Dealing Honestly with ‘White Privilege’: What do people mean when they evoke the term?

Pajamas Media ^ | 08/27/2014 | Walter Hudson

[SeekAndFind]

Recently, Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly clashed over the notion of “white privilege,” debating the root cause of statistical disparities between white and black Americans. The Blaze summarizes:

Among the facts Kelly shared is that black unemployment in Ferguson is three times what it is for whites and that a black child in the U.S. is four times more likely to live in a poor neighborhood than a white child.

While O’Reilly didn’t dismiss these figures, he said that “families, culture and personal responsibility” are the real issues at hand.

…

But Kelly didn’t agree that O’Reilly’s assessment addressed the full picture.

“It’s not just families or culture,” she said. ”Look at that stat about the black children four times as likely to live in poor neighborhoods as white children, and in the St. Louis area there is documented white flight … the whites take off, these become black neighborhoods. The schools they get forgotten and the black population feels forgotten, Bill.”

Whether Kelly intended it or not, she echoed a disturbing premise which carries demeaning paternalistic overtones. Consider, why should an exodus of white people leave blacks destitute? Are we not speaking of adults? Are we blacks not endowed with the same human capacity to conceive of values and pursue happiness? To speak of blacks as “forgotten” is to speak of us like children lost at the mall, wholly incapable of assuming responsibility for ourselves. In this way, “white privilege” seems to mean productive capacity, and those wielding the phrase seem to argue that blacks have none.

[blam]

“and in the St. Louis area there is documented white flight … the whites take off, these become black neighborhoods. The schools they get forgotten and the black population feels forgotten, Bill.””

The department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is presently asking congress to have them be required in the approval process for mortgages.
They admit that their goal is to intergrate neighborhoods by race and income/affluence.

If approved, HUD will decide where you live and who will be your neighbor.

[wbill]

'Tis up there with "Guidance Counselors" for elementary school students. They were worthless at my High School; I've no idea why they'd be needed for 5-year-olds.

That's the one thing at my kids' school that I don't approve of. I keep a close eye on them, because it smells like "Political Officers" to me.

So far, no problems, other than they're useless and being paid for with my tax dollars. Rest of the school is pretty good. Nothing for me to complain about other than the teachers all have the standard "Teacher Whine" ("I'm sooooo overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, etc etc etc." I rarely meet a teacher anywhere who didn't think that they were the most abused soul on the planet, but I digress).

I live in a fairly conservative community. That helps. Mrs WBill volunteering all the time helps more. I'm a firm believer in the fact that people behave better when they know someone is watching.

[sport]

“White Privilege” means that whites have the privilege of having the hell beaten out of them by gangs and mobs of Blacks time after time.

[rlmorel]

That is true as well.

When people blame issues on “white flight” inferring that white people leave an area simply because they are racist and don’t want to live in proximity to blacks, and that is the root of the problem, it blames the symptom, not the cause.

It is really a sore spot with me.

[Lil Flower]

>>Among the facts Kelly shared is that black unemployment in Ferguson is three times what it is for whites and that a black child in the U.S. is four times more likely to live in a poor neighborhood than a white child.<<

Does no one seem to understand that a lot of this is by choice? Why on earth would they want to work when they get free housing/subsidies, free food, welfare, free insurance? The government pays them not to work with our money!

While democrats have certainly wanted this and set this up, people have to take personal responsibility. This is a cultural problem and I don’t believe it will ever be fixed.

We’ve tried for years to co-exist. I just think our cultures are just too diametrically opposed.

[Mears]

” I’m a firm believer in the fact that people behave better when they know someone is watching. “

—

Slightly off topic but I felt that way when my late mother was in a nursing home.

We’d drop in often,even if only for 10 minutes.She always received good care because they never knew when one of us would pop in. (Sad that we’d even have to think that way.)

.

[wbill]

Yup. I'm too much the cynic. It only takes one person, though, to do entirely too much damage.

As an aside, awhile ago, we were looking for a pre-school for WBill Jr. We did our homework, and found that most of them in the area were lacking. The one that came highly recommended, we went in for a visit on short notice ("hey, we've got a morning free, OK if we come in???").

The secretary at the front wanted to know "What we were doing!! Why did we we show up unannounced!!!?". That was strike one, but I was willing to let it go - perhaps she didn't get the message, and it's her job to be the gatekeeper to make sure that unexpected adults are who they say they are.

