Poll of the Day > Does White Privilege exist

(+) Yeah! (+)

White Privilege

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I haven't heard it adequately defined yet - so I don't know for sure.

A privilege can be revoked, but I hear that white privilege is permanent and systemic... which would mean it's not a privilege but a right; and saying White Right sounds supremacist...

but the people saying it aren't typically white... so maybe they have a non-white inferiority complex

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Yes.

However there are other factors that can negatively impact anyone. (Poverty, mental illness, etc.)

Saying there's white privilege doesn't mean you can't have disadvantages while being white, from my understanding at least. It just acknowledges that overall white people have certain privileges/advantages over non white people in the relatively same life circumstances.

Yeah its awesome we have membership cards with rewards points.

no

and i'm not white.
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White privelage is not having to worry about a cop beating your ass because of your skin color.

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No, of course not. The belief is largely based on selective observation and, of course, deceptively-applied statistics.

BUMPED2002 posted...

No and to my knowledge as a White person I haven't benefited from it

Usual trolling.

Zareth posted...

White privelage is not having to worry about a cop beating your ass because of your skin color.

lolwut? Did you already forget that white girl who showed a fake ID, tried to run, got slammed to the ground hard, and tased? And then the white guy who tried white knight got tased, too. Skin color doesn't matter, you resist arrest, you're likely to wind up getting hurt... and if you try to interfere with a cop in the course of his duties, you're getting hurt, too.

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White privilege is simply things you would benefit from as a white person. I.e. you're more likely to be wealthy, more likely to see people who look like you in position of leadership, you don't have to look all over the place to find representation, don't have to deal with microaggressions based on race, etc. Now person by person is always going to be varied and unique, and I think this is where people from both sides get tripped up on and start denying or being strict. There are so much other factors in life. Like I'll be hard pressed to think a rich black man is less privileged than a working class white woman. But at the same time, there still remain areas in life where these privileges still override. The same white woman doesn't have to worry that her son will get pulled over and treated unfairly on the basis of their skin tone, while the same black man think about it every time his son step outside. And on the other shoe, the white woman may be more rightfully concerned about her own well-being around other men. The black man doesn't have to worry about the same things she's worried about. That's what this is all about IMO. Understanding how the intersection of identities can influence people and how they might have hardships in certain areas other people do not.

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Lokarin posted...

the people saying it aren't typically white... so maybe they have a non-white inferiority complex

You have it ass backwards. White people have a superiority complex and thats the problem.
the fact you arent sure about white privilege proves you have it. And if you dont get it why dont you try harder to learn.

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Extreme_light posted...

White privilege is simply things you would benefit from as a white person. I.e. you're more likely to be wealthy, more likely to see people who look like you in position of leadership, you don't have to look all over the place to find representation, don't have to deal with microaggressions based on race, etc. Now person by person is always going to be varied and unique, and I think this is where people from both sides get tripped up on and start denying or being strict. There are so much other factors in life. Like I'll be hard pressed to think a rich black man is less privileged than a working class white woman. But at the same time, there still remain areas in life where these privileges still override. The same white woman doesn't have to worry that her son will get pulled over and treated unfairly on the basis of their skin tone, while the same black man think about it every time his son step outside. And on the other shoe, the white woman may be more rightfully concerned about her own well-being around other men. The black man doesn't have to worry about the same things she's worried about. That's what this is all about IMO. Understanding how the intersection of identities can influence people and how they might have hardships in certain areas other people do not.

1) Spacing. Use it.

2) Even by your own admission, it's largely a matter of perception rather than reality.

3) A lot of the other shit is bunk. Overlooking that micro-aggressions are a silly concept, white people get him by them, too. In general, "micro-aggressions" are what you get when you can't find anything truly wrong but still want to keep claiming that there's an issue.

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Even if it does exist, why is white privilege the most prevalent thing on people's minds when it comes to privilege?

Why arent we addressing the most prevalent and obvious form of privilege? Class privilege.
The rich get all the best resources and the highest chances of success.

A lot smaller but what about beauty privilege? The most attractive human beings get treated better by default.

