A Christian Response to White Privilege

Peter J Barban

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This is incorrect. The phrase is used as a learning aid. it is used to highlight something that can be difficult to see from the inside. Why are you trying to impart sinister motive to it?



Or, as I previously stated, we could work to try to correct the imbalance. Is this not the directive of Christ? To try to lift up those who are worse off then yourself?
This is disinformation. "Check your privilege" means shut up and let others do the talking. If you want others to learn, then you can just jump in and share your opinion. You don't have to shut them up first.
 
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Kate30

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I really don’t like the term white previlege simply because there was only ever one race. There is cultural previlege which every nation does have. There is also empire privilege and you may take your choice of what empires you choose. Be that Egyptian, Babylon, Persian, Greek or the British commonwealth just to name a few. So it really has nothing to do with white previlege. Often it just depends on the culture ruling at the time.
 
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Belk

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This is disinformation. "Check your privilege" means shut up and let others do the talking. If you want others to learn, then you can just jump in and share your opinion. You don't have to shut them up first.

It is not an attempt to shut them up. Where do you see anyone who is using this phrase claiming it is for this purpose?
 
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Peter J Barban

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I really don’t like the term white previlege simply because there was only ever one race. There is cultural previlege which every nation does have. There is also empire privilege and you may take your choice of what empires you choose. Be that Egyptian, Babylon, Persian, Greek or the British commonwealth just to name just a few. So it really has nothing to do with white previlege. Often it just depends on the culture ruling at the time.
I agree that there are national privileges. In fact, the apostle Paul claimed Roman citizen privilege on occasion. But clearly, in America the stereotypes of Whites and Blacks are different. The same is true around the world. As a white American in Asia, I get treated better and make more money than black Americans or black Africans.

It is true that black Americans see the world differently than white Americans. The same is true for Korean Americans.
 
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Peter J Barban

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It is not an attempt to shut them up. Where do you see anyone who is using this phrase claiming it is for this purpose?
I see it in quotes on the internet - sites such as Instapundit, Powerline, Althouse, Drudge, Reason. Mostly they are quoting university students and professors. I will not be providing the quotes themselves.
 
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Belk

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I see it in quotes on the internet - sites such as Instapundit, Powerline, Althouse, Drudge, Reason. Mostly they are quoting university students and professors. I will not be providing the quotes themselves.

Then I am unable to find your claims credible. Every person I see who has made the claim that the intent is to silence people have provided nothing with which to back this. It strikes me as nothing more then imputing sinister motive to those with whom you disagree. Especially since I know that white privilege is a real thing and people are actually trying to resolve it.
 
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Peter J Barban

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Then I am unable to find your claims credible. Every person I see who has made the claim that the intent is to silence people have provided nothing with which to back this. It strikes me as nothing more then imputing sinister motive to those with whom you disagree. Especially since I know that white privilege is a real thing and people are actually trying to resolve it.
Some people cannot learn and others refuse to. Carry on my wayward son.
 
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98cwitr

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Much of the time, when people are accused of White Privilege, it is just a tactic to shame them into shutting up. If you can, resist shaming tactics. But White Privilege does exist. I want to show you how I have dealt with it.

Short answer: don't reject white privilege, nor be ashamed of it, just be humble and thankful for your unmerited benefits.

A generation ago when I was just out of college, I lived with a White missionary, Roy, who had ministered for 40 years in Asia. Then, I took a 3-month mission trip to the Philippines to visit Roy's former contacts and disciples. I was basically Roy's ambassador.

Filipinos, as a group, showed great respect to "rich, white Americans" during the regime of President Marcos. When I visited and lived with Roy's people, they treated me with the respect due to Roy himself. One guy even traveled across the country to confess his failures to me.

A group of evangelists that Roy had trained organized a month-long evangelistic tour of mountain villages and invited me. Every village we visited treated me like a VIP and we even experienced a major revival at the final mining town. The townspeople offered to give me a house/church and make me their permanent pastor.

That is real White Privilege.

But I knew the hidden side that the local people could not see. All of those Filipino ministers were more mature and better trained than I was. I made some major mistakes that others covered up. In fact, when I lived with Roy and his family for 6 months of training, Roy didn't really like or respect me very much (and for good reason). I'm sure that he loved the Filipino ministers more than he loved me. When the revival came, I didn't know how or why. But I did know that one day the revival would end and I would be alone, trying to be a spiritual leader without a clue. So, I declined to be a minister in the Philippines and went back to America to get more spiritual development and missionary training.

My lessons:
-People treated me well based on my appearance and connections, not because I earned anything.
-I went there for a purpose and could not be silent even if others were more worthy than I.
-I survived by the grace of others and in turn gave as much grace as I could.
-I rejected being placed on a dangerously high pedestal.

