WHITE PRIVILEGE
What is Privilege and Should We Care?
“Privilege - a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.”
“White Privilege - inherent advantages possessed by a white person on the basis of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and injustice.”
Privilege of the Elites
If you tried to attend an elite college, or wanted to join a limited membership club, you probably remember learning about the privilege wealthy, connected people enjoy. Alumni, and especially those with the money to support endowments, could ensure even poorly qualified candidates a spot in Harvard. Your race, sex or religious background often determined your success in joining a club. These situations were how we saw privilege, and while not the way things “should be,” most of us accepted that there wasn’t much you could do about it. And the group of people benefiting was small. Talented people could still hope to get into Harvard without illustrious parents.
More people began to seek out “privilege” including premiere athletes, politicians, Hollywood types and of course, those who had become “famous for being famous.” Still, except for uncalled-for deference in legal matters, mostly, these privileges didn’t harm us, nor did we lose out on a lot of opportunities due to this relatively small group who were so favored.
Privilege Beginning in the ‘60’s
In an effort most people supported, Blacks were given preference (privilege) in education and the job market beginning in the ‘60’s. The goal was to make up for the past and give a jumpstart to success. Unfortunately, this led to choices that actually harmed people, such as social promotion (pushing kids into the next grade even as they had failed to learn what they needed from the prior grade), entry to prestige schools without the candidate having the required knowledge (leading to dropouts) and ignoring bad behavior (which incented more of it). In 9th grade, a Black girl tried to kill me by pushing me through the roof of the theater and the school didn’t want to do anything about it until my parents got the police involved. Even so, the consequences were minor. Quite a few Caucasians were severely injured by Blacks, an unsurprising outcome when you make the penalties so low. The Left is doubling down on these policies now, which makes schools unsafe for everyone.
I remember a young woman who refused admission to college as they only were willing to take her as an “affirmative action candidate.” She said, “I’m as good as anyone in your student body.” She wanted to be judged as a person, not as being Black.
As I entered the work world, I saw that job candidates weren’t treated as equals. White males struggled to find jobs while less-qualified Blacks got the jobs and then promotions. A lesser attempt to increase the number of women did occur, but in the IT world, it took a lot longer and, in most cases, women had to be more qualified to get the job.
Today
Among cries of “white privilege,” I see white males struggling. Many find they are the least likely to be hired, even when they boast outstanding resumes. They are also the first to be laid off. Some privilege, huh! It reminds me of Tevye’s cry to God in Fiddler on the Roof. “I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?”
White privilege seems to be no privilege at all. If I had been the one doing the shoving instead of being pushed by the Black girl, I’m sure the police would have taken me away. When I got laid off, I noticed how they carefully listed age and sex and balanced the numbers, but when I looked at who got laid off, it was mostly Whites. Given how HR assigns “points” to what is considered underserved groups, everyone now vies to be one of those groups. Don’t believe me? When I first started work, I had no idea about the sexuality of my co-workers, which was great. Now, gays and transgenders want “privilege” even as their sexual choices have nothing whatsoever to do with work competence.
“White privilege” is now a rallying cry to further disadvantage Whites while preferring every other group that flies their flag. Everything is racist, including insisting that math must be flexible as getting the right answer is a racial trope. Haven’t these ideas jumped the shark? Companies want to hire the best people to give them a competitive edge. Schools want students to graduate. But everything that is happening now in terms of preference is aimed at valuing race and sex over competence and hard work. And in the end, that hurts everyone. After all, if you know that your doctor was “helped” to get through med school, would you want to trust your life to him/her?
Better Ways to Help Everyone
You cannot fix outcomes, but the best way to give everyone the best opportunity is to fix the school system. Covid peeled back the curtain on the failure of public schools, so instead of trying to fix them (a fool’s errand given the unions), let’s give the money to parents and let them opt for a choice that best meets the needs of their children. Universal vouchers not only would allow parents to give their children a great education but would also incent all educators to do a better job. Competition is what makes everyone rise to do better. Privilege then means being given an excellent start at life, allowing each of us to rise to our best selves. And when we do this, we’ll all start getting along better, because we won’t be putting race, religion, sex, etc. in the way of working together.