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deoxxys posted...

Even if it does exist, why is white privilege the most prevalent thing on people's minds when it comes to privilege?

Why arent we addressing the most prevalent and obvious form of privilege? Class privilege.
The rich get all the best resources and the highest chances of success.

A lot smaller but what about beauty privilege? The most attractive human beings get treated better by default.

Probably because a rich black person is still going to be profiled before a rich white person.

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I would say no, I don't feel like it's a privilege, the fact that minorities get treated worse does not mean I have privilege, I am at neutral, they should be at my level, like all people. It's disgusting that minorities are treated worse, this is from Merriam-Webster a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor so I don't see it as that. I will admit I have it easier, but I don't get special treatment, they just get screwed.

To put it simply, I don't have a buff for being white, but minorities get debuffed for being minorities, which is terrible, but white privilege is a lie by the elite to distract from the fact that being elite is the true privilege

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Zeus posted...

1) Spacing. Use it.

2) Even by your own admission, it's largely a matter of perception rather than reality.

3) A lot of the other shit is bunk. Overlooking that micro-aggressions are a silly concept, white people get him by them, too. In general, "micro-aggressions" are what you get when you can't find anything truly wrong but still want to keep claiming that there's an issue.

No.
Perception of reality yes. You can't perceive something that isn't there.
Idk what you think mircoaggressions are but they're hardly trivial. Like if you think there's nothing wrong with "you didn't seem gay", someone mistaking a woman doctor at a hospital for a nurse, or assuming a black dude isn't well-off/doesn't truly live in this nice apartment then... And yes white people can experience mircoaggressions too. But you don't get them based solely on your race all the time.

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Extreme_light posted...

Perception of reality yes. You can't perceive something that isn't there.

You absolutely fucking can. Unless you also believe that every single person who suspects their spouse is cheating on them is right and that children's imaginary friends are real but we just can't see them, among countless other things.

Extreme_light posted...

Idk what you think mircoaggressions are but they're hardly trivial.

...he says then lists a lot of trivial examples, including a few where the recipient chose to read into the comment despite the fact that others outside that group get the same comments (ie, it ain't always about race, gender, etc, but you're choosing to read into it as such). As for the ones that actually pertain to race/ethnicity or culture, white people *also* get them (including from other whites)

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Kimbos_Egg posted...

no

and i'm not white.

clearly dont know what white privilege is then

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Extreme_light posted...

if you think there's nothing wrong with "you didn't seem gay", someone mistaking a woman doctor at a hospital for a nurse, or assuming a black dude isn't well-off/doesn't truly live in this nice apartment

People tend to make assumptions based on limited knowledge. When they learn the assumption was incorrect they might say something innane to cover for the embarrassment they feel. The only thing wrong here is conflating this reaction with a form of aggression.

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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

People tend to make assumptions based on limited knowledge. When they learn the assumption was incorrect they might say something innane to cover for the embarrassment they feel. The only thing wrong here is conflating this reaction with a form of aggression.

Assuming the black dude doesn't really live in this nice apartment has a good chance of getting him killed.

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Muscles posted...

To put it simply, I don't have a buff for being white, but minorities get debuffed for being minorities,

@Muscles
Thats what people are talking about when they say white privilege. You might not agree with the terminology but at least you recognize the unbalance.
Retrospectively, it probably would have been more effective to give the unbalance a different name but expecting the name to change now, when its already circulated as much as it has, isnt realistic.
Again, I applaud you for recognizing the unbalance. Some people (and some users here), refuse to acknowledge that minorities even have a debuff.

Post script thought: One way to think of it is this, another word for privilege is advantage. And if minorities receive a disadvantage, then by extension the majority (white) now have an advantage. Even if they werent buffed, so to say, they werent debuffed either. Which gives them an advantage over the minorities.

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It seems to exist.

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It either doesn't exist or it exists alongside Black Privilege, Hispanic Privilege, Asian Privilege, etc...

