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<p>That right there is the bigoted statement. How does anyone know what is easier for this particular white male, simply because he is white? Or is the assumption that everything is easier for white males? That doesn’t make any sense. It is an empty, meaningless generalization.</p>
<p>It’s just a fact. If he were black instead of white, and if every other detail of his life were exactly the same as it is, he would have to face hurdles he doesn’t have to face as a white guy. Did I say that “everything is easier for white males”? I did not. But some things are indubitably easier for white males than for black males. </p>
<p>Well you made the statement. You didn’t say “some things” are easier. I agree that “some” things are easier for “some” people due to their race. But most of the time, people who say “check your privilege” don’t know enough about the target to be doing anything other than generalizing in a bigoted way.</p>
<p>Just my own observations…may not be true for anyone else…my kids (we’re white) attend a public urban high school that’s considered “tough”…70% AA…almost 80% on paid lunch program…I will say that black kids have it really rough…and I know these kids from 1st grade…people smile at my 15-year-old when he walks into a local store…but when one of his 15-year-old black buddies walks into the store, they frown first & then smile once they recognize the kid. Its almost like the default is mistrust…then followed by normal behavior once a kid is known…that’s got to be a rough way to go through through life…and the essay writer just wouldn’t know that feeling…its subtle…and really a bummer. </p>
<p>He didn’t say that crappy treatment doesn’t happen to other people based on their race. He is saying it is wrong to assume that he got where he is, or that his opinion shouldn’t count for much, simply because he is a white male.</p>
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<p>While this racial phenomenon is certainly real (though not always obvious, and it is not always obvious whether a given instance of poor treatment is due to this racial phenomenon), “white privilege” is not a particularly good term for it. The implication is that good treatment is an undeserved privilege that, to be fair, should be taken away from those who receive it, rather than the lack of such is the problem and that the good treatment should be extended to everyone. I.e. something like “non-white tax” would be a more appropriate term (though, for this purpose, the “tax” is taken and wasted, as no one really gains any value from imposing it). More people could get behind removing an unfair tax, rather than get defensive about being the recipient of an undeserved privilege that should be taken away.</p>
<p>@Bay Right, he didn’t say that in the article because that would make him look terrible, but what he implies by saying that his opinion shouldn’t be dismissed because he is privileged is that there is nothing wrong with inequality and it shouldn’t be changed. We don’t know for sure what argument he was having to make someone tell him to “check his privilege,” but we can make a reasonable assumption based on the types of arguments where that phrase makes sense in context. For instance, you wouldn’t yell “check your privilege” in an argument about whether you and your friend should eat Pizza or Chinese food. </p>
<p>In the context of that kind of argument, it isn’t that he doesn’t have the right to an opinion, it’s just that his opinion that context provides more evidence of the core problem than defends his position. </p>
<p>What’s been fascinating as a white women with two blond, blue-eyed, fair-skinned white children and a husband who is black and very dark, as well as a D who is biracial and lighter skinned, is that it’s often been assumed that I am not with H or D, or my older kids are assumed to be separate from their sister or cousins on their stepdad’s side when we are out together. So we get to observe close-up the differences in how we are treated vs. how H, younger D, stepdad’s nephews, sister, etc. are treated.</p>
<p>What we’ve seen is absolutely white privilege-better service in stores and restaurants, for sure, while H has been followed and his receipts always checked while mine are never challenged. Things like that. It’s letting us wave our tickets as we get onto the Monorail, while H is stopped and challenged to show his. It’s H being stopped at the door to my emergency room and have to “prove” he is with me, while I can just sail in. White privilege is real and it’s blatant. And that’s not bigotry, Bay, it’s reality. </p>
<p>UCB, I don’t think anyone would want white people to lose their “privilege”. I think that what would be a better goal is to treat everyone with the SAME privilege instead of making assumptions that say, the black kid’s bus transfer is expired but the white kid’s doesn’t need checking, or that the the black man at the counter gets waited on first because he got there first, not the white woman who came in later. You know, the assumption of NO ONE having a privilege over anyone else.</p>
<p>As for the writer of the essay-he sounds like he was trying to show all the Big Words he remembered from his SAT studies. I’m with Cardinal Fang-the writing AND the message can both be attacked. </p>
