{"id":165,"date":"2008-09-16T17:21:24","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T21:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/?p=165"},"modified":"2008-09-16T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T21:21:24","slug":"your-nation-on-white-privilege-by-tim-wise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/?p=165","title":{"rendered":"Your Nation on White Privilege, by Tim Wise"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not often that I re-post articles, but I think this one is worth consideration. Time wise is an author, scholar, and preeminent anti-racism activist in the United States. You may not agree entirely with all he says, but consider the truth behind the disparities he points out.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Peace,<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Christian
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

This is Your Nation on White Privilege<\/span>
\nBy Tim Wise
\n9\/13\/08<\/p>\n

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
\nconstantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
\nlist will help.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like
\nBristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of
\nyour family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you
\nor your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and
\nLatino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as
\nirresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin” redneck,”
\nlike Bristol Palin”s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes
\nwith you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to
\n“shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy
\n(and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six
\nyears like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
\nreturned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
\none questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
\nperson of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
\nprobably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
\naction.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town
\nsmaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with
\nabout the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of
\nManhattan<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all
\npiss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term
\nstate Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to say that you support the words
\n“under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for
\nthe founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately
\ndisqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written
\nin the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn”t added until the
\n1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their
\nrights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a
\nprestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only
\nsupported by mushy liberals.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make
\npeople immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a
\nhusband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your
\nstate to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> first,” and no
\none questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black
\nand your spouse merely fails to come to a 9\/11 memorial so she can be home
\nwith her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she”s
\nbeing disrespectful.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and
\nthe work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
\nvote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
\nlabor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely
\nquestion the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
\nforeign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’re somehow
\nbeing mean, or even sexist.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even
\nagree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running
\nmate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has
\ninspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party
\na “second look.”<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your
\npolitical campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
\ntypical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
\nknowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> means you
\nmust be corrupt.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
\npastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
\nW. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is an explicitly Christian
\nnation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
\nprinciples into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
\nin the Middle East<\/st1:place> is God”s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
\neveryone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if
\nyou’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
\nPowell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
\nthe result of U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
\nand its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates
\nAmerica<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked
\nby a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such
\na “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
\nanswers to the queries of Bill O”Reilly means you’re dodging the question,
\nor trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has
\nanything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
\nexperiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.<\/p>\n

.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly
\nallow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90
\npercent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing
\ntheir homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is increasingly isolated from
\nworld opinion, just because white voters aren”t sure about that whole
\n“change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say,
\nfour more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.<\/p>\n

White privilege is, in short, the problem<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not often that I re-post articles, but I think this one is worth consideration. Time wise is an author, scholar, and preeminent anti-racism activist in the United States. You may not agree entirely with all he says, but consider the truth behind the disparities he points out. Peace, Christian This is Your Nation on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}