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ITT: 36 (and counting) white people without an education vote against decades of exhaustively documented, immutable historical fact

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Pretty much everyone has a combination of privileges and hardships in life but yeah to some extent white privilege does exist, especially when you look at affluent white people

Like that rapist Brock Turner, pretty sure he got convicted but served no jail time, or just six months maybe. Its hard to even imagine that happening to someone poor or someone of color whether they were wealthy or not.

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PyroBlade1985 posted...

There is no "White" Privilege. Majority Privilege perhaps.

So, when you live in a Black majority city, with Black mayor, city council, police, etc., that means....

As an Irish-American woman, should I move?

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Tro77Tro posted...

ITT: 36 (and counting) white people without an education vote against decades of exhaustively documented, immutable historical fact

Yeah, it's mind boggling actually. I expected maybe 20% voting no, tops. This is just sad.

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arv tried to use his white priveledge to get infront of the line but was kicked to the back

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I voted no even though Im not white. Seems like I lied because of the selections available

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Riptor posted...

Yeah, it's mind boggling actually. I expected maybe 20% voting no, tops. This is just sad.

It's not mind boggling at all. This site is made up of mostly males, and out of those most are white Americans. Of course a lot would say it doesn't exist, because they have it and honestly don't even realise it. Which is kind of the point I guess.

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PyroBlade1985 posted...

Do you want to move?

Not really, but if White Privilege isn't a myth, maybe I should try to find someplace that it exists.

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Benefit is not privilege, people need to l2English

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It's such a highly debated topic, and a politicized one, so I don't even know. I'd have to step inside somebody's shoes and see for myself.

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Zareth posted...

Assuming the black dude doesn't really live in this nice apartment has a good chance of getting him killed.

There is a huge difference between saying something stupid and ending a person's life. The consept of words as violence is just an excuse for actual violence against people who say things you don't agree with.

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Ive seen more class privilege. The richer you are, the more shit you can get away with.

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I'm pretty sure all that white privilege are worthless if you're in any African country.

Class/rich privilege is literally what controls the whole world. People should start making more of a fuzz about that instead.
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ChaosAzeroth posted...

Yes.

However there are other factors that can negatively impact anyone. (Poverty, mental illness, etc.)

Saying there's white privilege doesn't mean you can't have disadvantages while being white, from my understanding at least. It just acknowledges that overall white people have certain privileges/advantages over non white people in the relatively same life circumstances.

Pretty much. Recognizing privilege is basically saying "maybe this thing I find easy isn't so easy for other people." That can come from any number of different personal traits and life experiences, including race. It's not something to be ashamed of (especially if it's an earned privilege), it's just important to be aware of and respect the fact that other people don't necessarily have it.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

There is a huge difference between saying something stupid and ending a person's life.

Depends who you say it to. If you tell a 911 operator that there's a black dude going into an apartment that you don't believe is his, there is in fact that decent chance the black dude will end up dead, or at least in a situation where death is a significant possibility.

This is why that lady who called the cops on the black birdwatcher in Central Park was such a disgusting piece of trash: She knew full well that calling the cops and telling them a black guy was threatening her would put the black man's life in enough danger to scare him off because the cops were more likely to believe that the black guy was the aggressor in the confrontation than she was. She knowingly exploited her privilege to endanger an innocent man's life, and that was horrifically awful.

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https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/464130057464709120/727182837186428958/a8G3nE3_460s.png

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yes. you get the benefit of the doubt. if youre non white especially if you have an accent.. youre considered a foreigner and you dont know anything and should just go back home

Of course it does, but it's also overused as an attack.

Repeatedly people attack me with racist comments assuming I'm white, and it doesn't matter whether or not they are correct.

The latest is people being all doom and gloom, ignoring actual real studies and statistics, and talking as if it's worse today than in the 1960s, which is laughably ignorant to suggest. Anyone that informs such extremists that yes, things still need to improve, but the fact is they have been improving over the decades is told to "check their privilege," which is a point blank racist attack.

