I have been wanting to write an article on "privilege" for a while, but recently got pushed to do it after reading an article about how "white privilege" affected a certain black man. He gave countless examples of what he considered to be racism, and I admit that some of the acts done against him were racist. But others were just mean things that people did in general.
Not all whites are privileged. And not all privileged people are racist. There are underprivileged, non-racist white people; and there are privileged, racist black people. Oh, and what happened to all the colors in between? Also, isn't privilege really just a matter of opinion? Maybe I think it's a great advantage to be black! Another thing- privilege is made up of much more than race, isn't it? Can we just stop with the labeling and categorizing, and move forward? I think if we want to reduce racism, we should start by not stereotyping and labeling people based on their race.
Racism is definitely not okay, and we should fight against it. But I also think this society is trying to create a fake race war. There are many factors that can go into whether or not a person is privileged. We can have poor whites, we can have rich blacks. A black person may get all of their college paid for, a white person may have to pay for it by themselves. And vice versa. Though we all go through different struggles, and some may be different because of our race, there are many other factors that go into being privileged. It all depends on what your own opinion of "privilege" is. I honestly find it upsetting that so much time is spent on this topic of "white privilege," when there are a million other types of privileges that no one gives a hoot about! Except gender...But I digress.
A lot of people claim that whites have privilege based on misinterpreted statistics. I mean, if any group has "privilege" according to statistics, Asians do. According to Pew Research Center, "Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the U.S." Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't really hear anyone complaining about that. Why would we complain? Most likely, they worked hard to get to where they are.
I'm not trying to say that there isn't a race problem in the world. Again I say, racism definitely exists, and we need to fight against it together. But the way to do that is not by separating each other by race even more. We should be proud of our races, while not shaming other ones. The message that "white privilege" gives to some white people is that they got to where they are because of their color. But what if those white people actually worked really hard to get to where they are? White privilege may exist, but so does Black privilege, and Asian privilege, and Hispanic privilege, etc. There are different pros and cons to being from any race! So just be proud of who you are, and work with what you've got. It's obvious that blacks can work hard to get past any obstacles society may place on them. So you go! You do it! I'll cheer you on! You don't need our help or our pity- just work harder than us and show us how it's done!
We are all dealt different cards in life. We all have different struggles. So please, let's not make it harder on each other. African Americans deserve just as much as whites do, in terms of equality and justice- no more, and no less. Let's stop dividing each other by race and creating wars that don't need to happen. Instead, let's fight for justice, and when we see others being treated wrong, stick up for them.
