I'll be blunt. There is no white privileged really. We are all equal. Only blacks make it out like they are not equal.
On what basis, though? And for that matter on what basis do you say that everyone is equal?
1. Blacks lacking in things
I am so tired of hearing about things like the Oscars where "Its racist, no blacks won!". Really they are just saying "No blacks won this year!". Because blacks have won in the past. The year prior 12 Years a Slave won lots of Oscars! Problem is there are just tons of white actors, politicians and so on. Not that many black. Is that because of racism? No. Its because its just how it is. Maybe "whites" out number blacks. Its not a racist thing. After all we had a black president.
I'm not entirely sure about the content of this objection (since I don't have cable, I'm not really up on what movies are out, who is in them, etc.), but I'm under the impression that the issue of the whiteness of the Oscars has more to do with highlighting the reality of why it is that way (
structural issues, such as the voters of the academy that does the nominating being overwhelmingly white...more white than the movie going public, that's for sure), why it's unacceptable that it remains that way (the figures I've seen claim that the percentage of roles going to non-white actors hasn't changed hardly at all in a decade, despite the racial diversity of the acting pool increasing in that time), and so forth.
2. Other minorities
Extending sort of from point 1, blacks fail to see how silly they look, especially the BLM thing. Do they realize for example with the Oscars in comparison to blacks, there are almost NO asian winners? Probably any number of others that have won less then black actors. And this applies for everything. President and so on.
Why wouldn't they realize that no (almost) no Asians have won? Do you need to be of a certain ethnicity or race to know about their performance at the Oscars? And how does a point about the BLM movement follow from a point about the Oscars? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought BLM was about the disturbingly commonplace acts of violence and murder perpetrated by police against black people? (Or at least that is the instigating situation that led to the movement, in the wake of various shootings and other killings that have occurred in that context.)
3. What is white?
If you notice its only ever blacks and whites.
Huh? "Its" refers to what exactly? What is only ever blacks and whites?
But with every other "race", no one uses terms anymore. Your spanish, russian...etc.
So...people aren't Spanish or Russian anymore?
You are confusing race with ethnicity here. 'Ethnic' Russians are Slavs, who are white people, so the stereotypical ethnic Russian is a white person, yes. Spanish people, too, though there may be a wider variety of skin tones in some parts of Europe due to, e.g., the Moorish invasions of the Iberian peninsula (one of my grandfathers was Portuguese, and while I never met him myself, from the pictures I've seen of him you would be excused for mistakenly thinking he was a Mestizo from Latin America, or some kind of mixed North African, etc.; definitely not "white" in an American context, though I'm not sure what that means in a Portuguese context).
But when it comes to blacks they don't say jamacia, chad....etc.
One of the reasons why you don't often hear that in an American context is that the majority of African Americans who live in this country don't know their true lineage because slavery has erased that connection to wherever their ancestors came from. But it's perfectly normal for people to be referred to in that way when talking about a black person who is known to come from a certain place. For instance,
the Wikipedia article for the popular singer Rihanna begins "
Robyn Rihanna Fenty (
/riˈænə/ ree-AN-ə;
[2] born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer and songwriter." And it's the same with those of other races (various kinds of Asians or Latinos, for instance).
Just as whites aren't labeled as italian, british, irish...etc.
Except when they are, which is often. Federico Fellini is not "white film director Federico Fellini", he's "Italian film director Federico Fellini". Elton John isn't just "white pianist and singer-songwriter Elton John", he's "English pianist and singer-songwriter Elton John" (well, Sir Elton John, since he's been knighted). And so it is with average people, too. Many white people identify themselves as Irish-Americans, German-Americans, or whatever other types of Americans they may be.
Every culture has its goods and bad so to speak. I'm italian american (Well 50% other stuff). Not white.
Is your skin white (not as a result of hereditary albinism)? Then you're white according to the vast majority of people.
My friend is Kenyan, not african/black.
What? How can your friend be Kenyan and not African when
Kenya is a country in Africa? That makes zero sense. It seems like you're conflating many distinct but related things like race, ethnicity, and geography, but not making a cohesive argument or point out of any of it.
Yes we have silly stupid race labels but they do not help with situations like this "white privilege" thing. If we were to break down races into their culture, maybe numbers would be different when it comes to black deaths vs white deaths. Who cops pick on more. Because if you notice, in any case with a cop attacking someone, the word "black" is simply used.
If it's a black person who is getting attacked, why wouldn't they use the word "black"? I'm not understanding the problem you're having with this. Is it that these news reports are not ethnically specific enough for you? Because it seems like when there's reason to point out more specific details about the victim's origins, this is what happens. Consider the initial coverage of the 1999 shooting death of Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in New York. The New York Times
described him as "an unarmed West African immigrant with no criminal record". That's literally the first piece of information offered in the story. So again, what's the problem?
4. What is privilege?
This white card I hold supposedly gets me the world. It means I never get looked at. I never get judged. I get the world handed to me. Everyone loves me. Right?
No. It means that you are not systematically disadvantaged as a result of living in a society that does not favor your race, as non-white people are.
Wrong. I'm disabled (not physically), I get picked on because of my weight. Or how I walk. Or because I prefer talking to girls more then guys since I am not into most "male" things like sports. Police have watched be before, I've been almost arrested once (it was a false accusation and they let me go). I've been beat up. I've been abused by women because I am overly nice. I live at home while married. I get discrimination when I try to work on because of my disabilities. My life isn't the best. So whatever this card is I hold. I don't have it.
