White Privilege – WTF?
For some reason this keeps cropping up and people keep rising to it like it’s the latest thing to hold onto. A government minister, no less, recently instructed schools not to teach is as being ‘fact’ but as a talking point, as purely a consideration.
Look, white people, out and about, where ever, it doesn’t matter, can and sometimes do get preferred treatment over non white people. This is a truth but it is also a non changeable reality. It is a fact of life.
Let me give some other examples, many gay men, in particular, in many public places outside of the huge cities, cannot walk hand in hand with their partner, it’s just not safe. Is that ‘straight’ privilege? Many disabled people who look disabled (stuff off with the politically correct term argument), they are going to experience ‘able bodied privilege). White guy walks into a bar in a majority black neighbourhood, likely he will be victim of black privilege.
Sure, this should never happen, live and let live, equality for all and that’s a great way of thinking but, it’s not real!
Many thought that after the push throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s to eradicate racism in the UK that the majority of the country finally ‘got it’. No, that never happened. The reality was that rather than being public about their opinion, all those people were more careful where they voice it.
Want any proof of that? OK then, Brexit, a campaign the major selling point of which was to ‘get our country back’. How can that line even be said without it being racist and, the majority (albeit, only just) went for it. We committed trade suicide to satisfy the racist beliefs of those around us, get rid of Jonny Foreigner and get good old Blighty back … now we actually did get rid of rather a lot of them those same people are complaining the country is falling apart and blaming the EU … don’t go blaming them, we’re not part of that any more, we got our country back.
No, I didn’t digress (not much anyway), I am trying to say that, in order to live here we have to accept that our culture is rooted in privilege. There is no such thing and never will be as an interview without privileged bias. I’ve done it myself, interview door opens, someone who doesn’t meet my requirements physically and they’ve no chance. It is both wrong and right. Do we force people to go against their nature and give equal consideration to everyone else and pretend they actually do not have a bias?
How many male interviewers pick attractive ladies? I’ve known gay interviewers pick attractive boys. It doesn’t mean they are not able to do the job, it just demonstrates the preference of the interviewer, what they want to see each day.
So think about it, in many situations there is, indeed, white privilege. I sometimes do it. I see a black guy sagging across the street, get the whiff of weed and think to my white privileged self, he’s up to no good. He could be a lovely guy, I don’t know but he’s not ‘my’ sort of person so I instantly consign him a pigeon hole.
If I see a group of guys walking toward me, white guys, young adults, hands down the front of their Adidas tracksuit bottoms, I don’t automatically think that there are a good trustworthy group of lads because they are white, I actually think, best watch out for this lot because of the way they carry themselves.
We just have to accept that each of us in any given location or situation has privilege. How much we want it to work against us depends entirely on our choices of where we go.
As a white, gay, disabled man who is overweight and very short, am I going to get the same or worse treatment going for an interview as a straight, fit tall black man? No, I think not. I’ve been turned down for jobs because of my circumstances. It is obvious why, I can see what the people who work there look like and they don’t look like me.
Is this ever something we can change? If you say ‘yes’ then, you are deluded.