Let's do a play by play Shtuey style.
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.
Oooo...so self righteous and angry. There must be something really important about to be said.
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.
Can you quantify that Tim? When it came to light that Bristol was pregnant let us not forget that we had already heard Obama surrogates, and the media speculating that Trig Palin was Bristol's daughter and that Sarah Palin was a liar. I guess that must have slipped your mind. Then, when it was revealed that Bristol was pregnant and could not have possibly been the mother (never mind that there were no apologies to the Palins), they were attacked for lacking the "family values" that Republicans are always yammering about, how it was irresponsible. Cybill Shepherd even went so far as to disingenuously fear that Bristol was being forced to have the baby by her "pro-life" mother. There have been plenty of attacks, smears, and criticism, just not the public hanging that Wise must desire.
Yes, there has been the lingering image of black teenage mother as welfare queen, but having met a number of African American grandmothers who are helping raise their granddaughters, some of whom were raised by their own grandmothers, I can report that these young pregnant girls have familial support systems not unlike Bristol. Do they wish they had been smarter about the decisions they made? Sure. But are they being attacked? Not by my community. Instead of Wise saying we find Bristol's pregnancy acceptable and AA and Latino teen pregnancies a blight, we could be having an intelligent conversation on sex education, planned parenthood, the creation and implementation of resources for teenagers facing sexual activity that are not race based as a pregnant teen is a pregnant teen, regardless of their skin color. Instead we get a sweeping indictment that America feels white teen pregnancy is okay and minority teen pregnancy is a plague. Ask Jamie Lynn Spears how she felt being splattered all over every tabloid rag in America. I'm sure she was thrilled being portrayed as a dumbass knocked up redneck.
Why not accept the truth? The reason why there has not been a lingering conversation by Obama and his campaign staff about Bristol Palin is because Obama's mother was an unwed teen. Period. Had that not been the case the media would be all over her like white on rice and you know it. I'm not really sure what the problem is. Obama's mother wasn't married and got pregnant. Bristol Palin is unmarried, at the moment, and got pregnant. What is the relevance? The only difference is that Obama lied about his mother being married. Michelle spilled the beans.
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.
Please Tim, give me a break. A "fuckin' redneck" "shooting shit" is a far cry from a self proclaimed gang banger who brags about killing people (I assume that is the image you are comparing). And I think anyone, whether they're black, white, latino, Asian...might be enclined to kick the fuckin' ass of anyone who messed with them. I certainly had no problem using my fists when Catholic School kids would shove me and push me to the ground for being a Jew guilty of killing Jesus. Funny, after kicking some fuckin' ass they didn't bother me anymore.
I don't care if you're black, white, Latino, whatever. If you come into my neighborhood doing shit you shouldn't we're going to have a problem. When black kids who live in my neighborhood walk past my house with a basketball I don't worry about them breaking into my house or shooting me. Sorry to disappoint you Timmy. But having lived on land owned by what you would call a redneck, with kids who wandered around with deer rifles and were about as responsible as a wino in a state store, that made me a little nervous. Stupid is as stupid does, regardless of skin color.
Again, here was a moment when you could have discussed societal race based imagery, an important and valid conversation, but that's not why you wrote this article.
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.
Palin still managed to get her degree didn't she? My town is filled with African Americans and "rednecks" (since that's how I suppose you see them...I suppose racial stereotyping is okay as long as it's directed at Whitey, right Tim?) who take courses at community college and then transfer. In many cases its due to finances. I know because I've taken community college courses as part of my continuing education requirements for my job. No one questions their ability, desire, or intelligence. They're just working on advancing themselves, and they get into quality college programs. I know it must chap your ass to find out that African American community college students aren't being oppressed by Whitey. Get over it.
In contrast to Palin's educational path there is Barack Obama who had plenty of privilege thrown at him from private school in Hawaii to Columbia and Harvard. Tim, can you tell me Obama's GPA from Columbia? No you can't, because he won't release his transcripts. Maybe that's black privilege.
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.”
