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Originally Posted by Shae Schnerch
You don't benefit from say "not being harassed by the cops" if you're white and frequently get harassed by the cops. You don't benefit from "the gender wage gap" if you earn less than the average female in your field.
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It's true that there are white people who get harassed by cops...but do they get harassed by cops BECAUSE they are white? If not, that could be considered a benefit/privilege when other minorities don't have the same benefit.
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Originally Posted by Shae Schnerch
The reason you learn mostly about white history and white accomplishments is because there are simply more of those. Throughout a lot of invention, art and religion, typically the kind of topics covered in non-US education, black people were an oppressed minority and their ability to invent, create art or influence religion was greatly depreciated, so there were less noteworthy moments than there were from white people.
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How can you be sure that there are more accomplishments by whites throughout history? Is it because that's what you've learned? Is it that others haven't accomplished as much, or we just haven't learned as much about others' accomplishments? Blacks were only enslaved (by whites) for about 400 years. That period represents only a sliver of their entire history. Surely that can't explain the reason why we know so little about black accomplishments. What about all the millenia before they were enslaved?
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Originally Posted by Shae Schnerch
"When you get pulled over, you can be sure it's not of your race". What if it's because of my age? In this context, why is race such a massive huge deal? What about age privilege? Not a big deal eh? No MTV Encoded videos on that eh? Why not?
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If people were getting pulled over or harassed on the simple basis of their age, that is a problem...and it would be a privilege to those who don't have to worry about that. Let's say we're both 22. We can both get pulled over for our age (if that were a thing), but in addition to that, I'm also more likely to get pulled over because I'm black. That's one less thing for you to worry about, and even though you can get pulled over for a number of other reasons, the fact that getting pulled over because you are white is not one of them would be considered white privilege.
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Originally Posted by Shae Schnerch
If you were to check really any numbers, if there are any available, people getting pulled over are MUCH more likely to be of a younger age compared to being pulled over for a racially motivated thing. Also things like the type of car you drive, your dress sense, how you are driving. These factors rank waaay before race in the reasons people get pulled over.
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You're not even sure if there are numbers available showing younger people are much likely to be pulled over, and even if those numbers exist and you are right, that doesn't prove that it is because they are younger. Conversely, numbers showing black people are more likely to be pulled over doesn't necessarily prove they are pulled over because they are black either. I've personally never had anyone tell me they got pulled over because they think the cop hates young people..so I'm not sure how prevalent that is compared to people who feel they are harassed by cops because of their race.
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Originally Posted by Shae Schnerch
"You can be sure it's not because of your race", that is true, sort of. But you can't be sure that it IS because of your race. A lot of the time, if a black man is pulled over frequently, it'll be blamed on his race. Of course, cops must be racist. Why then, if a white person is pulled over equal or more times throughout the same time frame, is he in receipt of "white privilege"? He got pulled over more, where's the racial injustice in that?
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I agree that it's subjective...if that's where you're getting at. No one can look inside any officer's brain and pinpoint the exact racist neuron triggered across its synapse at that specific time to prove the officer pulled them over because of their race. I don't think it's about how often you're pulled over so much as WHY you are pulled over. A white person can be pulled over a million times, and if not one of those times is because they are white, it's still a form of privilege.
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Originally Posted by Shae Schnerch
The problem with "white privilege" is that it's saying "white people have these privileges because they are white" (would also like to interject that many who believe white privilege is a thing don't believe black privilege is a thing). White people, as a group, DON'T have those privileges. People get pulled over constantly in some neighbourhoods whilst never committing any crimes. If people wanted to extend white privilege to "SOME white people" instead of "white people" then sure, I could accept that...but in that case why the fuck would we be talking about it because SOME black people are very fortunate and privileged as well.
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I don't think the people that say there is white privilege are saying it's an absolute thing where if you are white you will never get pulled over for any reason whatsoever. You could be pulled over because you have tattoos or match a description or any number of other reasons including the ones you have mentioned.