There is a ton of confusion out there about the definition of white privilege.
There’s way too much defensiveness one way or another about it.
To me, it’s fairly simple.
Let’s not go crazy with the notion of experiencing ‘white privilege’ automatically classifying you as a bad person.
Acknowledging the facts of what it actually means is strongly needed in todays society. If we could ever get back to starting with, and acknowledging in general, the facts of something it would go a hell of a long way towards laying the foundation for any sort of future systemic rebuild.
To me the definition of [(white)] privilege is merely the absence of an impediment. It doesn’t mean that a white persons life has always been easy. So settle down with all the “I’ve worked my ass off my whole life to get everything I have…” type of B.S.
You’re missing the point.
It just means that person has not been inconvenienced by their skin color and because of that they have no reason to believe, or pay attention to, the places where the inconveniences are because they are not FEELING any of them. You would have to go find empathy to put yourself in another person’s shoes.
People feel attacked when they hear the word privilege but it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be neutral in a way toward helping to understand. For example, if you come from money and have always had money you’ve been privileged, I think we can all agree on that front, but at the same time it might hinder you from fully understanding what it’s like to not have money.
Take race completely out of it, and look at it from strictly a privilege perspective if that helps.
Now, if you are white, no matter what has happened in your life, how hard or easy everything has been for you,…Have you ever once had to think about if your life was in danger when you saw the police sirens pop up behind you?
Every time I’ve been pulled over I say “Damn, they caught me!” Whether it was speeding, running a stop sign, or whatever. Then I have a pleasant conversation with the officer, get my ticket, and go on my way. Never once thinking to myself that my safety or life was in danger.
And never having any guns pulled on me.
That’s a privilege I’ve always had as a white person.
I saw a lady being interviewed a while back. The reporter was asking her a series of random questions. Somewhere in the middle of that she was asked, “What would you do if you were a man for one day?”
She flatly and matter-of-factly said, “I’d walk around at night by myself.”
That made me stop and think. Have I ever had to worry about that? Has that thought ever crossed my mind?
No. If I want to go walk around at night I just do it. I never stop to think about if it’s safe to do so. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that’s probably not the case for some women.
That’s the privilege I have because I’m a male.
It doesn’t make me a bad person. Not acknowledging its existence does.
I am loaded with white privilege.
Let’s all get together and just acknowledge exactly what that means.
Everything that is going on in the world right now…we have to extend ourselves and acknowledge that our experiences in our life are not the only ones out there. They are not the ‘end-all be-all’ of how things are in the rest of the world, or what anyone else experiences.
We have to extend ourselves to find the humanity in it. We have to make that effort.
All of us are privileged in one way or another. That doesn’t make it bad. Let’s just acknowledge it so we can reach an understanding on the other side and feel someone else’s pain.
That’s where we have to start.
