The Fallacy of White Privilege

[Belsnickel]

(09-30-2016, 02:55 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: I don't like the term "white privilege", because it does suggest that the person is being handed something or that they should be ashamed of it. It is also often times mischaracterizes as meaning "White people get things, particularly monetary things". 

No, it just means that if you compare me to another person who grew up with a lower-middle income single mom, but they were black, our experiences would vary because of our race. I would be less likely to get diagnosed with a behavioral problem or disabilities if we acted the same way. If our fathers were arrested with drugs, mine would be more likely to get a plea bargain, less likely to serve jail time, and if they served jail time, would likely serve less time. My father would be more likely to get a job after prison, even if the black kid's dad never went to prison, and equally likely if that kid's dad actually went to college, which my father did not do until the age of 49. When we went to get a job during high school, I would be more likely to get a call back with my Irish and Italian sounding name than if he had a traditionally Black American, African, or Spanish name. 

Obviously somethings can equalize this. Money can be a great equalizer. Having more support at home, which usually comes with having more money, can change this too. This shouldn't be brought up as a "you had it easy!" or "we had it hard!". It should be a "Just remember, we come from different experiences". 

I am also not a fan of the term, primarily at this point because it has become such a part of the lexicon of the zeitgeist that it gets thrown around without the real meaning attached. Which leads to the misunderstanding about what it actually is.

The term is really something that is more of an academic tool for the social sciences. It's not something that every person is going to recognize or understand, and that includes the people throwing the term around all the time. I have often heard the term ceterus paribus which means, in essence, all else is the same. You're only changing one thing about the comparisons and everything else is constant. It's a part of the idea of privilege but because the term has become such an overused phrase it has really lost that. I do cringe now when I hear the term tossed around outside of a classroom because it's so often just used incorrectly. And I think when the term was really created, because they were thinking of it more for use in the social sciences, they weren't considering the implications of the word choice to the outside community.