But when the teacher we visited told us that "Volunteering would not be necessary." and when my wife pressed the issue, told us that "Volunteering would not be welcomed." .... that was strikes two and three. End of story.

Occasionally, I drive by the pre-school and wonder what goes on in there. And, I wonder what makes it so popular? Are people *that* uninterested in their kids?

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

“Check your privilege”
means
“I am losing this argument and need to change the subject and put my opponent on the defensive - STAT!”

[Myrddin]

Break out newspapers over the last 50 years. Every year there is a story about the "achievement gap between blacks and whites". Every year the schools use that to beg for more money to "fix" the problem. Lather, rinse, repeat. Nothing changes except the cost of education rising annually with nothing to show for the new funds expended. The continual mistake of recognizing that correlation is not causation.

[servantboy777]

Never ever in the history of the world has a country attempted to give a hand up to a race of people and atone for wrongs to the extent that it has than the United States.

Blacks could get grants for college education loans for housing, food, medical care...you name it, but they choose not to better themselves as a race.

The black community can blame no one but themselves. For decades this country has been their oyster and they've chosen to remain impoverished and in victim hood.

Lil advice. Pull your damn pants up, stop tattin yo-seff up, learn how to speak proper English, learn respect for society/elders/authority and take that stupid damn grill ouch yo mouff.

White man is not holding you down. YOU are holding YOU down.

There are injustices in life, get over it. Whitey endures the same sort of injustices in life. The only difference is that most white folks pick themselves up and move on rather than dump another bucket of “poor pitiful black man” on him or her.

Good grief...you've worn out the race card. It doesn't work anymore.

[GOPJ]

Here's what White Privilege means....

It means IF a WHITE BOY robs a store - and strong arms a clerk who tries to stop him HE WON'T be arrested. BECAUSE NO WHITE PEOPLE ARE EVER ARRESTED.

It also means if a WHITE BOY attempts to kill a cop that the cop will choose death rather than fight back against someone who is white.

Now that we know the truth, let's hop on our unicorns and fly off to never never land...

[GOPJ]

Meghan is correct, in that when blacks move in, whites often move out. ... It is paternalistic to assume that only whites can maintain a decent neighborhood.

Wrong.

There are ugly little economic realities here... something Sowell would 'get' but Walter Hudson might not...

First: Gentrification: (elite whites win - blacks lose.)

Gentrification is where white liberal elites find an old but potentially beautiful neighborhood that's black. They start moving in because the 'bones' of the houses are great and the prices are artificially cheap because blacks live there.

Liberal elites make a fuss about the 'wonderful old black lady' and her stories - and they're 'down with the struggle' or whatever... BUT THE REAL thing going on is they're buying great homes cheap.

When enough liberal elites move in they stop with the gushing about the 'wonderful old black lady' and kick back as more and more liberal elites 'discover' their cool community. The value of the white liberal elite's investment has gone from 'very little' to a 'whole lot'. Houses have gone WAAAAAY up in value. Taxes go sky high (because houses have increased in value) and blacks must either sell or lose their homes.

The old black couple living on Social Security can't afford the new property taxes - and are forced out of the neighborhood. Liberal elites moving in never had anything to do with elite whites living a 'liberal lifestyle' in a multicultural settings... it had to do with taking over neighborhoods cheap and running the residents out by making the community too expensive.

Second: White Flight (Blacks win - middle class whites lose)

The flip side - white flight - (blacks win economically - middle class whites lose). Blacks want better homes... Places that have been better maintained, don't have debris tossed on all the streets, have better schools and less crime. The houses are expensive BECAUSE it's a white neighborhood. But as soon as a tipping point is reached, whites leave because crime is going up, people are throwing trash out their car windows, and young black men glare at them if they look askance at loud obscene music being played from car radios. So, great houses are sold cheap. Moving into white neighborhoods never had anything to do with wanting to live with white people - it had to do with getting great homes cheap.

Gentrification and White Flight - More bonds between liberal elites and black democrats...

[sergeantdave]

White privilege is the fact that people, white, brown, yellow and black, have earned money via work, and the gimmedat leeches, white, brown, yellow and black, want to steal that money.

Next question...