Did they show you such curiosities because of the color of your skin, or based on your demeanor, culture, and past experiences with American missionaries?

The only fair sociological test to arrive at such a conclusion would be to have a non-white from the same organization, same country, with the same demeanor and cultural aptitude discriminated against because they were non-white. Then you can prove white privilege, which then simply proves the existence of racial discrimination among other cultures outside of the developed world (which I'm sure there is, and maybe even to an exaggerated extent).

Maybe it has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, but culture? While it is easy to falsely correlate race and culture, it is inaccurate and only perpetuates racial stereotypes when in fact it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the culture to which a person prescribes.
 
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Belk

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Some people cannot learn and others refuse to. Carry on my wayward son.

Some recognize when they have no evidence to support their view they might be mistaken. Some continue to assume themselves correct in spite of evidence to the contrary.
 
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Peter J Barban

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Just to see some somersaults:
From the New York Times via Instapundit
Women’s March on Washington Opens Contentious Dialogues About Race :

"Many thousands of women are expected to converge on the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington the day after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. Jennifer Willis no longer plans to be one of them.

Ms. Willis, a 50-year-old wedding minister from South Carolina, had looked forward to taking her daughters to the march. Then she read a post on the Facebook page for the march that made her feel unwelcome because she is white.

The post, written by a black activist from Brooklyn who is a march volunteer, advised “white allies” to listen more and talk less. It also chided those who, it said, were only now waking up to racism because of the election.

“You don’t just get to join because now you’re scared, too,” read the post. “I was born scared.”

Stung by the tone, Ms. Willis canceled her trip.

“This is a women’s march,” she said. “We’re supposed to be allies in equal pay, marriage, adoption. Why is it now about, ‘White women don’t understand black women’?”

...

Ms. Rose said in an interview that the intention of the post was not to weed people out but rather to make them understand that they had a lot of learning to do.

“I needed them to understand that they don’t just get to join the march and not check their privilege constantly,” she said.

That phrase — check your privilege — exasperates Ms. Willis. She asked a reporter: “Can you please tell me what that means?”
------------------------------------------------------------
So "Check your priviledge" means shup up, your contribution is as an equal is unwelcome.
 
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Shiloh Raven

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There is no white privilege, if there was, i would own my own hotels, and not manage them.

America was built solely for the benefit of white people. In fact, white supremacy of the WASP and racism against minorities is what America was originally founded on, as well as hundreds of violated treaties its government signed with the tribal nations, forced Indian removals onto barren wastelands called Reservations, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and legalized slavery. It took a concentrated Civil Rights Movement before minorities were finally given equality to white people. Minorities were denied equality for 188 yrs after this country was supposedly founded on freedom, liberty and justice for all.

If I may, I suggest watching the following documentary addressing white privilege.

 
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Albion

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Filipinos, as a group, showed great respect to "rich, white Americans" during the regime of President Marcos. When I visited and lived with Roy's people, they treated me with the respect due to Roy himself. One guy even traveled across the country to confess his failures to me...
That is real White Privilege.
Actually, it is real "Rich Americans Privilege."
 
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Peter J Barban

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Here is an example of using "Check your privilege" to invade another group's space. As I said before this is used as a tool to dominate others.
From Facebook: Check Your Privilege Party - FIESTA DE 'CHECAR SU PRIVILEGIO
Check Your Privilege Party
To the Rebels & Rejects of Society:
Greek Row has been a place where too many of us have been shut out of for too long. We have been told we are too fat, too dark skinned, not able-bodied and don't fit the model.
The frats have repeatedly attacked us. Both physically and verbally, they have said black lives don't matter, they have raped us and then called us [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]s & liars, they have trashed trans people making fun of them at fashion shows, they have physically attacked black woman. They tell us it is not all- but it is too many. It is time they are held accountable for these actions.
On this night we will take over and claim space on Greek Row, we will give ourselves access to this space. On this night we will center black lives, queer lives and differently abled/ disabled lives, and we will check their privilege.
 
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Belk

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Just to see some somersaults:
From the New York Times via Instapundit
Women’s March on Washington Opens Contentious Dialogues About Race :

"Many thousands of women are expected to converge on the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington the day after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. Jennifer Willis no longer plans to be one of them.

Ms. Willis, a 50-year-old wedding minister from South Carolina, had looked forward to taking her daughters to the march. Then she read a post on the Facebook page for the march that made her feel unwelcome because she is white.

The post, written by a black activist from Brooklyn who is a march volunteer, advised “white allies” to listen more and talk less. It also chided those who, it said, were only now waking up to racism because of the election.

