theman wrote:ryaningf wrote:
You obviously don't understand the concept and it's not really important to me if you ever do--some people just can't comprehend it, even people who have above-average intelligence. If you're at all interested in learning about it, I would advise you to pick up Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" which is an easy-to-read account of the myriad of factors that go into success--the great majority of which are beyond the control of the individual and which might help you recognize the concept of white privilege.
Please, explain it to me. I am not sure how Outliers accounts for the likes of Oprah the most powerful woman in entertainment, Robert Johnson Founder of BET, Condoleezza Rice former Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell four star General and former secretary of state and former national security adviser, and Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. the most powerful biggot in the world.
The concept of white privilege is what keeps so many African Americans from become successful. I am not saying all African American can become Oprah or Bob Johnson but they can become Marcus Bell engineer or Lucinda Clark accountant.
All those who want to make this a matter of race are hurting the same African American community whose favor they are trying to gain. It is really, really disgusting.
You have a nice avatar, so I'll do you the favor of explaining things a little, though as I alluded to in the other post there are all kinds of people who will refuse to understand the concept--if you're one of those people, this will have been a waste. But, anyway, here goes.
The myth of success is that hard work, dedication, etc. will eventually pay off in some form of success, provided you stick to it long enough, and try hard enough. This is the American dream--that anybody can pull themselves up from poverty or any other adverse circumstance and through hard work make a better life for themselves.
"Outliers" attempts to look at what really determines success--and the findings suggest that a great majority of the factors that go into success are beyond the control of the individual and instead are products of circumstance. For example, in Canada there's a large correlation amongst hockey players between birthdate and ability--that is, the best players, year after year, were born in the early part of the year--from January to March. Gladwell, in his book, looks at why that is and finds out that the national cutoff for hockey programs is January 1st, meaning that the players born right after that cutoff date have a greater competitive advantage--biologically because they are older and have more development--than players born right before the cutoff date. Thus, these older players are perceived as better players, get moved up to more competitive leagues, get better coaching, get more experience and keep getting better every step of the way because they enjoyed the benefit of being older than their competitors. The conclusion being that two players of equal innate ability will end up developing along differing paths--one coming closer to his potential, the other further away from his potential--because of the arbitrary cutoff point instituted in Canada. Therefore, success as a hockey player, while involving hard work and dedication, also involves something quite arbitrary--what month you were born.
The entire book is like that--looking at the hidden predicators of success, the ones that are beyond the control of the individual. I suggest you read the book, as my little synopsis does not do justice to what the book is about.
The concept of white privilege works along the same avenues of thought as does "Outliers." It is both a theory of success and a description of how white people view the world. I used the term in the latter sense, but to give you its full meaning, white privilege is a theory that white people enjoy several hidden advantages by virtue of being white. White people, on average, tend to richer and better educated than minorities, and thus tend to live in better areas of town, enjoy better health care, better food, better clothes, etc... As such, white children tend to attend better schools, be healthier, etc... All these 'benefits' of being white thus help the white children succeed at a greater rate than minority children--on average, of course. There will be all kinds of examples in each group that go against the grain--drug addict sons and daughters of millionaires, or millionaire sons of drug addict minority mothers and fathers. These are exceptions that prove the rule--for every Oprah you throw out to refute white privilege, there are a million other examples that counter the Oprah argument.
To be more accurate, white privilege should be called white, upper-class, East Coast privilege because all those things contribute to the hidden factors that go into being successful and because being rich or being black in Nebraska isn't the same as being rich or being black in New York. But as shorthand, yes, white privilege describes all the hidden advantages of being white. And as a scientific theory, it only deals with averages and trends amongst millions of people.
White privilege, in the sense that I was using it, also refers to an attitude which ASSUMES that the advantages of white upper class people are the same advantages that everyone enjoys. As such, white privilege, when confronted by behavior that's unfamiliar, will say, in an unconscious manner, why didn't they just act like I would have acted (the underlying assumption being, why didn't they act white and privileged)? White privilege will scoof at black men getting upset at the site of a cop--thinking to themselves that 'if I were in that situation I would have thanked the officer for his concern and for making sure that nobody was breaking into my house..." White privilege will see minorities in the ghettos and think to itself, "these people are just lazy and living off food stamps, since anyone with a brain knows that hard work is all you need to be successful and living in the suburbs." This is the kind of white and privileged attitude that is running through this thread.
In short, white privilege assumes that everything's equal, when it's clearly not.
And, no, these theories aren't holding anyone back, or keeping anyone from being successful. Theories don't do that--people and the institutions and systems created by people do that. Underfunded inner city schools do that. The socio-economic circumstances from which you arise do that. Having no parents or older role models readily available--because they too went to bad schools, ate poorly, got addicted to drugs, went to jail, etc.--to learn from when your a youngster will do that. Being in a chronically poor, crime-ridden, delapidated portion of a city generation after generation will do that. All a theory does is tries to understand why.
The leaks are real...the news is fake.
I'm just here for the memes.
