To think we are more divided by class, than race.

[WendyLooes]

I keep hearing the phase white privilege and can't understand it. I live in the North of England and some of the communities up hear are 99% white and living in poverty.

I understand that in many parts of London minority communities are also in poverty. I think that these people are bot victims of classism in modern Britain.

I once heard a story about Tudor Britain, London had a small black community which was protected by the English peasants.

This is not to say racism is not still a problem, however I believe classism is much more of an issue then racism.

I reject terms like white privilege because I think we need to make a bigger deal of class privilege. I honestly believe very few people are racist. The idiots that I have come across are reading (insert right wing paper) and doing exactly what the upper classes love a divided working class.

So aibu to think terms like white privilege keep us divided. The same as the right wing press. They both cause resentment.

[Sansarya]

White privilege isn't just about money OP. For example, your average white guy will be able to walk down the street and drive his car around without worrying that the police are going to subject him to a random stop and search. Young black men don't have that privilege.

[WendyLooes]

Goodbye thats why they should be banned.

[RonaldosAbs]

As a mixed race person who grew up poor and is now very well off, race is far more of a divider in my experience. You are not in touch with reality if you think very few people are racist. Just because you haven't experienced it, that doesn't mean it isn't there.

[WendyLooes]

The heads of the police is very much in the establishment. Black people are more likely to live in poverty, poverty brings crime. This is because the black community is smaller and overrepresented in crime figures as it is more impoverished.

The same could be said about poor white people, except you have white people at every level as we are a white majority country.

[WendyLooes]

RonaldosAbs - But racism is the other side of the coin. If your told by the certain media to be racist (insert newspaper) you will. Either way it still leads to a divided working class.

[Blistory]

Why do you think black people are likely to live in poverty ? Could it possibly be because of the racism inherent in so much of western society ?

[prorsum]

The nature of London means you will get the wealthy living in fairly close proximity to the poor in many, though not all, areas. I don't have to travel far the see WP in all it's glory.

It's true poor whites have more in common with poor minorities but only if the whites are not racists with they see this.

[Blistory]

Black men and women are more likely to be found guilty of a crime statistically than a white person on the same charges. When found guilty, they are much more likely to receive a custodial sentence, particularly black women. Their race, much more so than their class, is the factor that leads to their harsher treatment.

[Lurkedforever1]

I get where you're coming from with the media breeding resentment. But I think you're off with the upper class theory, it's the lower middle classes I find are more likely to be classist, for want of a better word.
I don't think for the everyday non idiot person it's either class or race that create divides, its culture and lifestyle. And some people have bigger culture gaps whether that's class or race, rather than skin colour.

[WendyLooes]

Very few people are actual racists. We would have a racist government in if that were the case. We would not have any immigration if that was the case as a large percentage of people would be against it.

Do you think that it is possible that you are more likely to remember racist people then non racist.

[fakenamefornow]

people from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be poor

Is that true though or does it actually depend more on which ethnic minority you belong to if you are likely to be poor or not? I don't know the answer to this BTW.

I remember hearing on radio 4 a few years ago a discussion about educational attainment and ethnic minority. I seem to remember working class white males at the bottom and that poor Chinese children out did every other ethnic/class group apart from rich Chinese children.

Completely agree about white privilege being a thing though. Perfect example up thread regarding black men being stopped by the police more. Although I wonder if we unpicked that more would how much money the police thought the black man had (or should have) also be a factor? ie. Black people should be/are more likely to be poor, the poor are more likely to commit crimes, I should stop this black man, thinks the police officer?

[WendyLooes]

Im not denying racism exists! I am just saying that i disagree white privilege is not accurate because you have poor white people that don't benefit.

Call it Class privilege because its more accurate. In my opinion black people are more likely to live in poverty because of a number reasons. Some of which vary depending on different countries. US for example i would agree with you, but the U.k I disagree.

[prorsum]

I don't believe banning private schools would make much difference tbh. The 'best' schools in my borough just happen to be where the white and wealthy live and they're not private, though they may as well be. You need serious money to live in the catchment area and if you don't own a home there, you just rent one for a couple of years and then your kid gets into secondary.

[Blistory]

White privilege does not mean racism per se. It can simply mean the absence of a negative stereotype. All white people benefit from that but it doesn't necessarily make them racist.

What it does do, however, is to make it very difficult for white people to see their own racism or the racism inherent within the way society operates.

The world is shaped in the image of white people - how is that in itself not racist ?

[YeOldeTrout]

It's hard to pick out the separate effects of racism & class, but they are separate in most areas. It's not competition, though. Unfair is unfair.

[Lurkedforever1]

Should have added yabvu about private schools. Except perhaps a tiny minority the majority of private parents use them because the state alternatives aren't adequate in some way, not for nice furniture and class elitism.

[fakenamefornow]

Very few people are actual racists. I agree in the 'fuck off back to your own country' sense, but racism is about so much more than that though isn't it. You must be able to see that?

[Blistory]

Reported that one Wendy as it's highly offensive.

[Sansarya]

Very few people are actual racists

No OP, very few people will go around saying things like "I hate blacks" or "All P*kis should go back to where they're from". But if you scratch the surface you will find that there are a lot of people who hold slightly more insidiously racist views.

[MizK]

The whole baby mama thing?

Ffs.

[YeOldeTrout]

You really don't think centuries of slavery followed by systematic institutionalised oppression didn't have anything to do with how black Americans fare now, Wendy?

[Sansarya]

"The whole baby mama thing" = the more insidious form of racism that I mentioned in my previous post.

[Ubik1]

Don't you find the whole 'white privilege' thing a bit lazy?

I see it all the time now and it seems to be a way of dismissing any argument about identity or society made by anyone white.

[Blistory]

I think white people have enough of a voice. If calling out white privilege shuts us up long enough to let others be heard, I'm all for it.