None of this means that you are not privileged on account of your race. I'm physically disabled to the point that I cannot work and may never be able to again (we'll see), and am in constant pain every day, but physical disability and race are not the same thing. It's not like just because I'm disadvantaged in some ways doesn't mean that I don't have some unearned advantages that others do not have. One of those is that because I am white-skinned (though my great-grandmother, grandmother, and aunt are were all mestizas from Mexico), I am afforded certain privileges that others do not have. When I speak Spanish, though I grew up speaking it (so it's not a big deal to me), other white people are impressed and tell me what a great skill it is to have (I can even speak it terribly and they will still be impressed). When someone of the exact same background but who is darker than me speaks Spanish, they get told by the same people that compliment me for speaking Spanish that they really ought to speak English, since they're in America now, and so on. And then sometimes when they speak English if they do so with an accent, they get stigmatized for having that accent. All because they're brown, so
of course they can't speak English! They probably came here illegally, are probably a criminal, etc.
5. Blacks have the real privilege
Ok so I can say yes, cops target blacks more. Maybe this is just because blacks speak up more about it then whites. Hence it makes the news. Or maybe cops really do target them on purpose, which I agree is not good. But blacks have the card here.
What 'card'? You've mentioned cards before in your post, but I don't know what you mean. The 'race card', I guess? (That's what I'd assume, except that the sentence after this one conflates the 'black card' with homosexuality, so...black people are akin to gay people? I feel like I'm taking an SAT test: "black:gay as...")
Just as with certain "same sex" people, they have the privilege of being who they are.
How is that a privilege unique to them? Who is stopping you from being straight and white?
If your black and someone hires you, they did it because they are racist and need to meet a quota.
Yeah, it's not like a black person could ever actually be qualified to do something...every single black person in every field is hired to fill a quota!
If they don't hire you its because they are racist and don't want blacks. If your fired, its because a company is racist. If you even look at a black man wrong, they yell racism. And they get away with it. They get others fired because the racist card plays well for them. Which is why many whites try to say nothing because we can't win. Even in cases where its obviously not about racism.
Where do you live that every hiring or firing decision is based on race, and all discrimination lawsuits are successful? Because it's
certainly not the USA.
7. History and stats
In terms of stats, black on black death is the majority killer among blacks. I wish that would be mentioned instead of bringing up white cop to black death ratios.
And it is mentioned (and
verified). I don't know that anyone here is trying to deny that there are problems in the black community, only perhaps that they can be boiled down to one or two simple factors or stereotypes of how black people in general are (if you click the link, you'll see that this is not the case, but rather it is a mix of comingling factors that make black urban neighborhoods more violent than other neighborhoods; I would conclude that places with no or very few black people in them may be just as violent if those same factors exist, as is true in many parts of Latin America, for instance).
8. Black culture change?
The culture of blacks needs change from the inside out.
Isn't that for them to do, though? That's the issue I have with all this armchair quarterbacking: if it comes from outside of the community, it's going to be based on stereotypes about that community held by others, rather than what the community sees themselves as needing to change. There are plenty of anti-violence, anti-poverty, anti-drugs or whatever initiatives out there, but to read some of the comments in this thread you'd think that it's all a bunch of black people just out to vent their rage at whitey for the imagined crime of being white. It'd be good if (since you mentioned a smaller change being needed in white society...) white people would support what is out there that is trying to change things at a community level, rather than seeing everything as something to get defensive about when confronted with the structural inequalities that they themselves benefit from. "Why don't you guys do something about black people being killed?" "We already are." "Well yeah, but...come on, man...not like
that...you're making me, a white person, uncomfortable."
The culture to the outside world seems to consist of the same old thing. Gangs, violence, sex and so on.
You focus on what you expect to see. It's called confirmation bias.
Alot of blacks movie tend to embrace this normally "stereotype" thing.
Darn you,
Waiting to Exhale!
Most "Whites" do not stay in poverty places like a ghetto because "Its all we got". We try to get out of such places. We work hard. We do not roam around in gangs with our pants half down and pistols on us. We do not threaten people.
Hmmm...what are the plots of most of those 'black gang' movies generally about? Someone trying to get out of the hood, maybe?
None of them do anything from the stereotype black culture. They don't speak in a certain way. They speak proper
I can't think of any example that more starkly illustrates white privilege than having your own way of speaking, your own native speech, considered 'proper', to be emulated by others should they want to get ahead in life.
They don't believe in gangs, or violence as a tool. Or sex or women as meat. So it shows change is possible. I am all for that change.
That's good.
Again alot of what I said about blacks is "some", not all or the majority. As for me? I treat blacks no different then I do anyone else in real life.
So you make an example of your white friends by congratulating them for 'speaking properly'? Hmm.
When at the store I don't see one and think "Obviously a thug, avoid them!". I don't even notice the color.
Are you sure? Because it seems like the rest of your post is a lot of noticing the color and correlating the color with the various negative stereotypes that are out there about black people.
We are all the same. I'd actually like to see a great exercise here in response. What ethnicity (if thats the correct word) are you? I'm 50% italian. The other 50% consists of british, scottish, french, german, australian, hebrew (of course) and some other smaller ones.
I'm white on my mom's side (her mother's family are the direct descendants of the Danes who first colonized Greenland, and they still lived in Greenland until about 100 years ago; she has also mentioned some distant relatives who were Maltese and English, though I have no clue about that) and mixed white and Mexican (mestizo/Indian and European) on my dad's side (his father was Irish, mother was Mexican/Mestiza, and other relatives were Portuguese and probably from other European places too, cos he's white as well). Why does this matter?
