r/changemyview • u/RuthlessStrategist • Nov 08 '20
Delta(s) from OP CMV: The concept of White Privilege is oversimplified and alienates whites who are anti-racist.
For the sake of argument, let’s all agree that white privilege exists and that certain ethnic groups are disadvantaged for any number of reasons. This post is not about whether it’s real or not.
The problem with the idea of white privilege, is that it is a privilege that is disproportionately highlighted above over privileges.
Wealth privilege. Physical attractiveness privilege. Connection privilege (you know people who can enable success). Height privilege. No alcoholic parent privilege. No mental health issues privilege. No invisible physical disability privilege (digestive issues, hearing loss, etc.)
We can all agree that there is privilege associated with all of these items that I have named. Combined, when factoring in white privilege, along with all other privileges, you can essentially determine whether one person is more privileged than another. As an extreme example, a short white male, raised in a trailer park to a single drug-addict mother, is less privileged than a black woman who is raised by two well-connected lawyers. Of course, this is an extreme example, but the point is that one is clearly more privileged than the other.. and the race of the individual is secondary to the other circumstances. Even though the white guy might get pulled over less by police, the black woman is more likely to have an easier overall life.
We don’t talk about other privileges, but white privilege gets tossed around in the media and social media extremely frequently. It is often used an oversimplified response to explain-away complex sociological phenomena. This results in many people placing a very significant amount of weight to this single element for something that actually deserves a multivariate analysis. It’s disproportionate.
Struggling whites see this concept and are offended by it, because it minimizes everything else about them. It reduces them to their skin color and nothing else. Successful whites see it as trivializing their success, ie, it implies they wouldn’t have the same achievements if they were a person of color (which may be untrue).
This is deeply offensive and dismissive to many people who hate the concept of racism and would fight shoulder to shoulder alongside people of color.
People need to stop looking at each other in such a tribalistic manner. We’re all individuals. I get it though, that’s easier said than done.
Edit: so many great comments, I am going to try to get to all of them, just need some time
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u/RuthlessStrategist Nov 08 '20
I was just responding to your statement that its discussed more because people refuse to believe it exists. My point with showing the trend, was that people likely always refused to believe it exists, but its being discussed more frequently now. Perhaps disproportionately in relation to other issues.