Thomas Sowell writes often on the powerful use to which certain people put vocabulary in manipulating the opinions of the public about complex dynamics in society. One of these manipulative uses of vocabulary concerns the use of the terms “advantages” “disadvantages” & “Privilege.” These are bumper sticker phrases loaded with entire visions of reality that an unsuspecting and easily manipulated populace absorb subconsciously.
He says, “One of the ways of sealing off a vision from the intrusion of discordant facts is with an ideological vocabulary that neutralizes such facts. One of the most important facts to be neutralized and excluded a priori[1] from the prevailing vision of our times is the fact of differences in capabilities among individuals, groups, nations and civilizations. When achievements are described as advantages or privileges, differences in outcomes ex post[2] are treated as evidence or proof of differences in opportunities ex ante.[3] What these verbal fashions accomplish, in a wide range of circumstances, is to preclude internal explanations of inter-group differences in favor of external explanations.”[4]
i.e. by describing the success of some as the result of unfair privilege and unfair advantage and NOT as the product of choice, gifting, labor, or investment everything a person or group has accomplished is deemed undeserved. They are not examples to follow, but cheats to be disdained. It is meant to dismiss the productivity of some cultural values over others. So also, by describing the failures of some as the result of disadvantage or a lack of privilege they are relieved of any sense of personal responsibility for their situation. They are not negative examples of the patterns of failure, but hapless victims who should be artificially propped up and protected from the natural consequences of their own cultural and personal choices.
Just so, “White Privilege” is a phrase designed to do three things.
First, tossing out the phrase “White Privilege” is meant to exclude Caucasians (and I’m guessing Asians, since they are even more successful than Caucasians in America) from ever speaking a word on race issues that isn’t fed to them by the left or by the non-white communities.
Second, tossing out the phrase “White Privilege” is meant to suggest that whatever a Caucasian (or Asian) accomplishes in life, he or she doesn’t deserve it… or as our beloved president has stated it… “You didn’t build that.” This soul should be ashamed of his or her accomplishments because they were not the product of work ethic, hard or smart labor and dedication, they were the product of oppressive systems that unfairly advantaged them over others. It is designed to instill the majority with profound feelings of guilt and shame. There is actually a TV show called “White People” designed to reduce Caucasians to shame laden tears for how unfair it is for them to be them.[5]
Third, tossing out “White Privilege” is meant to excuse whatever failings exist in a non-Caucasian person, group, culture, or nation. Non-whites shouldn’t be held responsible for their inability to function in law abiding or mainstream society. They shouldn’t be expected or required to perform educationally or vocationally on par with others… they should be given special lower criteria to meet in all areas of life. After all, “Whites just don’t know what it’s like to…” blah blah blah.
White Privilege is not just a racist term against whites, it is a racist term against blacks and Hispanics who are not even given the dignity of being responsible for their own shortcomings… “They can’t help it…” “We shouldn’t expect so much from them…” “They’re socially handicapped and need special rules to help them equal the accomplishments of Caucasians.” How absurd.
One Georgetown student, after being robbed at gun point by two minorities claimed ““Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as ‘thugs?’ It’s precisely this kind of ‘otherization’ that fuels the problem,” Friedfeld wrote.”[6]
This is such deep racism it makes me sick. He basically said that these two criminals couldn’t be expected to be anything else because they didn’t have his “privilege.” Only animals are treated as being hapless products of their natures, entities that can’t be expected to exemplify basic social patterns of civility. One does not hate an animal who does what his nature dictates no matter how much one may fear its power and unpredictability. Giving a pass to minorities for being victims is tantamount to declaring them hapless animals.
Cultures have consequences and choices have consequences. We do no one a service by lowering the standards by which they are judged. When we give certain people a pass on their behavior or standards for reward, we enable those elements of their life and culture that keep them from true achievement. We rob them of a sense of personal responsibility, and of a chance to find true success and prosperity in the world. We convince them that they are owed something in life because of some supposed disadvantage for which others are responsible, and by doing so short circuit the natural processes by which they might overcome the worst elements of human nature. We are more interested in our own self-congratulations for our “sensitivity” than in doing what it takes to help minority communities and individuals to succeed at life.
To those who will respond, “Yeah, you can say that because you’re white and you don’t know what it’s like to…” blah, blah, blah… let me say…Nobody knows what its like to be anyone else but themselves. Everybody faces challenges in life that need to be overcome in order to make their way in the world.
Nature/God has ordained different starting points for all of us—different parents, different abilities, different cultures, different personalities, different social stratum. Everything thereafter is determined by our choices. The stupid and ignorant will rarely outperform the intelligent and educated; the lazy will rarely out perform the industrious; those whose parents love, educate, and discipline them will tend to do better than those who are abused, who disdain learning, and are never forced to comply with social norms; being spoiled is its own struggle; being dazzlingly good looking has its own complications (not that I would know anything about that personally).
Let’s say it plainly… THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD… never has been, never will be, and the pipe dream that one is possible if only… blah, blah blah, is short-circuiting the processes by which those who have embraced victim-hood might achieve better things for themselves in this world. There is no such thing as a level playing field… THAT’S LIFE; QUIT WHINING; MAKE BETTER CHOICES FROM WHERE YOU STAND.
Is there bias, prejudice, racism, discrimination in the world? Absolutely… of every sort among every group… but those are part of the circumstances amid which a person has to make wise choices. It is the highest form of hubris to imagine that we can or should “level the playing field.” Leveling the playing field means reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator, crippling the strong, diminishing the gifted in order to achieve some new morality of equality of result, rewarding indolence, ignorance and dysfunction while punishing achievement and stability.
In this brave new world of forced equality, everyone suffers greater deprivation because such systems are built on planned inefficiency. Everyone is reduced, but we make ourselves feel better about it because at least it’s equally shared misery and dilapidation.
The question we have to ask is whether we are interested in helping struggling people and communities to overcome what ails them, or whether we are merely interested in rousing rhetoric that has no value for anyone, especially minority communities. No one ever got ahead in life by embracing victimhood, shirking personal responsibility, and seeking a pass on moral, educational or vocational expectations.
You think I should check my privilege? Should unpack my privilege? I think you should put your energy to where it can do the most good… and that is NOT by tearing down the strong to make the weak feel better. That hurts everyone.
[1] Assumed as a starting point for reasoning without proof.
[2] based on actual results rather than forecasts
[3] Based on projections before hand
[4] Black Rednecks and White Liberals pg. 249
[5] http://video.foxnews.com/v/4347153432001/new-mtv-documentary-shames-white-privilege/?#sp=show-clips; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRJnkBqwzOQ
[6] http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2014/11/29/student-robbed-at-gunpoint-says-he-deserved-it-due-to-his-privilege/
