Understanding White-Privilege (Palin/McCain)

[EugLoven]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 1:41pm

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for an easy-to-understand example 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 "****in' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, who likes to "kick ass" if people mess with you, and who likes to "shoot ****," 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 or 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 wanted 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…the problem.

[Maraclea2]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 1:53pm

What a gross oversimplification of very complex problem.
To use a serious sociological issue as a campaign screed is not only improper, but diminishes the severity of the issue.

[lildogs]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:08pm

Right on, Eug!

And sorry, Maraclea, but I don't think it's a complex problem at all.

But Eug, you forgot that Cindy McCain has made a fortune as a drug dealer....doubtful Miss Michelle could withstand that kind of legacy.

But as Chris Rock says, "Only the white man can profit from pain" and "It's all right, caiuse it's all white."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:10pm

Eugene--that was Tim Wise's Buzzflash column from Saturday.

You should include a link or people will think you wrote it.
White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election: A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION by Tim Wise

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:12pm

Thanks PJ for bringing up Tim Wise.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:13pm

"You should include a link or people will think you wrote it."

I don't think anyone in their right mind would think that Eug wrote this.

Updated On: 9/16/08 at 02:13 PM

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:30pm

By the way, thanks for sharing that Eug.

I may not be in my right mind for saying this, but, Eug, I think you are more than smart enough to have written such a honest, informed and truthfilled piece.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:31pm

This piece has been flying all over the internet -- three different people sent it to me -- because it resonates and very bluntly states truths about our culture we prefer not to address, let alone acknowledge.

The right wing response to the Palin "narrative" in contrast to a hypothetical involving an Obama family remember is now discussed fairly openly -- even in Frank Rich. It bears much discussion, because the hypocrisy is as thick as a pig's lipstick would have to be.

Suddenly, having a pregnant teen daughter is a kind of calling card for normalcy. As one woman interviewed in Virginia said, "we can relate a lot more to somebody with a pregnant daughter than someone who went to Harvard." As though that "relatability" coming from white privilege should be grounds for a vote.

The Palin selection somehow has become a kind of tipping point in the way our society views itself. The outcome of this election -- and how it was perceived to have been won -- will change the course of our history, that much seems clear.

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:38pm

I guess I'm not in my right mind. I thought Eug wrote it.

[lildogs]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:42pm

I, for one, don't need a President I can relate to--I have Dorothy Zbornak and Larry David.

I would also point out to the woman interviewed that GW went to Harvard and that didn't seem to bother her.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 3:22pm

I got this one in my email today:

• If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'
• Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

• If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
• Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

• Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
• Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

• If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
• If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

• If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
• If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

• If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
• If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

• If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
• If you're husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

[lildogs]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 3:28pm

"• Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded. "

Reminds me of the lawyer Stan hired when he and Dorothy were on trial for being slumlords:

"Tell me Tracey, where did you go to law school?"

"Oh, lots of places!"

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 3:31pm

I think if the McCain/Palin ticket wins, we can expect mass riots circa 1968.

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 3:37pm

email me in Canada and let me know how that works out, will ya, eh?

[KrissySim]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 3:49pm

I think if the McCain/Palin ticket wins, we can expect mass riots circa 1968.

I doubt it. Americans have grown too complacent.

Mass riots are also not a good way to approach things. : -)


Let me add to this: Americans will still have the right to freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble to express dissent. Information and education are far more powerful than any riot.

And money is what drives the political machine. Learn how to wean yourself away from dependence on the corporations that are doing the most damage and teach others to do the same.
Updated On: 9/16/08 at 03:49 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 3:58pm

The riots in 1968 were not after the election. They were after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 4:12pm

There were riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

[Maraclea2]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 5:17pm

Oh please, who would bother to riot? And riot against what? That more people wanted McCain? That's called democracy. Isn't that what this supposed to all be about?

[Jon]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 6:25pm

McCain put out an ad calling Obama "disrespectful" toward Palin.

I keep of thinking of Emmett Till, the 14 year old black kid who was lynched for whistling at a white girl in 1955.

[Icehouse Life]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 7:20pm

That comes to mind a very important (but subtle) aspect in the campaign: The Republicans, including John McCain, knew what they were doing when they evaluated and eventually selected Palin to be the VP candidate. McCain can't really match Obama's oratoral skills nor his charisma. But Palin could serve as a subtle force field for the fact of the racial dynmaic between Barack and Sarah. It has nothing to do with them personally and in their interactions. But given centuries-old stories, myths, insecurities, and the fears of about the interactions of black men and white women up to now, despite tremendous progress, like issues of sexual assualt, Obama, as a black man, has to tread carefully so as not to be seen publicly as attacking her viciously.

It comes to mind a bit that hideous Bob Corker attack ad when he approved a message devised by a Karl Rove protege, that featured a scantily-clad white blond (an actress really) says she met Corker's opponent Harold Ford Jr. "at the Playboy Party" (a Superbowl-themed party in Jacksonville) before cooing to the camera, "Harold, call me." Corker was trailing in the polls to Ford Jr. before then and it catapulted him to the US Senate seat from Tennessee. Ford won't admit it, but it did him in. That ad speaks volumes to the insecurities still felt by a lot of whites, even by those who aren't racists but plays on the insecurities on the thoughts of white women and black men interacting, to say the least.

When I read what Eug wrote, I instantly knew it was a Tim Wise piece since I'm very familiar with Tim's writings. I agree with a lot of them. Race, though seemingly secondary on the surface, is STILL a factor in the election and in society. But I would inject that we Americans are living in a racially-influenced class based system (though race and class go hand in hand).

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 8:25pm

I'm convinced that "elitist" is code for "different" which is code for "black."

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/portrayal_of_obama_as_elitist

Updated On: 9/16/08 at 08:25 PM

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 9/17/08 at 1:57am

I love this piece, and it's largely accurate. I run into the oddest crap on the doors, my favorite is that voters are scared of him and then they realize what they said and come up with some lame half baked reason. A recent example was a woman saying she was scared because he wanted to withdraw troops immediately Jan 20, when I gently reassured her that the only candidate supporting that idea was Kucinich, she scuffled and guffawed a bit but agreed to check his web site for additional details on his plan.

Today a gentleman said he felt that McCain was less likely to draw us closer to Socialism ... I looked at him and said...seems to me the the takeovers-bailouts of lending institutions by the government under Bush are a lot for Socialist than anything I have heard Barack proposing, he responded....well young lady...you've got me there...but I am still sticking by McCain. Nonetheless....his lead is growing....with about 1100 voters contacted we broke into a triple digit lead this week. Yay!

Updated On: 9/17/08 at 01:57 AM

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 9/17/08 at 4:29am

Tim Wise writes junk, and this latest piece proves it.

[jasonf]

Posted: 9/17/08 at 7:58am

It boggles the mind that so many people are willing to allow this country to continue on the trend it's on. I haven't heard ANYTHING from Mccain that's convinced me the next four years wouldn't be anything but a continuation of the abominable last eight. Although I happen to actually like Obama, I would vote for him not matter what just on the fact that he HAS to be better than 4 more years with the GOP in the White House!

[Maraclea2]

Posted: 9/17/08 at 8:43am

White privilege - Being head of the Ways and Means committee (which writes the laws on federal taxation) and not bothering to report $75,000 income from a rental property.


Oh, wait.....Rangel isn't white.

This whole article is not about black or white, it's about political privilege. Why Tim Wise wants to play the race card is a mystery. Highlighting racial inequality (which no doubt IS a problem) will only hurt Obama.