General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Problem with Being Privileged [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Who knew?
and let's look at your silly list closely
*Walk down the sidewalk without being looked at suspiciously.
Does not apply to white people in general. Maybe to older people and to well dressed people, but try being young or in a scruffy coat or dirty jeans and see if people don't cast a wary eye at you.
*Drive through any area without being stopped for no reason.
Some people apparently have the privilege of never having been stopped for "driving while poor". One cop tailgated me through a construction zone hoping I would speed up so he could give me a "double fine" ticket. Pulled me over anyway after I didn't, and when all I saw was headlights behind me, I did not know I was being followed by a cop. Another cop followed me for about a mile coming home from Wal-mart about 2 am. When I made a left and a right and a right to get on the right side of my street, he pulled me over 100 yards from home for not signalling (actually unbeknownst to me, my signals were not working, because I always signal). And so on and so forth. The law, you see, in all its majesty prohibits both poor and rich from driving old cars.
*Shop in whatever stores I wish without being considered a potential thief.
Uh no. Not if you happen to be either a bicyclist or a pedestrian who carries a backpack to takes his goods home in. Then you are a suspect, even if you shop there regularly. And 7-11, they consider every customer to be a potential thief.
*Avoid being shunned or attacked for my sexuality.
Nobody in this society is free from the threat of attack. That's the sad, sad truth, the dirty lowdown. People are often shunned for a variety of reasons. I have been an outcast and felt the threat of attack, Is it supposed to be comfort that such things were independent of my sexuality? And these things are becoming less and less true. In my sister's church in Nebraska (that hotbed of liberalism) the pastor who asked the gay guy to stop volunteering, was himself fired.
*Never worry about a potential employer or client wondering if I'll get pregnant or marry.
Again, a person can lose out on a job or a customer for any number of reasons. Further, it seems to me in my thirty years of looking for work that very, very often, the HR person making the hiring decision - is a woman. Am I supposed to believe that these women are biased against other women?
*Never be told to smile by some moron who thinks he's irresistibly attractive.
Okay you may have a point there. That does sound like one of the worst things that can happen to a person. That's gotta be worse than being asked "what are you looking at?" by some attractive person who clearly thinks you are pond scum.
*Be taken seriously if I want to refinance my mortgage.
You know, I bet all the white people who are homeless are thinking that tonight, Realising that they have the privilege of being taken seriously if they want to refinance their mortgage. Same with all the working poor who are renters. They must just enjoy the hell out of that privilege that comes from being white.
*Be given great attention if I go into a car dealership or hardware store.
Well the car dealership thing must be a huge daily concern for everybody. Considering that most people buy cars almost every day. As for attention, my typical shopping is done at DG or wal-mart where it is kinda hard to get attention, except when you walk in the door with a backpack, of course. Then there was the time at Nebraska Furniture Mart where the place was crawling with employees and I could not get one of them to help me buy an ipod.
*Enter buildings after climbing stairs and pulling open heavy doors.
A 'privilege' enjoyed by the vast majority of the population.
*Park away from crowded areas in parking lots and walk.
Next it will be a privilege that you are able to tie your own shoes, because not everybody can you know. Some people are bedridden too, either temporarily or chronically, but that really doesn't make being able to get out of bed a huge 'privilege'. I mean, I am all for a little perspective of the sense that "I was unhappy because I had no shoes, and then I met a man who sells them." to realize that some are less fortunate than even me, and to be more positive and hopeful. But if I am supposed to be "humbled" rather than grateful and generous and helpful. Does a man who cleans toilets for a living after getting two college degrees really need to be more humbled?
*Receive single-payer healthcare from my government.
A veteran's benefit, not shared by most of this country, but I would say that the typical veteran has earned that benefit.
*Receive a payment each month from Social Security.
Again, this looks mostly earned to me. In fact, I expect to pay far, far more IN to SS than I will ever get OUT of it. I did the math.
*Get special treatment for home mortgages.
Again a Veteran's benefit - a VA loan.
*Get care in a Veteran's hospital or nursing home if I'm destitute.
Is being destitute one of the privileges too? Did you ever mention why you think you didn't earn your Veteran's benefits?
*Avoid being treated like a criminal at traffic stops.
My "welcome wagon" to the state of Iowa was basically four weeks after I bought property and moved there - there I was on the side of the road after a ten hour exhausting night shift, hand-cuffed and sitting on a police car surrounded by about five cop cars and a detective, while the police searched my car. My crime? Failure to wear a seatbelt. So I can tell you that in my experience this supposed privilege does not come from white epidermis.
*Go anywhere, do anything, and not be noticed unless I wish to be noticed.
I am not sure. Last night I was at the Black History Month celebration and I think I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was working there and the only white boy there. And you know, they didn't offer me any food either, in spite of the fact that I sponsored their "Jazz by the River" last year.
*Do, be, and get many more things than described above.
Many things are possible, but this sounds Horatio Algerish, and even with Horatio a person had to be lucky and hard-working and diligent. He did not get the brass ring just by being born male, white and straight, and some white males never even make it to first base. Mark Frank, Doug Mills, Brad Schlimm, Curtis Kittinger. All white males that I went to school with who did not live to see their 20th birthday, and I may have forgotten a few, and certainly do not want to neglect Kim Jorgenson or Sandi Schaeffer, white females who died before the age of 20. They were so lucky to be born white.