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jeffery heil

On White Privilege and Fear - The Good Men Project - 0 views

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white privilege race equity socialjustice

shared by jeffery heil on 09 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • I am a privileged white American male. My privilege, from being white, allows me to think I can do as I please. I don’t feel guilty about it, because I didn’t create the situation. I know it isn’t fair, but I take advantage of it anyway.
  • Facing the facts of one’s own privileged status is not a simple thing, because it can suggest that we have had things given to us, when we think we’ve worked hard for them.
  • This doesn’t mean I have suddenly worked less hard in my life, but it does mean that I should be aware that many of my fellow Americans have challenges that are difficult for me to imagine.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • We shouldn’t need to see white kids at UC Davis being brutalized by police to think about those challenges, but many of us do, because it directly confronts our internalized expectations of how we should be treated, and it forces these thoughts into the conscious mind.
  • This awareness often truly does have to be forced, even among thoughtful and informed people. Ignorance is bliss, after all, and that’s why.
  • Many poorer whites are having real difficulty in making ends meet, and their benefits of privilege consist primarily of what does not happen to them, as opposed to all the great, imagined things that might.
  • They are not as likely to be arrested or wrongly convicted, but when they hear they have “privilege” they look at themselves and literally can’t see it.
  • But an underlying American fear of vengeance leads to the suggestion that turnabout is fair (or unavoidable) play, and even comfortable middle-class men and women have joined in the denials of their own privilege or good fortune, and shout their fears that liberals want to enslave white Americans
  • In the past few years, during the Obama Administration, we have heard cries of “slavery,” “communism,” and so forth from the far right. These aren’t intended as descriptions of political systems, either
  • Ultimately, I hope we can reframe this argument from one of giving up privilege to one of extending it, by removing unnecessary barriers.
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