Hi there everyone, I'm white...

[jobycom]

202. See my response in Post 201. This is why we need constant discussion of White Privilege.

What you describe as an uncomfortable situation for some white people may be true, and it may suck, but it is not what we are talking about when we talk about White Privilege. White privilege is the underlying structure of this nation which makes the cops in your example believe that the black neighborhood is a bad neighborhood, or that no white person would choose to go there except for illicit reasons. It's the fact that white people can avoid that situation by not going into that neighborhood, whereas black people cannot avoid the lack of privilege no matter what they do. Trayvon Martin was murdered in a mixed neighborhood near his own home by a guy who thought a black kid there looked suspicious. Michael Brown was murdered in a black neighborhood near his own home. Unarmed black men in recent months have been murdered by cops with impunity inside their own apartment complex stairwells, and inside their own apartments. I know you know this. I assume if you are on DU that you feel this and hate this and want to see it changed.

What White Privilege means is that if you're white, you have to worry a little about these things, but you don't have to worry that you will be killed by a cop in your own home for being white. You don't have to worry when you get turned down for a job that it was because you were white, and although sometimes that happens, you can be sure it's not going to happen multiple times in a row. I could go on, easily, but I'm sure you can add your own examples to this list, since I'm sure you wouldn't be hanging around DU unless you already understood this.

Read the whole think before responding. I'm not trying to say you are doing or thinking or saying or believing anything wrong. Not at all. On the contrary, you are participating in this discussion, and that means you are a beautiful person trying to understand, as, I hope, I am too. What I'm saying is that the concept of White Privilege that some are attacking on this board isn't what the multitude of scholars and activists who talk about White Privilege are talking about. It is much bigger, much deeper, and much worse than a case of simple bias in individual circumstances. It's about full equality, and assumptions of inferiority, and the fact that even the best intentioned people don't always see the heart of the issue.