To ask when you’ve experienced white privilege

[Whitepriv]

Sadly I know I have. In East London at a high rise, was checking into an Airbnb and couldn’t find the lockbox despite instruction so was looking extremely dodgy, looking under lots of the block of flats windowsills. There’s a young black man hanging out a few metres from me smoking a cig.

Police come by and ask me if I could do with any help and if I’m okay. I tell them that I’m fine but thank you. In less than a minute, I see the same police moving on the young black man for hanging around outside the flats, with a ‘you can’t loiter here’. Sad 😞

The thing is....I know you were trying to be sarcastic..is that you ARE privileged and failure to recognise that is part of the problem.

Couldn't buy a new build in the south of France? Well boo hoo excuse me while I weep fir you.

@MockersxxxxxxxSocialDistancing

Agreed - it is a right.

However the definition of privilege is “advantage or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.” So in this instance, the oppression of BIPOC is working in your favour within the constructs of society. You have white privilege.

When I accompanied my friend who is from Burundi to the housing office to give her some moral support as she was getting nowhere in trying to sort out her housing problem despite endless phone calls, letters, visits to the offices etc. Significant headway was made after I went with her and she said it was the first time she had been treated as if her problem actually mattered. It brought me up sharp at the difference between black skin and white skin when it came to being heard and getting things sorted out. I was disgusted when that reality was literally staring me in the face,

@Fosler Wow, couldn't buy a house in France, how sad.

Anyway, just say you don't actually know the definition of white privilege and go, because you've proven multiple times that you do not.

@destroyedpeople please don't mock @fosler. Can you imagine how traumatic it must be to be refused a mortgage on a second home? If only all of those victims of police brutality knew what real trauma was then they'd really have something to march about.
#holidayhomesmatter

@fosler

You're not getting it. Privilege and white privilege are not synonymous.

Someone may not have had a "privileged" upbringing or life, but they will still have had "white privilege".

They are different concepts completely and I'm not sure why you can't grasp that.

I was in foster care, a victim of sexual assault, recently disabled in adulthood following a traumatic accident. I am certainly not privileged.

However I have still experienced and benefitted from white privilege.

Acknowledging that doesn't mean I'm saying I've had an easy life of that I'm a dick. It's a fact.

I was on a school trip to New York and there was 20 of us, guess who was the only one who got stopped by immigration? The guy with the surname Chan.

More often than I realise. These are some occasions of white privilege that come to mind:

Education Not being one of very few people (or only person) with my skin colour in a classroom or lecture hall. Feeling like I belonged there. All teachers and lecturers having the same skin colour as me, and forming relationships based on a shared cultural background.

Employment Every time I have applied for a job. At each stage of recruitment, from getting CV considered to being shortlisted for interview, then hired. My name is western and my face fits.

My attitude to the law and authority Accidentally leaving a shop without paying for something then waking back in to explain and pay. No fear that my actions would be misunderstood. Also, viewing the police as people to approach for help.

Housing Being the only white person viewing a flat for rent and later being told I was the “preferred tennant”. Other landlords/ agencies had “preferred tennants” who were in ‘full time permanent employment’ and I wasn’t at the time. (Didn’t take the flat in the end, but that is neither here nor there).

Social Mobility I grew up in a council house to working class parents, not always in employment. My mother, having left school with no qualifications, found it easy to return to education. She then got a good job. Until recently, I worked in a low wage profession. I’ve faced no barriers to furthering my education and career. Within the space of 2 years, my salary has tripled.

Excellent thread.

Years back at a NCT nearly new sales in a church hall.
As I was getting ready to leave I was followed out by 2 ladies who asked to look into the black bin bag .I was carrying ,as a seller had said something was missing from her stall and pointed me out saying she thinks I must have taken it.
I was the only black lady in the venue.I let them search ,till this day I dont know why I allowed it.
They didnt find the item. I never ever went to any nearly new sales again .

I know that I have experienced White privilege from before I was born. I was born into a family who were comfortably off and well educated. Something much more likely because I am white and my ancestors experienced white privelege.

