![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerI am white. I am male. This means I have white male privilege. As ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
janewilliams20 wisely pointed out in another thread, I have it even if it is not and has never been any imaginable benefit or use to me. I may not want it, but I can't not have it. It comes with the equipment and the paint job, and even if I were to lose the equipment and get a respray, I'd still be who I am, and I can't escape that.
This means that anything I may do, or say, or think, can be seen as (some would say must be seen as) proceeding from that position of privilege. If I have a job, and a similarly capable black person doesn't, it's because I live in a white-male-dominated society which rewards white males for being male and white. If I go shopping, I'm reaping the benefits of an economy founded on hundreds of years of oppression of non-whites and non-males. If I interact socially with people who aren't white and aren't male, I'm exercising my privilege just by being there, and if I don't, I'm being exclusionist. If I write about a white male protagonist, I'm exercising my privilege, and if I write about a non-white, non-male protagonist, no matter how authentic I try to make him, I'm arrogantly appropriating a culture not my own. And so on. All very guilt-making.
Well boo frodding hoo. Poor me. How dare I pretend I have problems when non-whites and non-males are still suffering under the booted heel of the oppression of my colour and sex. I should be grateful for being in the position of power that I am. As long as I don't ever, you know, take advantage of it in any way. Which I do merely by existing.
If I subscribed to all of this, I could never do or say or think anything. Because I don't actually agree that white males should be privileged, or that anyone should be privileged, or underprivileged, for the sake of something they didn't achieve themselves. I don't think that's an unattainable goal either...but we have to address it to attain it. Legislation can deal with rights and responsibilities, salaries and status, crime and punishment; that's a work ongoing and fairly easy to accomplish given a government with the will. (If anyone manages to elect one anywhere, do let me know.)
But the roots of this privilege are in the mind, and it's in the mind that we will finally have to deal with it. How? Here's an idea, couched in the form of an old joke.
Don't think of a purple elephant. The purple elephant is wrong. Put the purple elephant right out of your mind. I don't understand why people keep bringing up this purple elephant. There is not now and has never been a purple elephant. If there is, there shouldn't be.
Now substitute "white male privilege" for "purple elephant."
The more we talk about white male privilege (and yes, I am aware I'm the one talking about it right now), the more we fight it or defend it or condemn it or argue about it, the more we acknowledge its existence. If everyone who seriously wants rid of this idea, then an important part of that endeavour is going to be no longer giving it weight. As long as someone somewhere is outraged about it, it still lives. This isn't a solution in itself, of course, because there will be white men for a long time yet who cherish and cling to their privilege and will only give it up when we pry it from their cold, dead brains. But the reason that they can do that is because the rest of us agree that they have it. If, in tandem with the proposed and essential eradication of legal inequalities and the pursuit and punishment of inequality-based offences, we can banish the idea from our own minds, it will grow weaker. The thing about something which is just an idea is that the more people stop acknowledging it... the less it exists.
So, I will continue to believe that I have no special privilege by virtue of my colour or my genitalia, and that the same is true of anyone else who shares those attributes. I shall also continue to believe that I am not unduly disadvantaged by possession of those things, and that what I do, or say, or think, has some value in spite of the person who is doing/saying/thinking it. I will write about what I wish to write about, from my own experience where possible, and hope that it will be read as coming from a human being with a mind and not from a colour and a set of tackle. And I will read what is written by others in the same spirit. And I hope that, one day, all white males and all black females and all other colours and permutations of human beings will be able to be proud of being what they are without at the same time having to look down on those who aren't.
janewilliams20 wisely pointed out in another thread, I have it even if it is not and has never been any imaginable benefit or use to me. I may not want it, but I can't not have it. It comes with the equipment and the paint job, and even if I were to lose the equipment and get a respray, I'd still be who I am, and I can't escape that.This means that anything I may do, or say, or think, can be seen as (some would say must be seen as) proceeding from that position of privilege. If I have a job, and a similarly capable black person doesn't, it's because I live in a white-male-dominated society which rewards white males for being male and white. If I go shopping, I'm reaping the benefits of an economy founded on hundreds of years of oppression of non-whites and non-males. If I interact socially with people who aren't white and aren't male, I'm exercising my privilege just by being there, and if I don't, I'm being exclusionist. If I write about a white male protagonist, I'm exercising my privilege, and if I write about a non-white, non-male protagonist, no matter how authentic I try to make him, I'm arrogantly appropriating a culture not my own. And so on. All very guilt-making.
