Checking Privilege

Oh, not to worry – I had my privilege topped up last week. Full of privilege I am, and ready to go … I assume that this is the ephemeral white privilege that these undergraduates-of-excruciatingly-top-drawer-non-state-uni muppets are referring to? Is this the female privilege, the veteran privilege, or the mainstream religious privilege, or even the privilege of having been brought up by a relatively well-adjusted heterosexual married couple in those benighted times when it was possible and even laudable for a male to go out and earn a living, while the spouse (usually referred to as a help-mate) stayed at home, raised the children, organized the housekeeping and the meals, the education, clothing and schooling of those children, the social sphere in which she and the pay-check winning spouse moved, and volunteered in the community where they lived … that must be it. (Hey, I’ll swipe my privilege card through the dispenser, just in case I have burned through some of my previously-deposited privilege.)


Here’s the thing, though. It’s been at least fifty years since in-your-face racism was socially acceptable and possibly even longer in some places and spheres … at least, open and totally unvarnished, un-self-censored racism displayed by people of non-color towards everyone else. The matter of open, totally unvarnished and un-self-censored racism displayed by certain ethnic groups of color towards practically everyone else is another matter entirely. The guardians of privilege seem to have no problem with that stripe of racism. See: We’ve had affirmative action, we’ve had ‘insert your ethnicity here’ history month, week or day, and we’ve had endless consciousness-raising and social actions-mandated training of one sort or another for at least that long. The unlooked for and annoying result of all – as I see it – is that those who have ground out a living or a career from raising everyone’s level of consciousness now have to work harder, and harder, and look for the tiniest of tiny incidents which might be construed as racially-based aggression on the part of those of no particular color towards those of color.

This is reaching the point of ridiculousness, considering the various affirmative action programs in effect when it comes to institutions of higher learning, doing business or being hired by federal, state and local government agencies, getting hired by MSNBC, in spite of being barely literate and incoherent in public speaking, at least as it is judged by those of us who are really literate and accustomed to speaking publically and being understood by the greater majority. (Yes, looking at you, Al Sharpton, although this could extend to other notably dim-witted media affirmative action clones, such as Melissa Harris-Perry.) To recapitulate – irredeemable white racism exists, but it lives in a trailer park in a low-rent district in the hinterlands somewhere. On the other hand, black racism has a nice media gig, a mega-church pulpit, academic tenure, or is – ironically – a media star with a house the value of which computed by a single square foot equals the value of my entire house with contents and both cars, White House residency or an enduring gig as political representative of a majority-minority Gerrymandered safe district. (OK, missed any particular sub-set of the grievously and professionally racially-annoyed? BTW, hearing that fabulously wealthy celebrities of color – who have gotten to be fabulously wealthy by appealing to largely audiences of non-color – are bitching and moaning about racism and prejudice is getting … well, pretty tiresome at this stage of the racial game as it is played in this century in America.. Word to the wise; n’est-ce pas? )

So, what really-o-truly-o emerges from this whole ‘check your privilege’ thing is a two-fold message. The first and almost inadvertent is that home schooling is a good thing, as it spares your children from being mind-f**ked by a bunch of trendoid quasi-Marxist educators leaping on the latest intellectual fad.

Second and most important; this has and will continue to do a number on the minds and barely-formed intellects of the impressionable school-age youth of all colors. For the so-called advantaged and privileged class (that is, those of non-color, or pallor) it will destroy any rightful confidence and pride in their ethnic heritage – because it’s all reduced to ‘white’. Never mind about any deeds of valor, intellect, or simply decent striving to better ones’ self. Nope- sorry, you are automatically privileged and henceforth morally damned … even if a quick look around to the real life around you gives you plenty of personal observations countering that supposition of superiority. For those children of other-than-pallor, the implicit message is every bit as malign, as damaging to the self-image – which is ‘there is nothing you can do, can strive for – because white privilege trumps all! Yer a looser before you ever start, kid! Because of that nasty privilege thing! And your darker epidermis! You poor dear child of color – you are doomed, I say–doomed to un-success and oh, yeah-BTW-blame it all on those evil-nasty-people-of-non-color!’

Essentially, that’s what the message is, when parsed down to the lowest level. Look; when there are abusive pervs willfully and energetically destroying the self-image and confidence of a single child-that’s a reason to call CPS and press charges. What therefore, is our response, when it is a whole generation of kids, systematically abused by the establishment? What then, oh wolves?

