Wednesday, September 17, 2008

After Midnight.. I truly believe that I am the luckest White American Guy on the Planet.. Some would say that I am Blessed.

That is why I publish a lot of "alternative view point" on my blogg after Midnight: it was sent to me from a Friend and it loses a bit of formatting in this Blogg (not) editor.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
9/13/08
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who arelooking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list willhelp.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like BristolPalin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of yourfamily is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you oryour parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black andLatino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified asirresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," likeBristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes withyou, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk abou t how you liketo "shootshit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (anda great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six yearslike Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, thenreturned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and noone questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas aperson of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, andprobably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmativeaction.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smallerthan most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with aboutthe 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 onthemselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term stateSenator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "underGod"in the pledge of allegiance because " if it was good enough for thefounding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediatelydisqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was writtenin the late 1800s and the "under God part wasn't added until the1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists theirrights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at aprestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea onlysupported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make peopleimmediately scared of you.White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of anextremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union,and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism orthat of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails tocome to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first dayof school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and thework they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women tovote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to childlabor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merelyquestion the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with noforeign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the factthat she lives close to Russia, you're somehow being mean, or even sexist..

White privilege is being able to convince white women wh o don't even agreewith you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mateanyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspiredconfidence 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 yourpolitical campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being atypical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merelyknowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago meansyou must be corrupt.

White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to ahospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as agreat mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose"next door neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while ifyou're ablack candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed fora few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talkabout lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out nosubstantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to beconsidered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hourspeech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals onseveral issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he woulddo if el ected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whosepastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize GeorgeW. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christiannation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theologicalprinciples into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflictin the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, andeveryone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but ifyou're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have ColinPowell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are oftenthe result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racismand its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hatesAmerica.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by areporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a"trick question," while being black and merely re fusing to give one-wordanswers 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 go to a prestigious prep school, then toYale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just anaverage guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prepschool, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law,makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably looks down on regularfolks.White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your collegeclass (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that's OK,and you're cut out to be president, but if you're black and yougraduatenear the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to makegood decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she'sdisfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionairebeauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still bethought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black andmarried for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed asun-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called"terrorist fist bumps."

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and stillbe viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to bepresident, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak withother nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you"dangerously naive and immature."

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW hasanything at all to do with your fitness for president,=2 0while being blackand experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the"lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palinexplainedin her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allowsomeone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people arelosing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasinglyisolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure aboutthat 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, in short, the problem.

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