The "myth" of "White privilege".

Everybody is born into their own personal situation regarding race, wealth, sexual orientation, family. To shame someone based upon something they have no control over and in some cases disregard their opinion as they are "privileged" is completely wrong. Some lefties seem to have this idea of a Utopian world in which everybody is born completely equal and its frankly ridiculous.

Like I said, the term can be quite confrontational (I guess that's why you feel 'victimised'?), but it is a phenomenon.

There's nothing wrong with acknowledging the existence of 'white privilege'. Race, like class, gender or religion, is a significant social cleavage.

That would be an issue of inequality. For example, there are many white people who are among the lower classes and who do receive a poor education. But I feel to say that "white people are privileged" is too make a gross generalisation that verges upon racism. People with white skin are not a homogeneous group.

If we were to focus on education for instance, white working class students tend to be some of the most likely students to under perform. If we are to take Free School Meals as an adequate marker of 'working class', we see a picture starts to develop. The chart below shows how the proportion of free school meals children who achieved five good GCSEs (including English and mathematics). What we can see is that White working class children are the lowest performing group in all regions other than the South West


http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/142/14205.htm

Even Ofsted have acknowledged this:

"White British pupils are....the lowest performing ethnic group of pupils eligible for free school meals"
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/384699/Ofsted_Annual_Report_201314_HMCI_commentary.pdf




And a white working class man with a working class name who often speaks a lot of slang, has a rather working class accent and dresses in a rather working class manner (often derided as being chavs) has less of a chance than someone who is an upper class white man who is well spoken, well named and well dressed.

I think to simply talk along racial lines is to simplify what is really a complex issue and can result in ignoring the white working class, as has so often happened (GCSE figures for white working class students and Labour losing votes in traditionally white working class neighbourhoods are two examples).

I fully acknowledge this and don't dispute the privileges given to those who are not working class, but the term "white privilege" is used to reference to the advantages occasionally given to white people in the exact same position as a black, asian, hispanic person ect. For example what about the black working class? They will have the struggles of being working class In addition to being black. White privilege just describes one of the many types of privileges that can be given to a person at birth which will sometimes make their lives easier than others. However they may have to contend with other struggles as well.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Do you deny instuitional racism in the uk and abroad ? I would not blame if you did as you said your white . Your very unlikely to face the levels of discrmination or abuse that a person of colour would

Don't you think that institutional racism is just people with power being racist. Which could be due to racist parents or culture.

I am a Paki male, I don't believe that I am intrinsically disadvantaged, which seems to be the argument put forward by the concept of institutional racism.
If racism was institutional we would see no black people with higher wages, likewise for lgbt groups.

However, I do acknowledge that there is still lingering racism that causes minorities to be disadvantaged.

First off, I know this a very controversial, however I wish to ask it to see perspective.


Now that's out of the way I want to say that I'm almost completely against Political Correctness. In fact, it hurts me to not be able to speak my mind without worrying about being labelled something. Of course there are limits.

I'm a white, straight, cis, 21 year old male. According to most on the left, I'm extremely priviliged. Somehow, when I was born I was given a green card, or privilege card which allows me to have more benefits than people of colour or people of another sexuality...

Somehow people of colour, women and people belonging to other sexuality groups than my own, suffer in work and they feel as if they're being tied down with ball and chain.

I honestly don't see this.. I personally think it's a complete myth. ANYONE, so long as they work hard, can reach their dreams.


Here's a link to a thoroughly informative video about the Myth.


https://youtu.be/rvEvJaF0w2o

Just because you feel disadvantaged doesn't mean you are while i get that some people have better education than others in the uk t is actualy poor white boys who are the most disadvantaged group not minorites. In terms of being intrinsically disadvantaged i highly doubt an employer is like wow this guy is amazing a real asset to us... oh wait he is pakistani oh well guess we can't have him now, and if this does happen it is illegal and you have recourse.