(Crossposted at www.ncobrief.com)

8 thoughts on “Checking Privilege”

  1. Wolves, don’t make me laugh.

    About 98% of people are sheep. They want to herd with rest. About 1.8% are dogs and they herd the sheep. It’s a tiny proportion of us that are wolves and we find this whole debacle very amusing. We don’t herd and the dogs, although in control, will not challenge us as they know we will fight to the death.

    Have fun with that sweetie.

  2. That faint swishing sound was the noise that a rhetorical question pinched from Kipling’s Jungle Book makes when it goes over Penny’s head.

  3. Below is the example of the pseudo-intellectual accusation that everyone is prejudiced, but only Whites are racist. This means that all Whites are racist. That is the university accredited definition.

    This is intellectual warfare. The people who want to be good are falling for propaganda designed to control them. Socialists offer to increase the power of the state over them as an expiation of their sins. This only works because they are already good people, with the usual amount of anxiety about the world.

    This standard argument deserves to be seen in detail to be opposed and laughed at.

    The Undergirding Factor is POWER: Toward an Understanding of Prejudice and Racism
    By Caleb Rosado, Department of Urban Studies, Eastern University, Philadelphia, PA
    === ===
    [edited, emphasis added]  Prejudice by itself is not racism. Racism results when someone uses his position of political or institutional power to reinforce his prejudice and limit the rights and opportunities of others.

    Racism is prejudice plus power. All people can be prejudiced; only those who have power are really racist. African Americans, Latinos, Asians and American Indians (the powerless in American society) can be and often are most prejudiced toward Whites on an individual basis, but they are not racists at the structural, institutional level.

    Racism requires two things: (1) socioeconomic power to force others to do what you desire, and (2) the justification of this power abuse by an ideology of biological supremacy. At present, only Whites have that kind of power, reinforced by a belief in an ideology of supremacy, both of which constitute the basis of racism in America today.

    What is described as racism is often nothing more than prejudice and discrimination. A Black or Latino person might use a gun or intimidation to force a White person to submit. This is an individual act of aggression, not a socially structured power arrangement.
    === ===

    This is the message applied politically: When a Black man dislikes a White man or his statements, that is simple prejudice, a regrettable mistake. When a White man dislikes a Black man or his statements, that is Racism requiring the intervention of the government. This is the accepted Liberal view, taught at respected universities and enforced by the government.

    It would be interesting if there are any criticisms of Caleb Rosado’s analysis from any Department of Urban Studies.

    According to Rosado, only whites can be racist, and he seems to imply that all whites are racist.

    A claim or implication that an individual or group is “racist” must get the response that this is despicable race baiting. As despicable as any statement like “What else would you expect from a bunch of Blacks?”

  4. Oh, I am already laughing at the intellectual set who behave as if this was the deep South in the early 20th century with the KKK all ready to ride, rock and roll, as they insist that well, it’s all about power! Well, who does have and exercise real social, media, intellectual and political power these days? Bueller? Bueller?
    (Oh, Penny – that’s another rhetorical question, this one from a movie.

  5. Caleb Rosado is full of it.

    Show me the National Organization of Men.
    Show me the National Association for the Advancement of White People.
    Show me the White Student’s Association on your local campus. Or mine. Or ANYWHERE.
    Show me the Christian Students Association.
    Show me the admission standards of that same university.
    Show me the political views of your commencement speaker.
    Show me the kangaroo court on campus where mere allegations of sexual misconduct get males kicked out of school. No trial, no evidence, just accusations.
    Show me the campus welcoming Ayan Hirsi Ali. She’s black and female – why do they hate her?

    Now I show you: what’s a double-counter? That’s a black female civil service employee. Two reasons they will never get fired, Shirley Sherrod notwithstanding.

    Duke LaCrosse – the privilege to be roasted, convicted without trial on the word of a less-than-stellar member of the community, who went on to other crimes.

    Hey, I’m running out of time. Tell you what. I checked my privilege. I’m better off than some, worse off than others.

    Life ain’t fair. get over it. Booker T. Washington did. George Washington Carver did. Martin Luther King did. Condi Rice did. Why can’t you?

  6. There actually is, or was, a National Association for the Advancement of White People. IIRC, David Duke was involved.

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