People exaggerating the extent to which racism affects things are hurting the cause. You'd think no people of color could get a job and police gun down innocents on the street every day, rather than the reality where racism is still a real problem but not for most hiring incidents, and most of the people shot are people resisting arrest, many of them actually having committed crimes. Excessive use of force is not okay, but nor is slapping the "it's because of racism" label on everything without proof and without context, or demonizing police and acting as if isolated incidents happen by the thousands every day.
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Obviously, considering how there is a large gap between many circumstances favoring Whites and the treatment of non-Whites.

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_Kalecgos_ posted...

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/464130057464709120/727182837186428958/a8G3nE3_460s.png

Imagine being the loser who printed that up to pretend it was left for them by a PoC.

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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

People tend to make assumptions based on limited knowledge. When they learn the assumption was incorrect they might say something innane to cover for the embarrassment they feel. The only thing wrong here is conflating this reaction with a form of aggression.

The point is that you shouldn't even be making these assumptions that are largely based in stereotypes and expectations. It's called mircoaggressions purely because it's not straight up "you're a f*" aggression. Also English just landed there, unless you want to call it "minor racisms" or something lol. It's subtle, sometimes coming fro ma place of innocence, and can be indirect. And by extension they can be easier to deal with. The guy thinking that the gay man he saw didn't fit a certain gay stereotype can just be embarrassing as you noted. But the fact is that he was informed by god knows how many years of some perception he had of gay men, and frankly it is insulting to tell that to someone. But at the same time he's definitely easily to deal with and inform than someone thinking gays don't benefit the human race or are sexual deviants or whatever.

And as always there are levels to these shits. The person thinking that the woman doctor he saw was just a nurse could very well hold generally sexist and outdated views, for example. And as the other poster noted, something like assuming a black man doesn't live in or near the place could indirectly put that person at risk.

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It exists but it's not omnipresent. A white person getting pulled over won't ALWAYS be treated fairly, he just has a higher likelihood of it. My uncle (who is white) had some pretty brutal mistreatment from police several times which included beating him with metal flashlights and not letting him get treated for his bad burns before answering all of their questions. This all traumatized him and was almost certainly a major factor in his eventual suicide.

I've also had at least one time where I got screwed over for being white. In elementary school a black kid took offense to something I did and started hitting me. I didn't fight back and just blocked until eventually a teacher came over and broke it up. I got in trouble for fighting and had to miss the year end party for it while he got off scott free.

Theres areas and situations in the US where it hurts your chances to be white, theres just more areas and situations where it hurts to be black. Theres also a lot of situations where it makes basically no difference.

It definitely feels like white privellege is used to insinuate that I have a major advantage in all situations and thats ridiculous.

Microaggressions is also a horrible term. It just sounds goofy and nothing about most of those behaviors are aggressive. Just a semantic issue cause some still should be worked on but like, thats a horrible way to phrase it.

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adjl posted...

Depends who you say it to. If you tell a 911 operator that there's a black dude going into an apartment that you don't believe is his, there is in fact that decent chance the black dude will end up dead, or at least in a situation where death is a significant possibility.

That's a lot of separate events to pin on the initial person. If someone thinks a crime is in progress they should call the police. The police should then be able to investigate the call and, if necessary, de-escalate a situation. If they can't do that then it's a failure in their training, not a failure of the part of the person who called them.

adjl posted...

She knowingly exploited her privilege to endanger an innocent man's life, and that was horrifically awful.

I agree this sounds horrible. The correct sequence of events in this situation is that the police should investigate the claim and charge the woman with lying to the police and filing a false report. It doesn't benefit anyone if the police can't do this.

Extreme_light posted...

The point is that you shouldn't even be making these assumptions

Imagine never drawing a conclusion from incomplete data.

Extreme_light posted...

largely based in stereotypes and expectations.

I think that's an assumption about the person drawing the conclusion. You don't have facts to support what it was based on.

Extreme_light posted...

unless you want to call it "minor racisms" or something lol.

I don't think this reaction should be conflated with racism either.

Extreme_light posted...

But the fact is that he was informed by god knows how many years of some perception he had of gay men, and frankly it is insulting to tell that to someone.

