Another Hokey Idea That Helps No One - Granite Grok

Another Hokey Idea That Helps No One

White Privilege

UPDATE and BUMPED:  I had no idea that I had written about this pestilence way back on Aug. 31, 2006;  it’s almost like the emergence of the cicadas – underground for 17 years then emerge in a swarm. It was bad then, it’s worse now.

 


I have no idea where or how I stumbled across this article, but it has driven me nuts ever since. There are times that I really have to wonder about some people and just where they come up with this stuff. They just seem to want to take things to the nearest cliff and in the process of throwing it off, keep holding on and go over the edge with it (or is that the other way around?).

That just about sums up this whole idea of “white privilege” – over a cliff. I don’t mean to make light of what they are talking about – what is wrong is wrong is wrong, period.  Racism of white on black or black on white , or any other combination of white, black, brown, yellow, red, green with blue polka dots (c’mon, I gotta keep this just a bit light hearted) is wrong.  As I have said here on the Grok before, until we all get to the point of being completely color blind, racism isn’t going to go away.  Period.  And there are some people that keep it alive on purpose, and some don’t mean to but their attempts to get rid of it invoke the Law of Unintended Consequences and end up keeping it alive.

The former are represented by such “power” or “supremacy” groups such as the Black Panthers, the Ku Klux Klan, the Nation of Islam, and Neo-Nazis.  Without the overt racism that already exists or that they foment, they would be out of business pronto.  Unfortunately, there are also folks that seem to be professionals at this as well.  Even if some may not like it, I put folks like the (Reverends) Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton into this group (I’d do the same with white equivalents but I just am running dry on names while I write this – please let me know if you have some).  No way do I put them into the same category as the above hate groups, but their actions and words do keep racism alive despite their words decrying it.

And then there are those think that it is implicitly in all of us, like the author of this article, Elizabeth Bauchner.  It starts out innocently enough:

Last month, my 7-year-old son and I were in the car when he asked me, “Mom, when you grow up, do you get to do whatever you want, or do other people tell you what to do?”

And she’s off and heading towards the cliff from there. Her next paragraph is where I start to have problems:

It just so happens that I’ve recently been involved in a great deal of anti-racist work in my community and have been thinking a lot about my privilege as a white person. With that in mind, I tried to answer his question.

Gee, ya think a simple “Anything you want to be, honey” just MIGHT have been a good answer?  My goodness, this is a SEVEN year old!  And the “white privilege” – it definitely is not the first thing on my list to contemplate when thinking of a response to a elementary school child.  And this definitely is not coming from a conservative viewpoint (ya think?).

At this point, I’ll be kind and say that she’s just approaching the ramp overreaching the cliff – she hasn’t jumped yet.

“That’s a very interesting question,” I told him. “In some ways, it depends a lot on where you’re born, how much money you have and what your skin color is.

Never mind, the left foot is now firmly on the ramp.

So much for egalitarianism for this group.  I have a hard time thinking of what this mother is burdening this son with at the beginning of his life where Mom and Dad know everything (“they wouldn’t lie to me, would they?”).  Right from the get-go, there is NOTHING in what she listed that he has any control over that can influence his eventual life’s outcome.  What ever happened to education, hard work, perseverance (and a bit of luck)?  She has all but told her son – give up now on the notion that you can influence your own life.  How sad.  And how untrue.

Now for the right leg swings forward:

I went on to explain in age-appropriate terms that our country was actually founded by white colonists who enslaved Africans and either killed Native Americans or moved them onto reservations. White people have been opening doors of opportunity for other whites ever since, I told him.

Yup, she’s right.  That’s all we’ve ever been and all we will ever amount to as well.  The folks that started this country were all murdering sons of guns trying to keep everyone else face down in the dirt. Let’s start his educational career with nothing about America is good – throw it all in the toilet! That whole deal about a better life for one’s family…naw.

Sorry, I lost control – only kidding (sorta)!  Umm, how about two anti-examples – what about the abolitionists and the soldiers from the North that gave their lives in the battle to stop slavery?  How about the idea that FRIENDS open doors for other FRIENDS instead?  Why does she HAVE to be race based?

He gave me a thoughtful look so I continued, explaining that everyone in life has someone telling them what to do — parents, teachers, spouses, bosses.

Ah!  A normal sounding idea – and one that seems to fit into most folks’ reality.  Bring that right leg back to the ground.

I added that throughout history, whites in this country took (and were given) the most educational and financial opportunities available, enabling us to essentially do whatever we want.

“You have a lot of traditional privilege in this society, from your skin color and gender, to the fact that your parents and grandparents are educated, and your family has some money,” I explained.

Wrong Skip! Never mind about coming back to earth – she’s switched from the single leg jump and is going for the double leg push-off!  She’s……….airborne!

Now, not only has she gone racist from the aspect of skin color (white on white), but also his gender as well.  Is there no hope for anyone else?  Calling Colin Powell!  Calling Condi Rice!  Calling Norm Mineta (er, never mind about the last one). Hey N.O.W., where are you when we need you?

This is just plain absurd.  I just can’t get over that she truly believes that race is the predominate measure of success in the US.  Then why is the black middle class still expanding?  Why doesn’t she take other factors into account for this (just listen to Bill Cosby!)?