If we're going to have a conversation about Palin's lack of readiness, then why not Obama's. There is plenty of evidence that he only used his position to advance his own career, leaving his constituencies in as bad a shape, if not worse than when he arrived. He voted "present" rather than take a stand on issues like abortion and reproductive rights and gay rights (again, is it black privilege that we're not supposed to talk about that?). It is also clear that Obama used his positions to balloon the financial largess of his supporters, as he did with the privitization of low income housing developments in Chicago, which screwed over the very demographic you so staunchly defend (rightfully so by the way). Yes Tim, Obama screwed over black people. Where's your righteous indignation on that score Tim?
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.
????? That is just wingnut. Oh, only white liberals can defend the constitutional rights of non citizens, which they do. Obama can't get away with it because he's black. I get it. That's not ridiculous or far fetched at all. The reason Obama should be disqualified is that his legal name is Barry Soetoro. No evidence currently exists showing that he changed his name back to Barack Obama. Posing as Barack Obama he may have defrauded the state of Illinois, Harvard University, Columbia University, and the Federal Government, as well as every state that held a primary and caucus. There is currently no evidence that he swore an oath of allegiance as a United States citizen, renouncing his Indonesian citizenship. As someone who supposedly taught constitutional law Obama should know that this disqualifies him (well, I guess he does which is why he has gone to such lengths to hide the truth). Well, I guess he'll be taught that by the pending law suit in Philadelphia Federal District Court. Black privilege must be not having to tell the truth about your name and citizenship status.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
How exactly do you determine who a gun enthusiast is in every day life Tim? Do they wear a sign, have a special badge? What the fuck are you talking about? By gun enthusiast do you mean someone who collects guns, displays them in their home, or hunts, or someone who uses guns to commit crimes, or pulls them out in the midst of an argument? I'm not afraid of the former. I am concerned about the latter...and again, sorry to disappoint you but the skin color has nothing to do with that.
I suppose you are referring to Sarah Palin's love and use of firearms. What's the comparison here? Obama is a gun enthusiast but we're scared of him because of it? He wants guns banned. This is a slather of bullshit.
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.
Ass. There has certainly been a lot scrutiny regarding the Palin's involvement in the Alaska secessionist party. The first day of school for Obama's kids was Monday September 8th. Barack was there. September 11th was that Thursday. Their kids had been in school for 3 days. Now you're just an Obama apologist and toady, and we have the real reason for this article; to make white people who don't vote for Obama feel like their racist.
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.
It is quite clear that the only reason Obama was a community organizer was to be trained in the use of the Alinsky Method. He exaggerated his accomplishments, and in the end, only used it to advance himself. We don't make fun of community organizers Mr. Wise. We question what applicability it has to being President of the United States when we read this in the New York Times,
"It is clear that the benefit of those years to Mr. Obama dwarfs what he accomplished. Mr. Kellman said that Mr. Obama had built the organization’s following among needy residents and black ministers, but “on issues, we made very little progress, nothing that would change poverty on the South Side of Chicago.”
Like every other position he has held, he largely used it for his own advancement, not to the benefit of those whom he was supposedly serving.
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.”
Then I suppose you missed this.
Ann Price Mills may not be voting for McCain, but it sure sounds like she's got a lot of the same reservations about Obama that many of us do. Did you notice she's black? I guess you would consider her a traitor to her race, or is she afforded the luxury of rejecting the black candidate because she's black?
Perhaps women who are rejecting Obama are doing so out of principle. I have met and corresponded with hundreds who are doing so. They watched the Democratic Party destroy itself, reject its charter, reject democracy, and advance a candidate that does not have the popular support of the people, whose campaign perpetrated rampant caucus fraud using Alinsky's method that Obama was taught as a community organizer. Maybe just maybe Tim that has nothing to do with the color of his skin, but the content of his character. Or is it black privilege that you should be accepted regardless of your character because of the color of your skin? Maybe it's something as simple as the fact that Palin was just a PTA mom who decided she was going to take action to make things better for her kids, a woman who did what she could to raise her kids and put food on the table. But that's not okay with you because they're white. You're a self hating white guy aren't you?
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.
