised 2008) and of Speaking Treason Fluently
http://www.powells.com/partner/32513/biblio/9781593762070 , publishing
this month, also by Soft Skull.
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