University Sponsors Campaign To Undermine "White Privilege"

I'm a "white" person I guess, and I was a collegiate debater. There were many teams that would make me start of the round by "acknowledging my white privilege". ( As debate is a very liberal community, tactics such as this, or acknowledging your privilege as straight or as a man were common.)

When I first heard this I was deeply offended, and honestly many times even after I learned to deal with this type of argument I still thought the teams that used it were offensive.

But after having heard the arguments, I have to agree that there is white privilege, and I would acknowledge it in these rounds. Having said that, its not what you think it is.

See, most people that criticize and reject "whiteness" can't even define the term. They say its evil, but they can't say its just skin color, else they are saying many people are born evil because of their skin color, and thats racism so they'll back off of that.

Then they'll say something about money or power or the will to dominate others. As others of stated here, many Caucasians (myself included) dont fit that bill, so thats out.

At the end of it, the privilege is actually more about stereotype and how people perceive you. The average person will look at a white man and feel a different initial reaction than they would seeing a person of a different race. This is true.

What these people fail to see is that there is also a black privilege. Many people view blacks more favorably than whites. In fact there are many positive and negative stereotypes about all races.

Although I think that people have the right to point out these differences, I think it is harmful to focus on them for a couple of reasons:

1) It makes people take on a victim mentality. You say to yourself that everyone thats different than you has some sort of benefit over you. I think this is a bad way to view the world as it isolates yourself from others and can lead to a sense of entitlement.

2) It allows the real enemies of all people, those stealing all our wealth and manufacturing wars to get us killed, to be able to hide from focus as us people fight over stupid differnces.

reply to post by Grambler


Do you think that this "privilege" could be related to how people dress and/or act?

I know that my perception of young men is shaded deeply by what they are wearing and/or how they are acting.

Regardless of the color of your skin, if you dress like a thug and act like a thug, you will be perceived as a thug.

Why am I not surprised that the OP has a confederate flag as his avatar?

You're just a white supremacist racist in denial, OP. Nothing to see here, people. Move along.

Let me put it out this way....


White privilege, who fed them this spoon of BS.....


Privilege seems to be based on money and who you own.....
Not based on color

Rarely is it based on skills but the need to fill quotas

I am going to paraphrase a comment from a sci-fi writer.
You claim you hate america and all we stand for not to mention we are the enemy

God forbid the day we decide we do not like you

Paraphrased


Would you like us to truly start acting like Da Man?


Nope the PSA needs to be over Benjamins and Power....
Race is a fools gambit.... nice pre-election timing

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
It's hard for white people to see white privilege

Yea I bet, especially the vast majority of them that aren't "privileged".

Really hard to see that, especially when rich non-white people say it like Sharpton and all his raving lunacy.

What a load of crap. People just want something for nothing because they wrongly assess that their problems aren't their own doing and think everyone else just gets stuff for free. No, most of us don't... rappers get millions of dollars for spouting nonsensical gibberish about cash money and hos and selling it to all the morons and people want to talk about "white privilege".

Bull#. Maybe we should raise awareness of non-white privilege too, maybe we should start a whites only college fund... how about that?
United Negro College Fund

I bet that would go over well... hypocrites and racists.

"We're privileged to walk down the street and not get stared at..."

Hmm...

Are Africans "privileged" to live in Africa?
Are Chinese "privileged" to live in China?
Are Pakistanis "privileged" to live in Pakistan?

Because guess what - if I walk down a street in Africa, China, or Pakistan, I WILL GET STARED AT!

What exactly is the point they are making?

You are "privileged" to live in a country where your race is the majority...? Seriously?

The top comment of the video says it all. The guy behind it is a white, on a six-figure salary, and lives in an overwhelmingly white neighborhood. Who would have guessed?

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Great PSA? I consider crap like this to be incredibly racist.

What is it when you assign a trait to a group based on their skin color....

That's right it's racism.

To assign the term white privilege to whites is therefor racist.

reply to post by Wildbob77


Your absolutely right about the way people dress. The truth is all of us use stereotypes based in how people look, its only natural. Only when we start to act out in negative ways based on those stereotypes is there a problem.

But I'm with you, why focus on skin color when there are so many other appearance issues that affect how people look at us: age, clothes, hair, and weight just to name a few. I guess the counter argument would be that some of those things you can have control over.

On a humorous note, it would be like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. The bald are under privileged! I suggest we start a university that acknowledges haired privilege!