" White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack "

“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions.

"...When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is. ..."

Well, there's a whole thread right there.

This article is indeed tripe.

Why are these petulant children given a voice? They should be quiet and learn our cultural norms.

PS: There would not be a multistory in all of sub Saharan Africa if not for non-Africans.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

In this item, she lays bare the fallacy underlying "white privilege", although she doesn't recognize it.

The key is that she says she was "trained", whilst others have "learned". By casting herself as a pawn of others through being "trained", while elevating others who have "learned", she accepts that there is an institutional bias - despite the fact that "training" is merely a form of "learning".

From dictionary.com:

Training: the education, instruction, or discipline of a person or thing.

Learning: the act or process of acquiring knowledge or skill.

When observation of behavior patterns from any particular group indicate that detrimental behavior can be expected from a significant portion of the group, trusting members of the group absent personal knowledge of the character of the individual being trusted is foolish.

Consider the country farm boy who transplants to the city - how well is he received by the "cosmopolitan" crowd? Would a hostile or ridicule-filled greeting cause him to shy away from his city counterparts' company?

Many, if not most, of the remaining points she lists are much the same. She deplores the ability to associate with those similar to oneself. She believes that skin color is the root of the differentiated attitudes and perceptions. All the while, she ignores the effects of observational learning at both the individual and societal level - that bad members of any group cast doubt on all members of the group. Stereotypes for many subgroups exist, be they rooted in ethnic, national origin, or even profession related tendencies.

Her elf-flagellation is neither insightful nor original.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

. . . or maybe not. "An affirmative action employer” might discriminate ~~in favor of anyone not of your race~~^{against you.}
Not that you’re actually worried about that - you have the consolation that at least you aren’t a “privileged" white man.

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