“You don’t just get to join because now you’re scared, too,” read the post. “I was born scared.”

Stung by the tone, Ms. Willis canceled her trip.

“This is a women’s march,” she said. “We’re supposed to be allies in equal pay, marriage, adoption. Why is it now about, ‘White women don’t understand black women’?”

...

Ms. Rose said in an interview that the intention of the post was not to weed people out but rather to make them understand that they had a lot of learning to do.

“I needed them to understand that they don’t just get to join the march and not check their privilege constantly,” she said.

That phrase — check your privilege — exasperates Ms. Willis. She asked a reporter: “Can you please tell me what that means?”
------------------------------------------------------------
So "Check your priviledge" means shup up, your contribution is as an equal is unwelcome.

In the post that you quoted

Ms. Rose said in an interview that the intention of the post was not to weed people out but rather to make them understand that they had a lot of learning to do.

She explicitly states what I claimed.
 
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Belk

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Here is an example of using "Check your privilege" to invade another group's space. As I said before this is used as a tool to dominate others.
From Facebook: Check Your Privilege Party - FIESTA DE 'CHECAR SU PRIVILEGIO
Check Your Privilege Party
To the Rebels & Rejects of Society:
Greek Row has been a place where too many of us have been shut out of for too long. We have been told we are too fat, too dark skinned, not able-bodied and don't fit the model.
The frats have repeatedly attacked us. Both physically and verbally, they have said black lives don't matter, they have raped us and then called us [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]s & liars, they have trashed trans people making fun of them at fashion shows, they have physically attacked black woman. They tell us it is not all- but it is too many. It is time they are held accountable for these actions.
On this night we will take over and claim space on Greek Row, we will give ourselves access to this space. On this night we will center black lives, queer lives and differently abled/ disabled lives, and we will check their privilege.

I see. So going to a space that you feel you have been rejected from is a "tool to dominate others"? How does that work exactly? Was the civil rights marches in Birmingham a "Tool to dominate others"?
 
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Kate30

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I agree that there are national privileges. In fact, the apostle Paul claimed Roman citizen privilege on occasion. But clearly, in America the stereotypes of Whites and Blacks are different. The same is true around the world. As a white American in Asia, I get treated better and make more money than black Americans or black Africans.

It is true that black Americans see the world differently than white Americans. The same is true for Korean Americans.
Peter for some money is everthing. For others it’s what you do with it. Some of us are rich some of us are middle class and some of us are really poor. It’s simply how it is with every culture around the world. Perhaps people should think more on their privilege in Jesus Christ. That is what brings love and peace to a angry world : Not class distinctions and cultural divides.
 
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Shiloh Raven

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I see. So going to a space that you feel you have been rejected from is a "tool to dominate others"? How does that work exactly? Was the civil rights marches in Birmingham a "Tool to dominate others"?

It reminds me of The White Man's Burden and the White Savior Complex. I don't consider either term complimentary to white people. It's annoying for some White Savior to come gallantly trotting in like a knight on white horse to come to the rescue of minorities. In fact, I find it extremely arrogant and a cocky attitude for a white person to believe that minorities could never survive without white people.

Native Americans, African Americans and other minorities don't need white people coming into their communities and telling them what they need to do with their own lives or how they should live their lives or how they should feel about the racial injustices committed against their own people and their ancestors. They don't need white people insistently telling them to get over the past and move on.

Here’s What a White Savior Is (And Why It’s the Opposite of Helpful)

Holding up the Mirror: Recognizing and Dismantling the “White Savior Complex”
 
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Peter J Barban

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Actually, it is real "Rich Americans Privilege."
Actually, black people in Asia are not given the respect that White people are. I have talked with many Asians and expatriates about this.

One of my good friends from Church, Anthony was a black man from Africa. We did similar work at different companies. I got paid more and was treated better than he was. Fortunately, Anthony was willing to put up with this and could make more money in Taiwan than in his homeland. Anthony never said Check your privilege, but I did enjoy learning from his point of view which was so different from mine.

One of Anthony's lessons was "You have to protect what's yours." At first, I thought that was a very unChristian phrase. But I learned that in poorer areas of the world, the strong prey on the weak. If Christians are weak, or just careless, they can lose everything.
 
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Peter J Barban

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I see. So going to a space that you feel you have been rejected from is a "tool to dominate others"? How does that work exactly? Was the civil rights marches in Birmingham a "Tool to dominate others"?
As I said before, some people refuse to learn.
 
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Albion

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Actually, black people in Asia are not given the respect that White people are. I have talked with many Asians and expatriates about this.
How much respect ARE they given, as compared, lets say, to native Filipinos or other Asians?
 
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