Posted on 04/30/2014 5:39:33 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
“White privilege.” We’ve heard the phrase used often among left-leaning publications and throughout the esteemed halls of academia.
Colleges and universities in America dogmatically teach the narrative that the playing field is unfairly balanced against minorities, while leaving the impression that whites have a cake walk and should not be proud of their achievements. After all, they’ve got it relatively easy.
Tal Fortgang is a freshman from New Rochelle, NY who published this remarkable article in The Princeton Tory. It comes via The College Fix:
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There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them. “Check your privilege,” the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year. The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laser-like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung. “Check your privilege,” they tell me in a command that teeters between an imposition to actually explore how I got where I am, and a reminder that I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world.
I do not accuse those who “check” me and my perspective of overt racism, although the phrase, which assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it, toes that line. But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. Furthermore, I condemn them for casting the equal protection clause, indeed the very idea of a meritocracy, as a myth, and for declaring that we are all governed by invisible forces (some would call them “stigmas” or “societal norms”), that our nation runs on racist and sexist conspiracies. Forget “you didn’t build that;” check your privilege and realize that nothing you have accomplished is real.
But they can’t be telling me that everything I’ve done with my life can be credited to the racist patriarchy holding my hand throughout my years of education and eventually guiding me into Princeton. Even that is too extreme. So to find out what they are saying, I decided to take their advice. I actually went and checked the origins of my privileged existence, to empathize with those whose underdog stories I can’t possibly comprehend. I have unearthed some examples of the privilege with which my family was blessed, and now I think I better understand those who assure me that skin color allowed my family and I to flourish today.
Perhaps it’s the privilege my grandfather and his brother had to flee their home as teenagers when the Nazis invaded Poland, leaving their mother and five younger siblings behind, running and running until they reached a Displaced Persons camp in Siberia, where they would do years of hard labor in the bitter cold until World War II ended. Maybe it was the privilege my grandfather had of taking on the local Rabbi’s work in that DP camp, telling him that the spiritual leader shouldn’t do hard work, but should save his energy to pass Jewish tradition along to those who might survive. Perhaps it was the privilege my great-grandmother and those five great-aunts and uncles I never knew had of being shot into an open grave outside their hometown. Maybe that’s my privilege.
Or maybe it’s the privilege my grandmother had of spending weeks upon weeks on a death march through Polish forests in subzero temperatures, one of just a handful to survive, only to be put in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she would have died but for the Allied forces who liberated her and helped her regain her health when her weight dwindled to barely 80 pounds.
Perhaps my privilege is that those two resilient individuals came to America with no money and no English, obtained citizenship, learned the language and met each other; that my grandfather started a humble wicker basket business with nothing but long hours, an idea, and an iron will—to paraphrase the man I never met: “I escaped Hitler. Some business troubles are going to ruin me?” Maybe my privilege is that they worked hard enough to raise four children, and to send them to Jewish day school and eventually City College.
Perhaps it was my privilege that my own father worked hard enough in City College to earn a spot at a top graduate school, got a good job, and for 25 years got up well before the crack of dawn, sacrificing precious time he wanted to spend with those he valued most—his wife and kids—to earn that living. I can say with certainty there was no legacy involved in any of his accomplishments. The wicker business just isn’t that influential.Now would you say that we’ve been really privileged? That our success has been gift-wrapped?
That’s the problem with calling someone out for the “privilege” which you assume has defined their narrative. You don’t know what their struggles have been, what they may have gone through to be where they are. Assuming they’ve benefitted from “power systems” or other conspiratorial imaginary institutions denies them credit for all they’ve done, things of which you may not even conceive. You don’t know whose father died defending your freedom. You don’t know whose mother escaped oppression. You don’t know who conquered their demons, or may still conquering them now.
The truth is, though, that I have been exceptionally privileged in my life, albeit not in the way any detractors would have it.
It has been my distinct privilege that my grandparents came to America. First, that there was a place at all that would take them from the ruins of Europe. And second, that such a place was one where they could legally enter, learn the language, and acclimate to a society that ultimately allowed them to flourish.
It was their privilege to come to a country that grants equal protection under the law to its citizens, that cares not about religion or race, but the content of your character.
It was my privilege that my grandfather was blessed with resolve and an entrepreneurial spirit, and that he was lucky enough to come to the place where he could realize the dream of giving his children a better life than he had.