Oxford circus almost 28 years ago with child minder and daughter. Trying to hail a black cab without any luck.
Asked childminder to go further along from me,first cab that drove past me stopped for her. I then walked over and got in with her .

I experience it most days.

My daughter has 2 children by 2 different fathers, both dual heritage. Older has our very very English surname - if I gave you 3 guesses, you one probably get it in one. Younger has her father's African surname. My friend observed that younger will be seriously disadvantaged by her surname. I was shocked by this observation but after the events of this week think he may have a point. They are both young. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as they grow up.

Similar to what others have said. White Privilege: all day, every day for the past 40+ years. Where I grew up, schools I went to, getting into university, jobs, travelling, driving, walking, shopping etc.

When people say " but I'm not privileged", well in many other areas of your life perhaps not ( gender, class, disability, sexuality, religion etc), however with regards to race, you do have this privilege daily.

I think you ask a good question to start an important conversation, but white privilege isn't something that happens in isolated incidents when we're with someone of a different race. White privilege is happening to each of the white people reading this tread right now - the safety you feel, the resources you have, the freedom to go out and not be considered a risk or be stopped for going about your life.

White privilege is present for me in the house I own - I didn't have to think twice about whether we wouldn't be chosen as the buyer because of the colour of my skin; it's present in the time I choose to dedicate to hobbies that I'm not too exhausted for due to emotional labour; it's present in the job that I have that I can safely assume my performance will be judged just on my performance, not my race or who I am as a person.

White privilege is everywhere and it can be subtle. Privilege is not knowing that something is an issue because it doesn't affect you, and identifying it is uncomfortable. That discomfort is important to feel and why it is very difficult for some white people to acknowledge their privilege because acknowledging that we could do better and benefit from the subjugation of others challenges the way we think of ourselves.

So many of you acknowledge the existence of white privilege what are you all going to do about it? Will you be vocal about it or just write little notes and think you have done your bit!

@Jaggan I am challenging people's racists posts, I am reading, watching and educating myself. I am supporting my friends. I am teaching my white sons that although they may suffer hardship in their lives, their skin colour is not the reason for it, and to stand up for people who has it happen to them.

@Jaggan I'm educating my family about our privilege and learning that I myself have been racist by not understanding it fully in the past and almost certainly benefiting from it. I've donated to BLM funds in the US and have used my (minimal) platform on social media via my business to support the movement.

I'm also a researcher, and will be citing the work of black academics in my work going forward. I will promote the writings of BAME authors to my students.

I haven't marched. I should have.

I know it's not enough but it's what I can do in my small sphere right now.

Feel very sad ... shelves and shelves of white dolls 40-50 years ago and you know what ...it really hasn’t changed much ..it starts young and if you want equality it needs to change here ...like books and fairytales ... we set our children’s impression of the world early...

It's hard to say but I imagine so many places. Sometimes my privilege is reduced by my weight as I have not been offered jobs due to this, been treated a ceratin way, cabs gone past me etc and have been failed on work at Uni or judged at work because "fats looks lazy". I am NOT comparing thin privilege with white privilege, in fact it's there ...but reduced to maybe 70%. If that's even a tiny smidge of what is experienced, its shit.

Although I believe i live in a multicultural area I feel like I get white privilege with stuff like sending in my resume and applying for rentals.. and probably a whole other bunch of stuff.

Interestingly I asked my darker skinned ex the other day if he had experienced racism to which he said not since school and that was insults like “black c*” being thrown out. I also asked him if he felt like he had been affected by white privilege and he said no.

In France on holiday with friend and our kids. Friend went to customer service to ask a question. After a while I went in search to find her standing at the desk waiting while the two people there had a conversation in French, they were talking socially, not about work ( speak a bit of French). I interrupted to ask for help and they both turned to me to help , so I indicated my friend and said, I think she is before me. Yes friend was black and I am not. Her and her daughter got stared at a lot too.

These anecdotes are fascinating but surely as white people we have experienced white privilege all our lives? Every day.

Yes we have. And some people are illustrating that with particular examples.

"I'm white"

So?

Your comment is inflammatory.

I am mixed race, Asian father, white mother, white partner. We all found your comment ignorant, racist and inflammatory.