White Privilege vs. My Father's Life

I think societal privileges DO exist, but they exist in EVERY society, western or not.

To attach "white" to privilege is as racist as it gets.

And if ANYONE tries to influence or disparage me because I'm white, I promise you I won't stand for it.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

I haven't posted much for awhile...frankly, I was disgusted by this site for quite awhile.

This post resonated with me though and, for many reasons.

I was born into a white trash/hippy/redneck existence. I didn't choose it, I was born into it.

I learned from a young age that I didn't want to live that way forever. I was looked down on my whole young life because of my family. Teachers shunned me because of who I was, how I dressed and in retrospect, I realize that they knew they could get away with treating me poorly because they knew my family didn't have the resources or the will to take action.

This white privilege that everyone seems so concerned about does NOT apply to ALL white people! I'm not saying that there are not white people that are privileged...there are!

They are the bankers, politicians and industry people that have run this world into the god damn ground for their own self interests!

Do you you think they care about the lowly whites anymore than any person of color? They don't care about the color of your skin! They only care about power, money and influence.

None of us...NONE! Are anything more than cattle in their eyes. The color of our skin means nothing in the big scheme.

Unless you are wealthy with influence and power...you are expendable! You do not matter in their eyes.

My wish is that this ignorant division amongst us all can just stop!

It is an US versus THEM scenario but it has nothing to do with race.

It's about a level of privilege that only 1% percent of us holds.

Guess what my friends...we're in the other 99%.

a reply to: MagesticEsoteric

Well put.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson



My history of "white privilege"


My dads family: Dirt poor farmers who ended up working in coal mines during the depression. One of my uncles died in the ground, another died of black lung (not a pleasant way to go). My father escaped to the steel industry only to lose a hand in a steel cutting machine. He worked another 20 years (nope, no public assistance) and supported a family of 4 WITH ONE HAND until he died of a massive heart attack, he looked 70 when he died at 49. My moms family were dirt poor sheep herders from Southern Italy who came here with nearly no money at all, My grandfather came when he was 17 and worked 3 years to get the money to get my grandma here. He also worked in the coal mines, used to shovel a TON of coal for 50 cents. Never saw this white privilege everyone talks about. I am almost 60, been working since age 14 and will probably work until I die. I sure will be happy when my backlogged white privilege checks arrive.

Blacks have so much of their own things to look to and straiten out before talking about white anything.

My family wasnt privileged either.

My grandfather came over through elis isle and worked from the age of 8 doing whatever he could job wise to support his family. Nobody gave him a god damned thing and he never bitched about it or made himself into some faux victim.

He did succeed though. Went from literally nothing except the shirt on his back and people condeming him to living in beverly hills.

Ended up raising a healthy talented and vibrant family many of whom went on to be successful in their own careers.

He was italian american and faced discrimination too. His family was so poor that he literally as a infant had no crib. His mom kept him warm at night by putting him in a basket on the opened door of the oven. By 8 he had a job walking around town snuffing out the gas street lanterns. His family was destitue with zero privilage. But he succeeded despite the odds and he didnt get one single hand up or hand out.

All I know is, despite my own situation growing up (I.e. black kids threatening to beat the white kids if they don't move from the back of the bus because they just learned about segregation in class and were reclaiming it?) despite that I'm confident that if I get pulled over I have at LEAST a 75% chance of not being ticketed or suspected of wrong doing because I'm white.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

It is indeed a myth. I am sure many others can share similar tales, of their own families. Good work n the art of your dad, fighting so hard for a good life for himself and his family!

I am sick of all the claims of "white privilege". Where was it for my family? My mother grew up dirt poor, in the truest sense of the word. Cornbread and pinto means were the usual meal, as that was all they had. She wore donated clothing. The had a wood stove for years, unable to afford a better one. Where were their white advantages? Where were they for my husband, who lived in some pretty bad areas growing up, and who enlisted young, when we married, to be able to support a family? We saw people promoted for their skin color, while he and others, all more qualified, were passed by. We saw some cases of blatant criminal activity, from military people, excused, when those people were not white, for which a white soldier would have been prosecuted. Where is my privilege? My parents struggled for years to be able to provide for the family, and we were never anything close to well off. No money for college, no cars for the teens, none of that. Where is my privilege? My own kids don't have fancy phones, or new computers. Only one still a kid even has a computer, and that's a used rebuild. The others use mine. The hubby's is falling apart, because we can't afford a new one for him. Our cars are paid cash, used, and older. Privilege? What a crock!!

originally posted by: Edumakated
White privilege exists but it is not as big of a deal as most of these SJWs make it out to be. I'm a black male and when I think of white privilege it is really just not constantly having to worry about if you are being discriminated against because of your race.

While the younger generation may not necessarily have experienced it, I am in my mid 40s and most certainly have felt the tinge of discrimination. However, it is nothing like what my parents who grew up during segregation experienced.

It is really hard to explain it as a white person (no matter your class) really cannot relate to what it feels like to be a minority under a microscope both overtly and even subliminally when it comes to the black experience in America.

While I think a lot of this stuff is vastly over stated these days, I don't think it can also be outright dismissed.