<p>Can someone give a real-life example of when “check your privilege” has been used? I’ve actually never heard it, only read about it being said. </p>
<p>My impression is that it is being said to shut someone up or shut them down in an insulting way. It is invalidating their opinion based solely on their race and nothing else. </p>
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<p>While you and I agree here, it does appear that the common use of the term “white privilege” instead of something like “non-white tax” does seem to get some white people rather defensive about the whole concept.</p>
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<p>I have never heard of that term being used. Perhaps it is just from a localized noisy fringe group that the writer of the opinion being linked to encountered. But the use of a derived term by a noisy fringe group (that probably has little credibility) does not mean that the phenomenon of “non-white tax” (otherwise commonly called “white privilege”) does not exist.</p>
<p>I have heard of the term, although it appears to have been coined recently. It has been directed to my D and her friends at boarding school. I have a problem with it as it makes blanket generalizations. And isn’t racism basically rooted in blanket generalizations?</p>
<p>While I’ve only heard the phrase used in an insulting way and I don’t care for the phrase, I think this essay simplify demonstrates that the writer doesn’t understand what white privilege is. White privilege doesn’t mean you haven’t worked hard. It doesn’t diminish what you have accomplished. It is simply admitting that our society favors your race and gender and so you have had one or two fewer obstacles. </p>
<p>I can relate to the gender part because I’ve experienced it myself. As a single mom, I’ve had contractors tell me that I can’t sign a contract to have work done without my husband present. Oh really?? I’ve walked into car dealerships with a cashier’s check in my purse and waited for a sales person when a man who walked in after me was waited on immediately. I’ve also had mechanics try to milk me for more work and money than was necessary because they assumed a woman wouldn’t realize it. This hasn’t happened every time with all contractors/dealerships/mechanics, but it has happened often enough that I recognize it. </p>
<p>I also recognize that there are often glass ceilings for women and people of color. Not always, and not always for both gender and race, but often enough. </p>
<p>Recognizing that it exists is important in trying to understand others. </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus,</p>
<p>I never said that the other customers didn’t deserve good treatment. I was just sharing one of our experiences that happens more often than not. I never get defensive, I just take my $$$ elsewhere! That’s what I call being a good consumer.</p>
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<p>Not claiming that you did. But it appears that others do get defensive about the term. That’s all.</p>
<p>I read the piece simply as a “push back”. The author wants to make it abundantly clear that he is not going to apologize for his lot in life. One gets the impression that he might at one time felt the need to hide whatever benefits his background bestowed upon him. He is now having none of that kind of thinking.</p>
<p>The author doesn’t say discrimination doesn’t exist. Come on people. His grandparents were persecuted Jews. He is saying that the phrase "check your privilege " ignores who he is and judges his ideas based only on his race/gender. It generalizes in an insulting way, just like all other racial generalizations do. </p>
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<p>Except his article doesn’t focus on who he is. It focuses on who his grandparents and parents were. His argument seems to be “my ancestors faced tremendous hardship and hatred; they put in enormous effort to succeed. So I don’t feel privileged.” </p>
<p>Using “check your privilege” is used to lump everyone who is part of the majority culture into one entitled basket is foolish and insulting, but this really didn’t make the point he was hoping to make. </p>
<p>Ok, well obviously he is Jewish as well, which makes him still subject to discrimination, which is ignored by the bigoted phrase.</p>
<p>Of course the author of the piece is privileged. He is privileged because he is a first-year at Princeton. Elite college kids who tell others to “check your privilege” do so from a position of totally unearned moral superiority. They should take the beam out of their own eye first before they start hectoring peers about privilege. I understand the author’s annoyance, but the rebuttal of “no, I’m not privileged” is not convincing. For one thing, almost everyone’s grandparents worked hard, probably harder than we do. What’s the relevance?</p>
<p>Maybe we need to have a “privilege-meter” where you get points added or deducted based on race, parents’ SES, gender, region, etc. Wait, we already do. It’s called elite college admissions.</p>
<p>^^that seems a little harsh to me. While I believe elite college admissions is a thing, I don’t see how you can judge a person and their “privilege” based on that alone. He could be exceptionally smart, exceptionally rich, exceptionally poor, have an exceptionally delightful or exceptionally dark background- his school is not the judging actor of that. </p>