“In that sense, I think you will be able to do whatever you want in life,

Ah, just what I said in the beginning.  Oh, wait (relief on my face) there’s a parachute on her back – she’s pulling the rip cord…

but it’s my personal opinion that people who have privilege should work to make society more equitable.

…and it comes off in her hand.

Sheesh – I do not know of anyone that I know that could create a sentence like this.  It would be hard enough for me just to figure out how to do this conjunction in a series of paragraphs and make it sound reasonable, but she tried in one sentence.  And to a seven year old.

Yes, within parameters, anyone chould be able to do most anything, theoretically.  There are no legal limitations here in the US to prevent anyone from trying anything.  What generally comes to the fore is what is each of us going to with what we have?  I’m never going to play in the NBA (even when I was young enough) and since it took a good sized effort to get through multi-variate calculus, I was never destined to be a theoretical physicist either. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t try; it meant that I had the ability to try things and the opportunities to fail.  And then pick myself back up and try to find something that suited me better.

And that is the key – it is not outcome at his age, it is the platform to start with.  Yes, those with family money may have a leg up, but that’s life – it isn’t fair and all of the good will in the world is not going to change that.  it helps if your families have connections, so life isn’t fair that way either. But education DOES make a difference (if you choose the right fields) and perseverence even more. I’ve known a bunch of folks I grew up that were smarter than I am, with families had more money and more connections than I did, and I’ve done far better in life when factoring everything in.

It also comes down to not thinking that “privilege” is the basis of success.  Believing that will get you nothing, not even a cup of coffee.  Rather, as opposed to her above statement, are you treating other people (whether they are your skin color or not) nicely? 

It can be as simple as just that.

She goes on to more general things from this discussion about her conversation with her young son (and is now traveling at almost terminal velocity as she hurtles towards the bottom of the cliff):

One way in which I have identified quantifiable financial privilege based on skin color is the fact that my father was able to move to the home of his choice in the late 1960s, which happened to be an all-white neighborhood in the Chicago suburbs. There is no doubt in my mind that African-Americans and other people of color were deliberately kept from purchasing homes in my neighborhood.

And she can prove this how?  One instance doesn’t a total proof!

My father’s ability to move to that neighborhood and start a new business, get a loan and grow his business through word of mouth all had a lot to do with his skin privilege. Sure, his abilities, his math and mapping skills (he was a land surveyor), and his dedication to working steady hours all played a role — a big role — as did the economy
throughout the 1970s. But it’s mainly because of his skin color that he was able to move so easily throughout the wealthier side of society, make connections and network, and acquire the means to comfortably support his wife and three children.

I am amazed at how quickly she assumes and believes that skin color is the determining factor of her father’s success even as she lists all of the actual personal attributes of obtaining success here in the US: smarts, working hard and persevering (and yes, the overall economy helps too – trust me, I’ve been caught on the downside of an economy).  Did she ever think that perhaps being friendly and nice to people had something to do with making connections (especially in a service industry)?  Doesn’t she understand that keeping promises in the work place and delivering a quality service and being reliable to and for customer needs are more important for achieving success than almost anything else?

It was my father’s skin color that enabled him to essentially do whatever he wanted, as my son wondered about in the car that day.

I’m wondering too, but it’s not the same thing as her son did, I bet.

My goal is not to create a sense of guilt, but a sense of accountability, responsibility and hope.

BLAM!  Rock bottom at ground zero. Terminal speed is now zero.

She certainly did fall down in trying to reach her goal – even a quick read shows guilt all over this article, and she shows how much she wants the rest of us to share and wallow in it.  Sorry, not going to happen here.

We all need to be held accountable for our actions and be responsible for what we do or not do.  However, there is no reason in the world to couple those things to overt or covert racism as she so blithly does.  These attributes just ARE and should just BE.  These are the marks of adults and not just those playing at being such.

She does get one nod from me – she used the word “hope”!  It is this aspect / drive / emotion that has given rise to almost everything else good in the world – a positive (rather than her more than negative wording) emotion – the hope for better and the drive to reach for it.  Hope gets you out of bed to better yourself, do better for one’s family, and then looking outward to friends and country. For once hope is in place, people of any color, background, or outlook can move mountains to achieve what they want.  And even if they fail, they can proudly state that they tried.  And then try again at some new hoped for vision.  And that is how we as individuals improve and society progresses.

I do believe she missed the boat by giving her son a guilt lesson instead of a hope lesson.  For it is the ability to dream of better, to hope for better, and then go out and make it happen that is the lesson of America.

No, not everyone is going to reach their hope and dream – but most will hit many if not most of them.  Remember, NOTHING in life is a guarantee or a sure bet. But that should NEVER keep us from trying.

I know that to some degree, I’ve tried to be light hearted, bordering on sarcastic….but only to make what I feel are some valid points. Basically, the overall message that I take away from this article is that we (or is that we whites?) can NEVER be free of racism just because of who we are –  our skin color.  Maybe she does feel that way about her self? If so, I do feel sorry for her for putting herself into a jail of her own making.

I feel REAL sorry for her son who has to be subjected to this self-guilt indocrination.  Better he be taught to IGNORE skin color rather than be taught to hate his own.  Better he be taught the lesson of HOPE, self-reliance, hard work, and being nice to others than this.

A sorry situation indeed.

 

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