You are so high on kool-aid it's amazing you respirate. Is Palin not being criticized at every turn for her political decisions? Is she not under investigation in her own state? I find it hard to believe that you actually think that Obama merely knows the people of the corrupt machine that has in fact sent him. Richard M. Daley, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, these are not people he met on the way to the zoo. He's not corrupt because he's black you ass. He's corrupt because he has used his position to line the pockets of his supporters, has lied about his accomplishments in office, and colluded with a now convicted felon to launder his money through a bogus land deal. He's a dirty politician who marketed himself as the bringer of change. Excuse me for holding him to a standard that he himself created. I guess it's black privilege to be able to be excused for such actions and associations, and to not be vetted by the media. You are a hypocrite sir.
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.
Why not just gloss over the fact that his church is virulently anti-semitic, and homophobic? Or are you one of those hypocrites who believes that considering equal protection for gays a civil rights issue is an insult to black people and their fight for civil rights? And Black Liberation Theology is a decidedly, and unabashedly anti-white and anti American movement. They make no bones about it, why do you pretend that it isn't. Black privilege must mean being the CEO of the DNC, being pentecostal (like Palin's church in Wasilla), hating gays, and not having that be a problem. Again, you're a hypocrite.
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.
The Bush Doctrine has many aspects. Governor Palin asked to which one Gibson was referring (demonstrating that she does in fact understand the variants of the term). Mr. Gibson refused to clarify so he could make her grope in the dark, and then act like an angry proctor. It was one of the most unprofessional interviews I've ever seen, and now that the full transcripts have been released we know that Mr. Gibson and Co. set out to make her look stupid.
Bill O'Reilly is a shmuck. I think what makes Obama look like a putz is when he was asked to give an opinion about when a child is conferred human rights he said the answer was above his pay grade. I don't care what color you are, when you give an answer like that you are saying you are a braying ass. You cannot vote "present" when you are President of the United States. What's he going to do in the White House when he has to make a decision, call Hillary Clinton and ask her to make up his mind for him?
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.
You would do well sir not to belittle the service and suffering of John McCain. The experience turned him from being a selfish punk ass to actually caring about public service, and making it the sum game of his political career, a notion that Mr. Obama has never grasped, and most likely never will. McCain laid down his life for his country, and endured years of torture and imprisonment rather than secure early release on his father's name and rank. Obama thought about joining the army, but since there was no war on, and thus no opportunity for glory to pad the resume, he decided against it. That is the sum game for Obama. His career choices have no basis in public service. The only barometer he uses is, would this be good for Obama? This is what sets him so glaringly apart from people like Senator Clinton and Senator McCain. They are public servants first, politicians second. Obama is an Obama servant first, second, and third.
As to this "light" burden notion, the only attribution I can find on this is your own writing. So did you make that up like Obama made up that his parents met in Selma...three years after he was born? Black privilege must mean lying about your biography.
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…
Senator McCain has made it quite clear where he stands on the issues. We may not agree on many of those stances, but at least we know what they are. He didn't say he would filibuster FISA and then vote for it. He didn't say he would take public financing and then reject it. He didn't say he would withdraw troops from Iraq and then try to convince the Iraqi government to delay any withdrawals so he could take credit for ending the war. Obama has flipflopped on virtually all issues. We don't know what he believes in, other than himself. So when we doubt he will bring change we do this because he himself has made us feel this way by his own lies and actions. Get over it.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Obama and his surrogates playing the race card, and then expecting to be allowed to get away with it is just as big a problem.
The problem with so-called anti-racist super heroes like Tim Wise (who finds it fashionable to be white and hate white people...nothing racist about that), is that they speak the neanderthal language of division. I have heard African American civil rights leaders, the Dalai Lama, and others proclaim the real truth: there is only one race...the human race. Just as Hillary Clinton made it plain in 1995 that women's rights are human rights, so to must we see the rights of African Americans, gays, Latinos, Asians, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Native Americans...
We are all endowed with inalienable human rights. No one has greater claim to them. Mr. Wise subsists on keeping us divided by the color of our skin, and in doing so mocks the true prophets of our times; the Mahatma, MLK, the Dalai Lama. Dr. King's dream wasn't that there would one day be a black president. His dream was that we would stand up and staunchly defend the rights of all people, no matter the color of their skin. Mr. Wise's "essay" is an afront to that dream, and makes it clear to me just how much further we have to go before King's dream comes true.
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1 comment:
Great post! The only thing that could have made it better is if you could have posted a video of his crestfallen face as he read your responses.
Did you know eleted officials do not go though background checks? It was news to me.
CQ
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