Again with the assumptions. Let's say this person is drawing on experience with another gay friend they have, and this 2nd person acts nothing like the 1st. Or maybe he's seen the TV show "Will & Grace". I wouldn't want characters like that as representation either. Either way, it's not a sign of aggression toward the person the comment was made to.

Extreme_light posted...

than someone thinking gays don't benefit the human race or are sexual deviants or whatever.

That is a huge leap from the original comment. The phrase "you didn't seem gay" ranges from a neutral "I didn't realize you were..." to a positive "you have changed my mind about...". I don't see anything inherent in it nearly as nefarious as what you think it means.

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LeetCheet posted...

I'm pretty sure all that white privilege are worthless if you're in any African country.

Class/rich privilege is literally what controls the whole world. People should start making more of a fuzz about that instead.

Uhhhhh have you ever heard of South Africa uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

If you ask if it exists period, the answer is yes.

If we're talking specifically in the U.S., it's probably not as often as many people claim it is.

How would you know if you benefited from it if you were white anyway, does your job interviewer say "phew, glad to see you're white, I almost had to hire a minority".
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So many incorrect votes!

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Why do I poop little balls it's a bunch of them

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

That's a lot of separate events to pin on the initial person.

Yes and no. Sure, the actual violence isn't perpetrated by the initial person, but when it's as predictable as that would be, they do bear some responsibility to recognize that potential consequence and act accordingly. It's like that swatter that got jail time because a guy ended up dying: He didn't pull the trigger, but he created a situation where that outcome was a real possibility (one which was realized), and that means he bears responsibility for the incident.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

The police should then be able to investigate the call and, if necessary, de-escalate a situation. If they can't do that then it's a failure in their training, not a failure of the part of the person who called them.

While I don't disagree, in practice, the presence of police rarely de-escalates an innocuous situation that's been reported as a crime in progress. Quite the opposite, in fact, as panic and confusion are very normal responses on the part of the person who's being arrested for entering their own house, and police don't have a good history of responding well to panicked/confused suspects (especially not black ones). Yes, police should be better trained at de-escalation (this is a key element of almost all of the ideas floating around for police reform), but the reality of the matter is that they aren't, and that's not a reality you can ignore. As such, dismissing "I presumed this black guy was robbing this house instead of living here" as just a silly, embarrassing thing to say is very much not a reasonable, correct thing to do, as that is a presumption that can have some very serious consequences if not kept in check.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

The correct sequence of events in this situation is that the police should investigate the claim and charge the woman with lying to the police and filing a false report. It doesn't benefit anyone if the police can't do this.

In practice, that is what happened, but pretty much only because the guy recorded a video of the encounter and ran away before the cops actually showed up. Had he stuck around, there's a very good chance he would have been harmed or killed by police that were planning and expecting to take down a violent criminal, and his video might never have surfaced. It was her word against his, and he ran away because - like her - he knew that the cops would believe a white woman over a black man until something more concrete was presented (which he later did once he was less likely to get shot).

ForteEXE3850 posted...

How would you know if you benefited from it if you were white anyway, does your job interviewer say "phew, glad to see you're white, I almost had to hire a minority".

It's generally not so much a matter of clearly being able to tell that you're benefiting from it as it is recognizing that others are at a disadvantage for not having it. The classic example is hailing a cab: White people think nothing of it, black people don't bother trying. This is an older example, and I think it being kind of a running joke has ended up killing it because it's not something you ever really hear about anymore (I honestly have no idea how true it still is, particularly where hailing random cabs has kind of disappeared in the age of Uber), but it very nicely illustrates the concept.

Basically, enjoy your life and don't worry about whether or not you're benefiting from privilege, but if somebody that isn't white (or really, anyone else, since the concept is hardly unique to race) is complaining about something being difficult that you have no trouble with, listen to, believe, and respect their experience, since odds are the reason you don't have difficulty is because of some sort of privilege. If you can help them solve that difficulty, all the better. You can pretty safely ignore the sort of person that tries to tell you that you shouldn't complain about anything because you're a privileged white person, since that's obvious nonsense and they're just parroting what they heard in a tumblr echo chamber instead of thinking about the concept for themselves.

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