the evolution of a charge: from white privilege to white supremacist

[haele]

56. There is an inheirent privilege to race. Race is the second assumption marker at first sight.

The difference an adult and a child is the first marker.
But after that, race comes before gender, before age if adult, before "class" or the quality of the clothing they wear.

The very first reaction on seeing an adult will be a reaction to their race. The profile we start building of people we don't recognize is based on the first things we see about them, and after "is this a child or an adult" is "what does this person look like - and the color of the skin of the face is the next thing we notice - because we as a species look at faces for recognition and threat cues.

In this society, that "first impression" - the assumption - is the difference between how police, or businesspeople, or even educators, are going to start reacting to someone.
Race is the difference between the police deciding which driver is suspicious in an area where there's been problems. There is an institutional white privilege, whether you want to admit it or not.

Example:
You are getting ready to walk in a working-class neighborhood you are not familiar with. One side of the street, you see a small group of young white people in a front yard in casual clothes drinking beers and engaging in a bit of horseplay while a few of them are working on a car in the driveway. A little further down and across the street, you see a similar small group of young black people milling around on a front lawn and porch drinking beers, engaging in a bit of horseplay, apparently working on a car in their driveway. Both are playing music loudly, and seem to be having a lot of tipsy fun.

I'm not asking you to post your answer or even asking what race you are, but I'm asking you to picture the scene and think about this - what do you feel when you picture both events? Which event has the greatest risk of violence breaking out? Which group do you think the cops are going to be called on?
Which side of the street do you choose to walk down?

This is not a reaction based on the actual merits of the person or what they are actually doing, this is a basic visceral tribal type reaction.

This is why many people talk about white privilege.

Haele