White Privilege: The Serious Stuff

• It’s hard to see racism when you're white, but it exists all around us. I am white, I try not to be racist, but I still benefit from a system of institutionalised racism and discrimination. This is more commonly known as white  privilege.
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• In it’s simplest form, white privilege is the fact that ‘skin coloured’ is a white persons skin. It is the fact that snapchat has emojis of three generations of a white family with only two POCs (people of colour) to be found. It is the fact that I am about 78% more likely to be admitted to university than a POC.
  
  
  Admitting you’re privileged is a hard thing to do, and a lot of people struggle with it. Ultimately, however, it is obvious. Society views us on different standards, it’s so ingrained in our day to day lives that we don’t even notice it.
  
  
  Some of you may have heard about the shooting of Michael Brown in summer of last year. An infamous case that has been the source of many protests, both peaceful and violent. 
  
  
  On the 9th of August, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by 28-year-old Darren Wilson, a police officer. Brown was shot in the chest and shoulder, with Wilson firing a total of twelve bullets. Brown was on the ground with his hands above his head when he was shot, he was unarmed. Michael Brown was black. Darren Wilson was white. Darren Wilson did not face any criminal charges.
  
  
  So why has this sparked so much controversy? 
  
  
  On the 26th of December around 4pm, Julia Shields, 45, drove around a neighbourhood in Tennesse dressed in full body armour shooting randomly into other vehicles. She was apprehended by police in a car park, which lead to a car chase around town where she pointed to other cars with her weapon and at the police. She was taken into custody without incident or injury. Julia Shields was white.
  
  
  White privilege is the fact that, simply due to the colour of their skin, a white woman threatening the lives of others is in prison, and a black unarmed teenager shouting ‘don’t shoot!’ is dead.
  
  
  Unfortunately, white privilege is something white people are born into, wether we want it or not. It’s deeply ingrained within us, rooted deeper everyday by the media and other societal conventions. It is so easy to form stereotypes and prejudices, even the youngest minds are effected. 
  
  
  To see the effect of prejudice and discrimination, I suggest you watch the videos below about an experiment done in 1968 by Jane Elliott, showing how easily children are affected by authority figures and how quickly they form stereotypes and discriminate.
  
  
  
  
  So, we're privileged, what can we do about it?  
  
  
  Listen to POC and their problems, listen to their experiences of everyday racism and see what we can change about ourselves to fix that. The main thing to understand is that we are the problem, as a race. You might not be racist, but by ignoring the problem, you are contributing to it.
  
  
  Educate other people. Someone talking about the difficulties of immigration and how it means they are less likely to get a job with all these POC taking them? You shut that down immediately by explaining that they are not entitled to any job, and that therefore no one can ‘take’ it from them. Part of our privilege is that people are more likely to listen to us, lets use that.
  
  
  Don't expect POC to put up with your privilege, or take pity on your ignorance. They have to deal with it every day, from birth to the day they die, they have no sympathy for you. Let them call you out. Don’t be angry when they point out your ignorance, learn from it instead.
  
  
  White people are privileged. Understand it, accept it, and then help change it.
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• Further Education:
• Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
• Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
• White Like Me by Tim Wise
• How The Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev
• killing rage by bell hooks
• "Roots" TV miniseries
• Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• STFU Confederates
• Whiteness Studies
• Lies My Teacher Told Me
• Resist Racism
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• Sources:
• http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014083.pdf
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/30/1354762/--White-Woman-Goes-on-Shooting-Spree-yet-somehow-isn-t-automatically-Killed-By-Police#
• http://amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html
• http://thisiswhiteprivilege.tumblr.com/tagged/privilege 
• http://www.vanityfair.com/news/daily-news/2014/11/ferguson-grand-jury-verdict-darren-wilson
• http://wtfwhiteprivilege.tumblr.com/wellintentioned