Another 'Privileged' Diatribe From Yours Truly
INVOKING so-called 'white privilege' as a means of pacifying an angry Black population at the expense of those who are not in possession of dark skin, thus allowing the System to get away with murdering people of all colours and creeds, is like suggesting that the vicious dog that sometimes bites your neighbour hasn't already bitten you, too, and that whilst the dog-owner somehow remains unimpeachable you are to blame for either staying away from the dog or not making enough fuss when you get bitten.
On second thoughts, perhaps there is some truth in this last sentence? Not that the vast majority of White people are really 'privileged' in any way, that's just nonsense, but that we rarely ever react in a collective fashion. Blacks, at least, have retained their sense of racial identity and even though it is used to beg the System for mercy they are certainly in a more heightened state than Whites. In other words, the only 'privilege' non-Blacks have is to walk around with their eyes closed. Perceptions of suffering and exploitation, therefore, particularly in a society where consumerism has been elevated to the level of a religion, is a state of mind. When all is said and done, true racism lies in one's inability to realise that in the eyes of the System we are all Black.
I once saw a BBC young female reporter interviewing a young black guy in small town that had experienced riots, marches from some white groups, etc. He was very clear at the outset that poverty and lack of good work was the problem and cause - but she kept asking about white supremarist racism, etc forcing the conversation to racism when he had stated clearly that was not his main point. But of course he had to admit that some whites had racist views, but so did some blacks - the nation of islam eg. But she needed the racist narrative for her editor, spo she just ignored the intelligence of the young guy, and tried to hint that he was a bit stupid. JM Greer insists that his white skin gives him certain privileges, at least initially. If he dresses up, speaks the right way, etc. he has more chances of at least getting in the door to some job interviews. Obama skinned it but his facial featrures were white. Iif he had had the facial features of some West Africans, his project of becoming Prez would have been much more challenging. But he same applies if he had been a white rapper. On the other hand, I grew up where black people had to sit at the back of the bus, use different schools, residential aeas, stores and restaurants, use different beaches. It's a complex subject. Very few white non-americans i meet inderstand what the situation felt like. But so it is with many white middle and upper class americans. I had the advantage of living also in 3rd wirld countries as a child, and I with my brother adopted the culture of the semi-non-whites of Cuba and Mexico. We were honorary ehtnics, and looked at white tourists and colonists as disgusting, but necessary for the american dollar. Also as vulgar americans in an english boarding school, we were treated like white trash to begin with. So when I went back to America at the age of 30, I felt a huge wave of hate coming from the the blck presence. It was tangible, hot and scary. And justified in many ways.