Well boo frodding hoo. Poor me. How dare I pretend I have problems when non-whites and non-males are still suffering under the booted heel of the oppression of my colour and sex. I should be grateful for being in the position of power that I am. As long as I don't ever, you know, take advantage of it in any way. Which I do merely by existing.
If I subscribed to all of this, I could never do or say or think anything. Because I don't actually agree that white males should be privileged, or that anyone should be privileged, or underprivileged, for the sake of something they didn't achieve themselves. I don't think that's an unattainable goal either...but we have to address it to attain it. Legislation can deal with rights and responsibilities, salaries and status, crime and punishment; that's a work ongoing and fairly easy to accomplish given a government with the will. (If anyone manages to elect one anywhere, do let me know.)
But the roots of this privilege are in the mind, and it's in the mind that we will finally have to deal with it. How? Here's an idea, couched in the form of an old joke.
Don't think of a purple elephant. The purple elephant is wrong. Put the purple elephant right out of your mind. I don't understand why people keep bringing up this purple elephant. There is not now and has never been a purple elephant. If there is, there shouldn't be.
Now substitute "white male privilege" for "purple elephant."
The more we talk about white male privilege (and yes, I am aware I'm the one talking about it right now), the more we fight it or defend it or condemn it or argue about it, the more we acknowledge its existence. If everyone who seriously wants rid of this idea, then an important part of that endeavour is going to be no longer giving it weight. As long as someone somewhere is outraged about it, it still lives. This isn't a solution in itself, of course, because there will be white men for a long time yet who cherish and cling to their privilege and will only give it up when we pry it from their cold, dead brains. But the reason that they can do that is because the rest of us agree that they have it. If, in tandem with the proposed and essential eradication of legal inequalities and the pursuit and punishment of inequality-based offences, we can banish the idea from our own minds, it will grow weaker. The thing about something which is just an idea is that the more people stop acknowledging it... the less it exists.
So, I will continue to believe that I have no special privilege by virtue of my colour or my genitalia, and that the same is true of anyone else who shares those attributes. I shall also continue to believe that I am not unduly disadvantaged by possession of those things, and that what I do, or say, or think, has some value in spite of the person who is doing/saying/thinking it. I will write about what I wish to write about, from my own experience where possible, and hope that it will be read as coming from a human being with a mind and not from a colour and a set of tackle. And I will read what is written by others in the same spirit. And I hope that, one day, all white males and all black females and all other colours and permutations of human beings will be able to be proud of being what they are without at the same time having to look down on those who aren't.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 04:41 pm (UTC)Good.
I love the passion you put into life. As far as I know, you're a green, multi-gendered swamp monster (this is the internet, after all). It's your mind, passion and talents that matter to me.
Though I'm not sure I agree that not addressing the issue deals with it. If nobody had brought it up, that white male privilege would have remained as unquestioned as under the Victorians. I'll have to go and think about this.
P.S. if I write about a non-white, non-male protagonist, no matter how authentic I try to make him Um... Her? It?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 04:55 pm (UTC)You're quite right, it should have been something other than "him," and my only defence is that I wrote "non-white protagonist," finished the sentence, went DOH, went back and inserted "non-male" and forgot to change the pronoun. Which could be embedded white male privilege or simply forgetfulness. I'm sure there are arguments on both sides.
I see the problem you bring up, and look forward to your thoughts. Perhaps we have to make everyone aware of it, and then get them not to think about it, by some means other than telling them. Erm.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 05:28 pm (UTC)"a green, multi-gendered swamp monster"
Date: 2008-05-16 05:04 pm (UTC)Re: "a green, multi-gendered swamp monster"
Date: 2008-05-16 05:27 pm (UTC)And my icone really does show the real me...
Isn't the web a wonderful thing?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 07:33 pm (UTC)I'm not saying it's to be ignored or overlooked, but WMP (and is that version 9, 10, 11, or Classic? :-) is not even close to the primary cause for all the ills of the world. Once folks trumpeting about it (and all its cousins) realize that case-by-case examination works better than blanket assertions, they can speak more strongly by citing specific cases (or if there are larger groups in which there's privilege or discrimination, them).