White Privilege

I watch a lot of talk shows on T.V. and this was the topic on one today.  Immediately, as I heard the topic, I got my back up and dozens of reasons why "white privilege" is a fallacy ran through my mind.  And then I listened.  And then I began to agree.  I know we white people carry a great deal of guilt about being white when we think of what other white skinned people have done to blacks.  It's sort of an inherited guilt by association and it's terribly unfair.  But the hard cold truth is that we, as white skinned people, do have privileges not afforded to black skinned people based on that ridiculous fact.

What is comfortable for us is that we are largely unaware we are receiving those privileges.  It's like being very rich all your life and used to living the high life and just accepting that this is the way life is supposed to be.

I still don't like to be referred to as enjoying white privilege.  What I'm enjoying for the most part is being treated with a respect that should be given to everyone.  It's so illogical to treat someone badly or differently just because of their skin pigment.  Now I have to backtrack a bit because I just might treat a dark skinned person a little differently than I do a white.  I wonder if they're judging me unfavorably based on the color of my skin.  I wonder if their politeness is false.  This is only if I don't know them but it's still odd to admit that.  I don't concern myself at all with how a white stranger is feeling about me personally so there is a difference.

Everyone is prejudiced in some way and it doesn't matter what color your skin is, whether you're male or female, or what your career happens to be.  People will judge you either favorably or unfavorably based on many things.  The thing about white Anglo privilege is that we are rarely made to feel suspicious or inferior based on our skin color and that is something that often happens to other skin colors or nationalities.

When I was a child, I don't remember having any black people in my schools but today I see a huge variety of skin tones, nationalities, and cultures everywhere.  It seems that getting to know a variety of people should dissolve prejudice but it still exists.  This makes me wonder if all human beings have an innate need to feel superior in some way.  We do tend to bind closer with people "just like us" and that goes for every race and nationality, not just whites.  I'm hoping that will change in the future.

I have to admit that white privilege is an ugly fact.  But I also believe it's us wanting to and expecting to be treated in a certain way.  Not better than anyone else but simply with fairness and respect.  The fact that everyone doesn't receive fairness and respect doesn't make me demand anything less for myself.  The good news is that most whites also want and demand that same treatment for everyone else, too.  We have been enlightened to the plight of others.

I'm too old to expect to see a world of peace and universal respect in my lifetime and I'm doubtful it will ever happen even in the far future.  It could be that we humans are so deeply flawed that we are unable to behave decently.  We're very clannish and that's obvious in every aspect of our lives.  Different religions separate us.  Skin color separates us. Nationality separates us.  We have certain expectations and prejudices based on sex.  Politics (hard to believe) make enemies of neighbors.  

No, we can only hope to see progress in the future in how we treat one another.  It's going to take a lot of hard work by a few to educate many.