My grandmother came to this country from Mexico when she was under 10 years old, studied and worked hard, got a degree from a medical school in San Francisco back in the 1940s, and spent over 40 years working as a school nurse, treating kids of all colors, backgrounds, and economic levels. Still some people who think that I must be in agreement with them because I'm light skinned want to use people like my grandmother as evidence that brown people are coming here and 'taking our jobs'. Y'know...because there was a white school nurse who didn't get her job back in the 1940s because my grandmother, a brown person, 'took' it. That's not white privilege (that's just some people being morons), but this is: The fact that because I am lighter-skinned than she was, I don't have to deal with people's ingrained prejudices against Hispanic people (particularly Mexicans, in much of the USA). I get to 'opt out' of experiencing racism entirely because of the color of my skin. It can't be based on other things, because we're in the same family. That's white privilege: if you're white and you speak Spanish and like what white people consider 'ethnic' food, they'll assume you're really cultured. "Ooo, he must've traveled a lot! He must be from Spain! Ooo, European!" No. I'm from the USA, but my grandmother's from Mexico. "Oh, you don't LOOK Mexican!" (Which always means "You're not brown!", but they're too cowardly to come out and say it.) Meanwhile, if you're brown and you speak Spanish and eat weird food and all that jazz, you're not assimilating enough, you're some kind of threat or economic parasite, you're obviously unpatriotic, maybe you're dirty or criminal, you're obviously 'illegal', etc.
That's white privilege right there, and you bet it matters when it comes to making good impressions on people...well, racist people. But racist people often have things that other people need, so...yes, I am definitely a beneficiary of white privilege. It's nothing against me as an individual white person (something a lot of people in this thread don't seem to be understanding), but is definitely an indictment of the society as a whole which would treat me differently -- better -- than another person with virtually the same background, same skill set, etc. In the words of comedian Louie CK (another white Mexican, oddly enough) "it's not that white people are better, but being white is clearly better...if you don't admit being white is better, you're an ______! If it were an option, I'd re-up every year! 'Yes, I will take white again, thank you!'"
Admit it, fellow white people. Just admit it. Admitting it is the first step to helping make it so that being treated fairly isn't a privilege, to paraphrase another poster.
