This is a follow-up with further reflections based on feedback from my previous post. I decided to not use the term in the title of this post because it was made clear to me from a number of wonderful white friends that it is patently offensive to them, and it has become patently offensive to me as well. I have to ask why anyone who seeks social or racial justice would come up with a pejorative, derogatory term such as this, which says more about them than the very people they criticize. Not once do I recall Martin Luther King, Jr. making up epithets out of whole cloth to describe people who were still brutalizing and actively denying blacks basic civil rights (which thankfully we don’t have today despite those who spin this false narrative). Those who come up with terms such as “white privilege” would be wise to do the same if they wish to have a social justice movement worthy of his ideals.
I think the best place to start is the current state of black America. There is a lot of success, but far too many still who are not participating in the American dream. A number of whites in the dialogue pointed out rightfully how America affords blacks today the greatest opportunities in the world to achieve great success. America has provided a wealth of grants, loans, scholarships and other educational programs designed to make up for the inequities of past slavery and segregation. The problem is not enough blacks are taking advantage of these wonderful opportunities that we will not find in abundance anywhere else in the world. It must be noted that unfortunately, Democrats in virtually every major urban area have trapped large numbers of blacks in failing schools, poverty, and lack of upward mobility in what seems like a never-ending cycle. Yet it is blacks who continue to vote for the very people who oppress them, and you can’t blame that on “white privilege.”
A number of whites noted how they come from poor families that struggled greatly to make ends meet. One person’s father was a ditch digger, just like Sydney Poitier who went on to acting fame. Another had an alcoholic father on skid row. So even though during those times in the past their parents, or their grandparents, did not necessarily have to compete against blacks who were lower in the social hierarchy, they were still not what one would call people of any sort of privilege. They were basically people struggling to make a life for themselves and their families without any thought as to whether they were better than or more entitled than blacks. I will quote one person as stating the following: “When anyone says white privilege to a poor disadvantaged white person it breeds contempt for the known misery and poverty they experienced. It’s like saying to someone who is in prison in America how lucky they are because Mexico’s prisons are ten times worse. They are not feeling it even though it may be true.”
Now it is true there were indeed the privileged few, including those in government, who shaped attitudes and policies towards blacks. And prejudice against blacks ran across all social classes, so it is not necessarily the case that because someone was poor and struggling that they didn’t harbor prejudicial views against blacks. The whole idea of the “powers that be” during pre-civil rights was to cast blacks in the worst light possible so they would not be accepted as equal human beings. We were presented as only a little better than animals, which permeated all of culture. Still, there were a good number of whites who could see this was nothing more than propaganda to continue the status quo, and thankfully there were a good number of whites that sought to end racial injustice and inequality. Had it not been for these people, the status quo as it existed in 1950 might still exist.
So the notion of “white privilege”, I am convinced, is nothing more than a product of academia and other far-left progressive warriors, both black and white, to divide the races through false narratives and sow distrust in our society so they can inculcate secular Socialist/Communist/Marxist thought and ideals into the psyche of the American people, particularly targeted towards unsuspecting and poorly educated minorities. Advancing “white privilege” in our society is nothing more than an insidious, cancerous meme not from those who wish to uplift and help to advance the human condition of blacks and other minorities, but whose sole purpose is to make blacks ever more dependent on government through wealth redistribution instead of economic empowerment, and to cause blacks to think with a socialist herd mentality instead of thinking independently for themselves.
I believe the way forward for blacks and other minorities in America is to not only reject the counterproductive cry of “white privilege” advocates in America, but to also reject the belief that only government can lift us out of the cycle of poverty and despair in major urban areas. “White privilege” is nothing more than a distraction asking that blacks look backward instead of forward. Looking backward has never helped anyone but those who are profiting from the suggestion that others do likewise. Black communities have the power to demand better education for their children, to substantially reduce out-of-wedlock births that lead to high poverty, and to reject drugs that lead to high crime into their neighborhoods. And the awesome power to vote for change. Any time spent considering the words of “white privilege” advocates is time not spent being productive and moving forward in life. Racism continues to exist and will continue to exist as part of the human condition in toto, but it is now powerless to stop our forward progress.
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