Understanding


http://www.dickshovel.com/priv.html

http://www.dickshovel.com/priv2.html

I was surfing on the 'Net looking for some financial research and happen to come upon these two articles which caught my attention. It's interesting that a white person would write such an article. When affirmative action was first introduced in Canada, there were arguments from the major 'visible' population about the merit of such an idea and we still have such discussions today. However, affirmative action only goes so far before bureaucracy/ favouritism/ nepotism starts to clog the path of progress. Many government departments and large private sector companies still have ever present "glass-ceiling" attached to the upper rungs of the bureaucratic/ corporate ladder. But I digress... The main focus of the article(s) illuminates the point that, (from the author's p.o.v.) many people of caucasian heritage seem to miss; by being white, living in a white society, they most likely had benefited from being white or what is termed white privilege. The author delves deeper into how white privilege offsets the societal playing field and explains that this privilege is also unearned and one is borned into that privilege.

To get a better understanding on what this privilege is about, here is an excerpt:

"Here's what white privilege sounds like: I'm sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support. The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that being white has advantages in the United States. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege.
So, if we live in a world of white privilege – unearned white privilege - how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I asked. He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter." That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: The privilege to acknowledge that you have unearned privilege but to ignore what it means. That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk about race and racism with students. It drove home the importance of confronting the dirty secret that we white people carry around with us every day: in a world of white privilege, some of what we have is unearned. I think much of both the fear and anger that comes up around discussions of affirmative action has its roots in that secret. So these days, my goal is to talk open and honestly about white supremacy and white privilege.

White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is complex. In a white supremacist culture, all white people have privilege, whether or not they are overtly racist themselves. There are general patterns, but such privilege plays out differently depending on context and other aspects of one's identity (in my case, being male gives me other kinds of privilege). Rather than try to tell others how white privilege has played out in their lives, I talk about how it has affected me."


This article was not a bash on white folks or that white people are bad. It is a wake up call or a reminder. The next time you or perhaps someone starts to rant about workplace equality, affirmative action or any other "wonderful" p.c. term for a level playing field, (if you are of caucasian heritage), please remember that just by being white you already have an advantage which does not cost a penny. Other "visible"/"invisible" (?) minority members of society have to go the extra mile(s) to reach a level that is close to that advantage.

Read the article and you decide if it makes sense.