The problem is, it's also a point that can kinda rankle if you're used to getting treated -- by virtue of your skin, or your gender, or your accent, or your whatever visual -- as though you're less-than-valid, and seeing someone who -- from all visual dogwhistles -- should have had 'the easy ride' per white/male privilege arguing that he, too, has had similar experiences...
I believe that you, and quite a few other people involved in these... happenings... are confusing white privilege with majority privilege.
It's an easy mistake to make, especially since most of us (English speakers) are coming from predominantly white environments. But they are not the same. Consequently, the white male raised in a non-white culture and a POC living in one of the predominantly white countries have not have "similar experiences."
A white male, no matter what country he is raised in, doesn't have to search hard to find stories about people like himself. Perhaps the books/television shows/movies are not as easy to find as they would be in other cultures, other countries. But they are out there, and accessible. Alternatively, people of color can have trouble finding stories about people like themselves, written by people like themselves, or written in their own language, all the while living in their own country. (http://deepad.livejournal.com/29656.html?format=light)
A white male raised in a non-white culture is aware he is a transplant, an immigrant, a fish out of cultural waters -- and this is a unique and enlightening experience in of itself. But it is not the same as being a native of a country, the daughter or son of generations, and being cut off from that history. To have the ways in which your family, or the families of people like you, contributed to the creation of your country ignored or trivialized or simply buried. (http://bossymarmalade.livejournal.com/478159.html)
It's the difference between growing up in a place while thinking, "this isn't really my world," and growing up while knowing that while it is your world, you have been born into the middle of a longstanding struggle to deny your place in it.
A lot of this goes for white women as well, not just white men, and I won't pretend otherwise. But being white and male -- man, those are the big tickets. I can name you known, important white men who have been disabled or gay and nevertheless have acknowledged places in the history of literature, politics, scientific discovery, philosophical thought. It's still easier to name such men than white women, or anyone of color, who is given nearly as much deference in such fields. (That's while we're still factoring heterosexual or abled privilege; take that away and pickings are fucking slim.) Wherever you go, the stories and history and importance of white men is acknowledged. It may not be front and center, it may not be the main focus, but there is no country in the world where it does not matter.
This is what it means to have white privilege. Not that you have been given an "easy ride."
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 07:57 pm (UTC)I believe that you, and quite a few other people involved in these... happenings... are confusing white privilege with majority privilege.
It's an easy mistake to make, especially since most of us (English speakers) are coming from predominantly white environments. But they are not the same. Consequently, the white male raised in a non-white culture and a POC living in one of the predominantly white countries have not have "similar experiences."
A white male, no matter what country he is raised in, doesn't have to search hard to find stories about people like himself. Perhaps the books/television shows/movies are not as easy to find as they would be in other cultures, other countries. But they are out there, and accessible. Alternatively, people of color can have trouble finding stories about people like themselves, written by people like themselves, or written in their own language, all the while living in their own country. (http://deepad.livejournal.com/29656.html?format=light)
A white male raised in a non-white culture is aware he is a transplant, an immigrant, a fish out of cultural waters -- and this is a unique and enlightening experience in of itself. But it is not the same as being a native of a country, the daughter or son of generations, and being cut off from that history. To have the ways in which your family, or the families of people like you, contributed to the creation of your country ignored or trivialized or simply buried. (http://bossymarmalade.livejournal.com/478159.html)
It's the difference between growing up in a place while thinking, "this isn't really my world," and growing up while knowing that while it is your world, you have been born into the middle of a longstanding struggle to deny your place in it.
A lot of this goes for white women as well, not just white men, and I won't pretend otherwise. But being white and male -- man, those are the big tickets. I can name you known, important white men who have been disabled or gay and nevertheless have acknowledged places in the history of literature, politics, scientific discovery, philosophical thought. It's still easier to name such men than white women, or anyone of color, who is given nearly as much deference in such fields. (That's while we're still factoring heterosexual or abled privilege; take that away and pickings are fucking slim.) Wherever you go, the stories and history and importance of white men is acknowledged. It may not be front and center, it may not be the main focus, but there is no country in the world where it does not matter.
This is what it means to have white privilege. Not that you have been given an "easy ride."