White males especially try to hallucinate this persecution complex where the whole world, all women, all minorities, are trying to tear white men down, when really they’re just trying to climb up to equal status. Why are so many whites ignorant of the benefits of their “uniform of the skin”, trying to pretend instead that race privilege does not exist, and therefore they don’t need to do anything about it? I think it’s just a too hard of a truth to face. People always want to think they’re the plucky underdog. But it’s dishonest, anybody capable of looking at statistics with an honest and unflinching eye can see that, and can see that for no good reason white males get more.

Maybe more people need to read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Hocus Pocus” (where I got the term “uniform of the skin” from), it really opened my eyes to race and class privileges.

Anthony G: We’re talkin’ deep south. Missing teeth, possum and Colonel Sanders… who I might add also preferred to do breast exams, then batter and deep fry them.

Megan: Why is it that the only demographic group it’s still socially acceptable to make fun of is poor southern whites?

Anthony G: Well, it’s socially acceptable to make fun of/discriminate against poor southern blacks if you’re poor southern white. Let’s not cry out persecution just yet.

Megan: Aaaaaaaand we’re done here.

Anthony G: I should say so. People getting butthurt over silly things like stereotypes (which I might add are true for the majority. The 99 even) need to unclench and relax a little.

So I posted the link to this article and then blocked him on FB, because I have no interest whatsoever in repeating this conversation every time one of us comments on the status of our mutual friend. It’s not fair to her, and I have better things to do with my time than argue with a butthead.

You’re right. I never even thought how classist that was. Thanks for pointing that out. I know I’ve made comments like that before, and laughed with people who made them. I won’t again.

This was an excellent article. Well, all the articles here are fantastic, but I really appreciate this article for showing that privilege isn’t a “which is worse” or “who has it worse” game, nor is it cut and dry but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

I’ve read a few of these blogs now and I’m starting to get the impression that there is really only one (maybe 2 if you include super normative) set of privileges that really needs to be discussed and that is the privileges of the norm (or normative privileges depending on what sounds better).

Basically put, the closer you are to societies expectation of normal the easier it is for you to get by (it gets even easier if you exceed the norm), e.g. for a white collar worker it might be able-bodied white middle class cis-male that’s not too excitable (in the UK anyway). For child care it might be white middle class married woman (try being a stay at home mum as a man, and needing to change a nappie at the shops…).

Any deviation from the norm will be met with a backlash (removal of privileges) from those that consider themselves more normal than you (“ooh look at her, leaving her children at home while she goes off to work, no wonder they’re such devils”) while still not gaining all the privileges of those that you are breaking away too. While those that society considers super normal will gain more privileges. Thus if a person tries to break out of the small box that is considered normal for them and reach for the more general normal of the society they’re living in they will get ridiculed, put down, beaten up, discriminated against, and worse just for “daring to think they are above their station”. Those lucky few that manage to brave the journey and find their place closer to the norm (or super norm as the case maybe) tend to look back and see that their journey wasn’t so hard so why can’t they do it, while at the same time still resenting the privileges that they haven’t yet gained.

IMO the main reason that those that are poor are more stigmatised that those that are in another group (and so meaning that the difference between a poor black person and a poor white person is negligible in terms of the privilege that they have available to them while their poor) is that the privilege of wealth is something that is easier to lose than, say, gender, colour, etc. and so those that have that privilege are a little frightened of the reminder of what losing that privilege would actually mean (by perception rather than actuality), and so have to tell those little lies like, they obviously don’t work hard enough, or they didn’t have the right opportunities, or or or…

Conversely those people that are in the super normative group tend to think of themselves as better in some way than those lower down, whether it because they’re exceptionally lucky, better at bargaining, more beautiful, have more responsibility, or just plain worked harder, and so they are due the additional privileges that come with their station/money/position.

Ideally all of these privileges would actually be based on merit where it’s something that needs to be earned (ability to go to the pictures without worrying about which meal(s) you’re going to have to skip), given to everyone where it’s something that’s needed (education), or abolished all together where it’s just an unfair divide (higher wages for white men).

I also have to disagree with this to some extent. Sometimes the references to white privilege do imply class privilege, and this needs to be pointed out.

Also white upper-middle class bloggers and other progressives will do this, or make seemingly self-deprecating remarks about white people in general, and in this way diffuse a lot of the blame for the oppression of others onto a whole race. And by making these statements they get to seem superior to the inferior whites who think they’re better than other people (redneck racists, whatever). A neat trick!

This was a great thread, there are a lot of good ideas here.