This is your nation on white privilege by Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the 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 on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”


White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while if you're black and believe in reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), you're a dangerous and mushy liberal who isn't fit to safeguard American institutions.


White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.


White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.


White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives near Russia, you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence 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 your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.


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

White privilege is being able to give a 36-minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.


White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers 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 to Yale and Harvard Business School (George W. Bush), and still be seen as an "average guy," while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then Harvard Law, makes you "uppity" and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.

White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.), and that's OK, and you're still cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you then go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly 20 years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps."

White privilege is when you can develop a pain-killer addiction, having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy McCain, go on to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being so strong, while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in college and never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps you still get high, and even ask whether or not you may have sold drugs at some point.

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

White privilege is being able to say that you hate "gooks" and "will always hate them," and yet, you aren't a racist because, ya know, you were a POW, so you're entitled to your hatred, while being black and noting that black anger about racism is understandable, given the history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that 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.

An Open Letter to White Progressives and Activists

We write this letter to all those white people concerned with social justice. Who
are you? You are social workers and teachers, and artists and organizers. You work
in multiracial organizations and non-profits, and you work for queer rights, with
incarcerated youth, and with women in domestic violence shelters. You offer medical
aid to migrants crossing the border, media arts programs to high school students, and
legal counsel to housing rights organizations. You're angry about climate change and
environmental devastation – with poor and working class communities the hardest hit.
You're frustrated about longstanding educational inequities. More than this, you are
passionate about change, hopeful for transformation, and open to personal growth
in the work you do. We write you because we feel as white people we have a major
opportunity to change our relationship to the diverse social justice movements to
which we belong.

Barack Obama's candidacy potentially marks a historic turning point for racial justice in
this country. Unprecedented numbers of white voters have been moved by Obama's
message of hope, unity, moving past old divisions, and the push for "change" and
"progress." This outpouring of support and enthusiasm for doing things differently
provides an exciting opportunity for progressives to help shape the public debate on
what "change" really means. Not surprisingly, conservatives have reacted with alarm
and have moved to squash this multi-racial coalition through the Right's old stand-by
tactics of fear, racism and division.

As the Right tries desperately to turn back the clock, momentum is clearly on our
side. Our voice is needed to reject the racist attacks from the Right, and to address
people who wish to gloss-over systemic racism and white privilege in their desire to
embrace Obama as a "post-racial" candidate. We have a strategic opening to advance
conversations about racism in all of its subtleties to the next level, and to capture the
momentum of this time to help build a multiracial grassroots movement for justice.
As progressives and activists, we are committed to creating a more humane and
just world free from racism and all forms of oppression. We recognize that we have
a stake in achieving fairness and equality for all, and as white people the continued
existence of racism and white supremacy puts fear and hatred in the way of our
humanity. We know that racism is not removed from the other issues that we care
deeply about, such as workers rights, the environment, the war in Iraq, and queer
rights, and that racism has been a tool used to divide us. It is in our interest to step-
up our anti-racist efforts during the '08 elections and beyond.

AWARE-LA (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere, Los Angeles) believes that a
visible anti-racist white presence in social justice movements is key to creating long-
term change:

* Many white people in the U.S. are against racial inequity, but in the mainstream and even in our social change work we are not speaking up as anti-racists. An anti-racist white voice highlights what we can represent – active agents of racial justice.

* Historically, people of color have had to shoulder the burden of speaking out against racism. But we all have a stake in eliminating racism, and it is only fair for us to contribute our share in moving us towards our goal.

* As white folks we know that facing racism can be awkward and scary. But we are ideally situated to talk with other white people about racism and to move our communities to incorporate anti-racist practices into our social change work.

AWARE-LA believes this historical presidential election provides a unique moment for
building anti-racism among white folks. As a beginning to this and, AWARE-LA plans to
take the following actions:

* Document and speak-out out against the Right's racist attacks and innuendos. There have been exciting examples of progressives speaking out against racism in the '08 elections – most notably ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org's campaign against Fox News. We plan to join and broaden these efforts. We have set-up a blog called "Double Take" and we encourage you to use this blog as a place to do a double-take on racism in the '08 Presidential Campaign – and to coordinate actions and responses: www.doubletakeblog.wordpress.com

* We are organizing a multi-racial Community Event in Los Angeles on October 25, 2008 to discuss and expose racism in the '08 elections, and to harness the political energy of the elections toward movement building beyond November. We are calling for other concerned white folks to organize similar anti-racist actions in October in towns across the country! Please visit our blog for more details on our event.

Finally, AWARE-LA hopes other white folks will join us in building a racial justice movement beyond the '08 elections. The elimination of white supremacy and racism in the U.S. will not come about from the election of a single individual. We need multi-racial alliances working for racial, social, economic and environmental justice and sustained commitment from white people towards anti-racist goals and practice.

Throughout the history of the U.S. there are countless examples of white folks standing shoulder to shoulder with people of color to fight for civil and human rights, from white abolitionists to the Freedom Riders. It is important that contemporary white progressives and activists follow the example set by our anti-racist ancestors and join with our brothers and sisters of color in actively creating a more humane world
for everyone – which ultimately is the change and progress most of us are hoping for.

In Struggle,
AWARE-L.A.

Endorsements:

Catalyst Project, www.collectiveliberation.org, San Francisco CA Community Coalition, www.cocosouthla.org, Los Angeles CA Jeff Hitchcock, white anti-racist activist and author, NJ Paul Kivel, educator, activist, writer, Oakland CA Center for the Study of White American Culture, Roselle NJ
Labor/Community Strategy Center, www.thestrategycenter.org, Los Angeles CA
Sharon Martinas, Challenging White Supremacy, San Francisco CA
White Anti-Racist Community Action Network, www.wacan.org, on-line project
Tim Wise, author and educator, Nashville TN
Y-Step: Youth Step Towards Addressing Racism, www.ystep.org, Bay Area CA

AWARE-LA is an alliance of white antiracist people working together to combat racism
within ourselves, our communities, and the world. To learn more visit: www.awarela.org