White privilege, white entitlement and the 2008 election
Great post on Buzzflash by Tim Wise, who has written extensively on white privilege and racism:
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a “light” burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
4 comments
A response to Tim Wise's essay. Not so much about Obama, but about Tim Wise's douche-y arguments and exploiting and stoking racism for his own personal gain.This is Your Nation on Political Correctness??For those who still can't grasp the concept of political correctness, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.?Political correctness is when some white guy named Tim Wise (who has made his career based on writing and speaking about American racism) presumes to speak for black people and writes an article about "white privilege" at a historical time in our nation when, for the first time, a black man is a major party candidate for the office of President of the United States. Political correctness is when well-intentioned people send the article to all of their friends on the internet without questioning the facts and examining the claims made in the article.??Political correctness is when you can get away with verbally attacking a 17-year old white girl who is pregnant out of wedlock, and turn it into a divisive argument about race, instead of addressing how the system keeps the black community down by replacing fathers with welfare checks, giving economic advantages to households without fathers, and not providing good education and safe neighborhoods.?Political correctness is when you ridicule a republican woman's education because she didn't attend Ivy League schools, but ignore prominent democrats' less than stellar performance in college (Al Gore, for example was a "C" student at Harvard, flunked out of divinity school, and dropped out of law school, yet was still the VP under Clinton).?Political correctness is when your successful, accomplished wife—who is the epitome of the American dream, who came from a middle class family and has two degrees (from Princeton and Harvard), whose family income is over a million dollars a year—says "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country" and you call her patriotic.Political correctness is stoking racist sentiment about verbal attacks on community organizers, instead of doing something about the issues that make "community organizers" necessary such as substandard schools, poverty, high crime rates, etc.?Political correctness is being able to convince white people who don't even know what you stand for beyond the vague concepts of "hope" and "change" to vote for you because suddenly your presence on the ticket has given them an opportunity to soothe their white guilt, or just to vote for a black man, any black man, because he's black.??Political correctness is removing Muslim women wearing headscarves from sitting behind you in a rally, so that you can pander to those who erroneously think you're a Muslim. Political correctness is when you say nothing when your running mate makes racist comments about Indians, saying “You cannot go to a 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian Accent", or about blacks by describing you as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Political correctness is saying that you are for equality for all, yet hiring a running mate who voted in favor of the federal ban on same-sex marriage.?Political correctness is being able to have a mentor and pastor for 20 years who explained the loss of innocent men, women and children on 9/11 as "America's chickens coming home to roost" and said that blacks should sing "God Damn America." Political correctness is being able to get away with being friends with an admitted terrorist, to be involved in a shady real estate deal with a corrupt convicted criminal, and to be friends with a scholar/author who called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." To quote Obama himself "If you remain friends with people up to no good, you are bound to become like them. If you think you're above their influence, you are just fooling yourself. So, choose wisely."Political correctness is deriding Palin's interjection of her religion into politics, but praising Pelosi when she states that Obama is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time" or Obama when he tells an evangelical crowd that "we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth."?Political correctness is when a black candidate is able to sail by throughout the nomination process with immunity from political attacks from fawning journalists who were either star-struck or too afraid of being called a racist, while the white candidates, particularly Hillary Clinton, was subjected to the most intense scrutiny by the media and given hard-hitting questions.Political correctness is when a black millionaire senator and author who graduated from one of the most prestigious colleges in the world, who just held a $28,500 per plate dinner with friends Barbra Streisand and George Clooney during the worst financial crisis since the Depression, is presumed to be "just a regular guy" (he says "I'm a homeboy") while Hillary Clinton, who similarly came from middle class roots, is considered to be an elitist Washington insider snob.??Political correctness is when a black candidate is given a pass by the media when he tells the nation on live tv that he is in St. Louis, when he is in fact in Kansas City. Or when he said his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz when no US troops were there at the time. Or when he stated that he had been to "57" states with "one more left to go." Or when he stated that Hugo Chavez came into power in Venezuela as a result of Bush's policies (Chavez came to power during Clinton's term). Or when he stated that 10,000 people had died in the tornado in Kansas in May, when the death toll was 12. When a white candidate makes those same types of mistakes, they are shown over and over and turned into t-shirts and bumper stickers.??And finally, political correctness is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 40 percent of the time (including voting to fund the Iraq war, supporting Bush's faith-based initiatives, voting with Bush to give the telecoms immunity from prosecution and continue wiretapping US citizens), when he's been part of a do-nothing US Senate with the lowest approval rating ever for only four years (half of which he's spent campaigning) when he can't pin down exactly what that whole "change" thing means, which, ya know, is REALLY too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, political correctness, which seems to be here to say.??Political correctness is, in short, the problem.
Well, to start with, I give credit where credit is due. Naming yourself after a chemical poison that was responsible for massive deforestation and destruction of a country occupied by the United States definitely identifies you as someone who isn't concerned about how other people see you. What other choices did you consider? Smallpox blankets? Syphilis experiment?
As for "political correctness," the term originated with right wing intellectuals who were trying to stifle discussion about racism, sexism and homophobia by putting a convenient label on opinions that challenged them. So when you say that political correctness is "the problem" when people are discussing the challenges that racism creates for any Black person that is in the public eye, you're pretty much putting your real agenda on the table.
That's not to say that you're just a right-wing stooge. You may not be. But you're giving a pretty good imitation of one.
"For those who still can't grasp the concept of political correctness, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help."
Sorry. Read the whole thing and don't follow the logic or pertinence. Unless you're exclusively talking about a pattern of behavior from the same media that thinks the behavior of a teen idol on the set of her Disney show constitutes an important contribution to the national discourse - revealing that it has no connections to or regard for on the ground reality whatsoever in the first place - I just don't know what to make of it. But thanks for the contribution.
No wonder I'm not paying much attention to this election anymore.
By the way - not to flog a dead horse - political correctness and the declaration thereof IS A WHITE PRIVILEGE.
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