But far more important for me than his attributes was the legacy he sought to pass along, which forms the basis of what detractors call my “privilege,” but which actually should be praised as one of altruism and self-sacrifice. Those who came before us suffered for the sake of giving us a better life. When we similarly sacrifice for our descendents by caring for the planet, it’s called “environmentalism,” and is applauded. But when we do it by passing along property and a set of values, it’s called “privilege.” (And when we do it by raising questions about our crippling national debt, we’re called Tea Party radicals.) Such sacrifice of any form shouldn’t be scorned, but admired.
My exploration did yield some results. I recognize that it was my parents’ privilege and now my own that there is such a thing as an American dream which is attainable even for a penniless Jewish immigrant.
I am privileged that values like faith and education were passed along to me. My grandparents played an active role in my parents’ education, and some of my earliest memories included learning the Hebrew alphabet with my Dad. It’s been made clear to me that education begins in the home, and the importance of parents’ involvement with their kids’ education—from mathematics to morality—cannot be overstated. It’s not a matter of white or black, male or female or any other division which we seek, but a matter of the values we pass along, the legacy we leave, that perpetuates “privilege.” And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Behind every success, large or small, there is a story, and it isn’t always told by sex or skin color. My appearance certainly doesn’t tell the whole story, and to assume that it does and that I should apologize for it is insulting. While I haven’t done everything for myself up to this point in my life, someone sacrificed themselves so that I can lead a better life. But that is a legacy I am proud of.
I have checked my privilege. And I apologize for nothing.
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Millions of Americans have similar stories: their parents or grandparents came to this country without a penny to their names and built their lives from the ground up in a land of freedom and opportunity.
Today, “liberals” are arguing like everything was handed to white families on a silver platter, and imply that no one had to work hard for what they got.
This is a bigoted point-of-view that smears the real contributions that many put into building this nation, and this intellectually dishonest phrase should be eliminated from colleges’ so-called “educated” discourse.
So they’ll sic the Palestinian sympathizers and other Jew haters on him.
Wow, so glad I didn’t miss this essay. This young man is a terrific writer. It was a privilege to be able to read this.
That is awesome.
My only problem with this is that it plays into a very old liberal attitude that it is fine to be racist as all get out toward white people....except when they’re Jewish.
People like Farrakhan and Jackson have trashed white people endlessly, but they only seem to be condemned when they make remarks against Jews.
Racism is racism, period.
I thought it was pretty impressive. That is why I posted it :)
The proper reply to ‘Check your privledge” is “Kiss my ass”.
I don't think it says that at all. Did you read the conclusion? That part about you can't tell by looking at someone whose father died for this country, or in the line of duty as a fire fighter, or policeman, etc.
It’s well past time that Jews abandon the Left. They will be sacrificed on the burning altar of political correctness real soon now.
BTTT
Nice. My baby starts NYU Stern in the fall. I’ve prepared her for the worst, but they say the school is no nonense and conservative by most standards. So glad she didnt get into the Ivy league schools she wanted.
Oh...I’m not saying that the author is saying this. I just wonder if a plain-vanilla WASP could get away with writing a similar article....my Grandfather was “privileged” to spend his life (short) in a coal mine and die of Black Lung. For which he was paid in scrip. But he doesn’t belong to an officially recognized “victimized” group.....so I get to be “privileged.”
People like Farrakhan and Jackson have trashed white people endlessly, but they only seem to be condemned when they make remarks against Jews.
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Because the Jews wont let them get away with it, unlike Christians and others.
Thank you for posting this. I will share this inspirational piece.
(My apologies Mr. Robinson for the simulated profanity)
You are probably right. One of my great grandfathers suffered the same fate as your grandfather. He couldn’t afford his own gravestone — paid for by the Mollie Maguires.
That works. I was thinking, "Check your fly." Then watch and laugh at the ninny as he does.
I like something more in their face.
If we do not mock them, they will just keep going until they start killing us. Just like history always shows every couple hundred years...or less.
Great post! Thank you for giving me the chance to read it and have some hope for the future. It’s heartening and self affirming on so many levels. It highlights what made America great, made her the land of opportunity for so many immigrants past & present (those immigrants not afraid to work and sacrifice for what they wanted to achieve). The present victim and entitlement culture is anathema to individual freedom and self determination.That path will steal away our futures, our children’s futures and squander our Nation’s potential to be a beacon for liberty & justice for all.
Many days, I come in from work and only see the articles on the first page so I miss the ones from earlier in the day.
Very glad to have caught this; it is impressive.
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