What this thread has shown is that what the woman says in the video is completely correct; lots of people are posting about privileges as though they are fact, stopping debate because "you're white so you wouldn't understand" and "this minority would always face harder circumstances than white people", when in fact I haven't seen ONE post where someone has posted on regards to how "white privilege" or any "privilege" or "social construct" has stopped then getting into a job, or profession, or university that they wanted to get into based purely on their race, sexuality, gender etc.

I think the vast differences between working class white people and upper class white people necessitates us to not simply generalise a whole race. Many of the studies done comparing white, black, asian etc... do not take into account aspects like class, which I think plays a much larger factor than given credit for.

For instance, the majority of black people in the UK are working class and the majority of the upper class and middle class people in the UK are white. I think this is a large reason (though not only reason) there exists a disparity between black people and white people. But there is still a large demographic of white working class people. For example, people mention about being able to walk around a shop without being followed by security. However, can we say with certainty that a working class black youth is any more likely than a working class white youth (who would often be labelled as a chav) to be followed around a store by security. Essentially, how much of the discrimination black youths receive can be put down to skin colour and how much can be put down to them being as a demographic, largely working class?

looooooooooooool

Please look at the stats before claiming poor white boys are the most disadvantaged.

You need to look at the stats

Another individual that has completely misunderstood what white privilege is.

White Working Class boys do the worst,but why?

Privilege doesn't only come in the means of money.......

How would an individual know their working class to even contemplate whether to follow them.

First off, I know this a very controversial, however I wish to ask it to see perspective.


Now that's out of the way I want to say that I'm almost completely against Political Correctness. In fact, it hurts me to not be able to speak my mind without worrying about being labelled something. Of course there are limits.

I'm a white, straight, cis, 21 year old male. According to most on the left, I'm extremely priviliged. Somehow, when I was born I was given a green card, or privilege card which allows me to have more benefits than people of colour or people of another sexuality...

Somehow people of colour, women and people belonging to other sexuality groups than my own, suffer in work and they feel as if they're being tied down with ball and chain.

I honestly don't see this.. I personally think it's a complete myth. ANYONE, so long as they work hard, can reach their dreams.


Here's a link to a thoroughly informative video about the Myth.


https://youtu.be/rvEvJaF0w2o

I think the vast differences between working class white people and upper class white people necessitates us to not simply generalise a whole race. Many of the studies done comparing white, black, asian etc... do not take into account aspects like class, which I think plays a much larger factor than given credit for.

For instance, the majority of black people in the UK are working class and the majority of the upper class and middle class people in the UK are white. I think this is a large reason (though not only reason) there exists a disparity between black people and white people. But there is still a large demographic of white working class people. For example, people mention about being able to walk around a shop without being followed by security. However, can we say with certainty that a working class black youth is any more likely than a working class white youth (who would often be labelled as a chav) to be followed around a store by security. Essentially, how much of the discrimination black youths receive can be put down to skin colour and how much can be put down to them being as a demographic, largely working class?

Nowhere did I state that money is the only factor.

You have obviously never heard of the term 'chav'. People have no difficultly in pointing out that a person is a chav (working class), from the way they speak, their mannerisms, the way they dress, their accents etc... In fact, we have whole shows dedicated to denigrating this group, for example The Jeremy Kyle Show.



Like I stated, a large percentage of black men and women in the UK also happen to be working class. Can you say with absolute certainty then, that class plays no factor here, and only racism is at play?



Racial discrimination does happen. Nobody can deny that. But the issue here is people ignoring issues of class.

Class is a very important factor. The ignoring of the issues effecting white working class people is one of the greatest reasons for the failure of the parties on the Left recently, and has allowed far right groups like UKIP to jump upon this often ignored demographic and provide a scapegoat for their problems. This "White privilege" generalisation has ultimately led to increases in xenophobia and current negative attitudes towards immigration. I think the failing to acknowledge the importance of class and the generalising of white people as a homogeneous demographic is a problem in need of address.