I can understand your points, but have to disagree. I have, as a white woman, seen discrimination based on my skin color. I was bused to a different school as a child, to "desegregate", with the result being a handful of white kids in a mostly black school. I was stunned at the level or racism we experienced. I'd known black kids before, had friends in the neighborhood who were, but these students were different. So, yes, I can know what it's like. Seen it other places, too. Seen coworkers who were black, and completely incompetent, not fired, while white coworkers were held to a tougher standard. Seen anti-white racism in the military, even, while the hubby was serving. It''s been a long time since there was actual discrimination against blacks in society. Yes, there was such a time, but decades ago. The people screaming about it now never saw it, and in fact tend to be the ones acting in a discriminatory manner against others. I'm sick of it.

I grew up with black friends and none of us, kids or adults, thought it mattered at all what color we were. My maid of honor was a black fiend, who was close enough, my pale daughter called her very dark daughter her cousin. I don't care what color someone is. However, I will NOT accept some BS guilt about being white, or be told I had anything better because of my skin. It's not true.

Some of you are confusing class and poverty with privilege. White privlege has nothing to do with wealth.

White privilege is the fact that there are things you simply do not have worry about just because you are white.

originally posted by: Edumakated
Some of you are confusing class and poverty with privilege. White privlege has nothing to do with wealth.

White privilege is the fact that there are things you simply do not have worry about just because you are white.

Bull.

It's an excuse to not own up to one's own decisions and errors.

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes

originally posted by: Edumakated
Some of you are confusing class and poverty with privilege. White privlege has nothing to do with wealth.

White privilege is the fact that there are things you simply do not have worry about just because you are white.

Bull.

It's an excuse to not own up to one's own decisions and errors.

Nope. Has nothing to do with personal responsibilty.
The best way i could describe it would be how women are treated in a man's world.

originally posted by: Edumakated
Some of you are confusing class and poverty with privilege. White privlege has nothing to do with wealth.

White privilege is the fact that there are things you simply do not have worry about just because you are white.

Can you give specifics? That's a pretty general statement. I always hear this assertion but no one ever gives specific examples of what
so called white privilege is.

a reply to: Edumakated

Blacks often feel under a microscope because negative stereotypes are often applied to us. Nowadays it is a little stuff. The microaggressions (I hate that term). Being the only black at a country club and having someone assume you are the valet.

Negative stereotypes come in all shapes and colors, they aren't exclusive to blacks only. The "little stuff" as you put it, and "microagressions" only exist in your head. I can tell you this... In the minds of most average white people in America walking around, the large majority aren't thinking about your skin color except maybe the guilt-ridden regressive white liberals in today's society. I know this because it's not on my mind, nor anyone else's mind that is white like me that I have ever met. And I've been here 40 years. The ONLY thing that ever crosses my mind, is if black people hate ME automatically because of all the popular accusations against evil whitey going on.

It's like there is a perception that all whites do is sit around and think about peoples' race, and that's pure nonsense. Perhaps you and most other blacks are raised err....indoctrinated with the idea that whitey is constantly thinking about your skin color, and maybe you were raised to believe that you're some kind of victim. In today's world however, that's just simply not true. It's pure fairy-tales.

Frankly, I think most normal people are just sick and tired of EVERYTHING being made about race. Especially when it comes to identity politics.

I always refer to this video, because I REALLY do think Morgan Freeman put it best when explaining the reality of this.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes

originally posted by: Edumakated
Some of you are confusing class and poverty with privilege. White privlege has nothing to do with wealth.

White privilege is the fact that there are things you simply do not have worry about just because you are white.

Bull.

It's an excuse to not own up to one's own decisions and errors.

Nope. Has nothing to do with personal responsibilty.
The best way i could describe it would be how women are treated in a man's world.

It's the same world for all of us. Only once in my entire life have I had someone act unfairly based on my being female. ONCE. That's another myth. This isn't the Middle Ages.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

White privilege does not mean and never has meant that all white people get nice stuff. Claiming it doesn't exist because you don't have nice stuff is attacking a strawman.

originally posted by: ScepticScot
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

White privilege does not mean and never has meant that all white people get nice stuff. Claiming it doesn't exist because you don't have nice stuff is attacking a strawman.

But claiming that the "little things" and "microagressions" have substance enough to prove that "white privilege" is a thing somehow DOES prove that it's a real thing in the minds of "white privilege" lefty nut bags in your opinion?

Let's consider the definition of a "strawman" shall we?

an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument. "her familiar procedure of creating a straw man by exaggerating their approach"

Source

Hmm...Liberal hypocrisy at it's finest.

originally posted by: Wookiep

originally posted by: ScepticScot
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

White privilege does not mean and never has meant that all white people get nice stuff. Claiming it doesn't exist because you don't have nice stuff is attacking a strawman.

But claiming that the "little things" and "microagressions" have substance prove that "white privilege" is a thing somehow DO prove that it's a real thing?

Let's consider the definition of a "strawman" shall we?

an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument. "her familiar procedure of creating a straw man by exaggerating their approach"

Source

Hmm...Liberal hypocrisy at it's finest.

Are you claiming that the little things don't happen or that they don't have substance?

a reply to: ScepticScot


Both. Yes.

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: SaturnFX

As a minority, I feel sad very few of us realize that if we keep treating White Conservatives as the enemy it will make things worse.

I talked to a few people about this and they agree with my sentiment. In fact we felt like that's why Trump was elected.

However I suspect many regressive leftists will call me delusional and an "Uncle Tom" for offering sympathies to White Conservatives.

Trust Me when I say that the kettle will boil over sometime in the future and when it does I wouldn't want to look different from the majority.