Today’s reading The heart of Whiteness by Robert Jensen about white privilege had more than a few points which I cannot help but to contest. The idea of white guilt is particularly disconcerting, why should I as an individual be tasked with carrying the blame for a system that I neither created nor perpetuate? The readings itself makes the claim that the individual is not at fault for the system which society operates under but just a few paragraphs later the author infers that I and all white people should for some reason be miserable for being born white, even hate myself, I refuse to. Feeling guilt for a situation that I had no part in creating and little power to change is a lesson in futility. To me white guilt will in no way help us towards the absolute equality of people, it achieves nothing other than providing the perception that white people disapprove of the current societal model that they continue to benefit from. Equality should be our only focus, not assigning blame. For me it’s not a matter of whether or not white privilege exists because it clearly does. The question of how to end white privilege however is amazingly complex.
The real question is how to find a way to dismantle the system of privilege that has literally defined how society operates for generations without seriously upsetting an already fragile economy or creating new tensions between races. To me America has always been about the individual, his or her own hard work leading to their individual success, which makes leveling the playing field for an entire race much harder, It may seem cold but I honestly have no interest in ensuring that the African American community has the same amount of wealth as their white counterparts, only that they should be provided that equal opportunity to achieve the same level of success, not the guarantee of it. The best methods of ensuring equality are not always clear, take heavy handed government programs which dictate who businesses must hire for example, an African American employee who was hired through affirmative action will never be given the same respect by his co-workers as an employee hired on merit alone, even if he is more than qualified, the belief that he was hired only to fulfill a quota is not beneficial to supporting the idea of equality but instead suggest that non-white people inherently need government programs to achieve the same as their white counterparts, only furthering the ambiguity and tensions between races.
I feel that the solution to white privilege lies with the individuals who make up the institutions that propagate the current status quo. If these individuals in charge of hiring and policy making can be taught the unfairness of white privilege, and to view people based on the merits of their actions and accomplishments alone, I believe that white privilege will slowly be phased out of our society. Hopefully the bosses/ landlords/ loan officers of tomorrow will not even take an applicant’s race into account when making decisions. But it is important to note the word slowly, this is not a problem that can be solved within a decade, it will take years upon years of educating youths to see a demonstrable change in society’s perception of race and inherent privilege. Historically the perception of race has moved towards equality as time proceeds, we must simply acknowledge that we are a single point on the continuum and that the next generation will be better than the previous and so on.
Attached is a funny segment by Louis C.K on the subject of white privilege - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CmzT4OV-w0&feature=fvst
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