On White Privilege

I've been conducting my own social experiment on social media. I came across an article on my Facebook feed about a man, John Placek, in Pennsylvania that posted a billboard that sparked some racial controversy.

The message on the billboard dissolves from the statement: “whites have rights” to a message about Jussie Smollett -- the actor involved in the hoax attack in Chicago. Regarding the billboard Placek (who is white) stated: “We gotta get people talking. We gotta get them excited. And that’s what I’ve done. The board was never meant to hurt anybody. I would never do that. I’m a patriot. I’m an American. Period,”

Placek also stated: “Racism is misunderstood in America and I want to have the conversation," he said. “We need to get over: I’m black. You’re white. You’re Hispanic. Who cares? I don’t care about that. I do care about how you act and how you stand for my flag, our flag.”

I agree with some of what he says, but do not believe he simply wants to start a dialogue. I believe he is racist and wants to tell the world that he is. I also take exception to his statements about patriotism. There is nothing more patriotic than dissent. As for Jussie Smollett, who by all accounts staged a racist attack on himself - he couldn't have come up with a more idiotic thing to do.

But, here's where it gets interesting. I posted the following:

“I think the conversation needs to be about privilege, not rights. In theory, we all have equal rights. But, in practice white privilege is alive and well. Choose whatever metric makes you happy ... economic, incarceration rates, education levels, or whatever. Whites are at the top of the spectrum, not by anything white people have done, but just because they're white. That's called privilege. The billboard is blatantly racist. He's calling out people to argue with him. Saying, poor me, I'm white and nobody fights for my rights. Well, that's because white people enjoy white privilege at every turn. He can say what he wants in his billboard and then own up to the consequences. Free speech.”

For that, I received an interesting set of responses:

“the term “ white privilege “ is racist in its self . What’s it called when. Once group says another group you have no rights to talk about racism ? Oh yes , bigoted and racist”

“your post is blatantly racist. Had the board said any other race you wouldn’t of said anything. Everyone has rights. Just because you’re salty about your lack of success doesn’t make it anyone else’s fault. You have no idea how anyone else grew up.”

“you’re isolating a group based on the color of their skin”

“White privilege has been debunked many times.”

“Everything you named has more to do with personal choices than any type of privilege. People have to take responsibility for their own choices instead of blaming another person's "privilege." One person's success doesn't take away from another person's success. If you don't want to be incarcerated then don't commit crimes. If you want an education then work hard and pay for it. Not to mention, there are many trade skills and manual labor jobs that don't require you to pay anything to learn it. The schooling is essentially free for many trade skills. Which is a field dominated by white males because white males are the ones willing to do the job. Everyone in this country has equal opportunity. Not everyone has equal outcome due to their own personal choices. That has nothing to do with race or privilege. “

I suppose the respondents assume I'm not white. I am white. I recognize my white privilege and am thankful for it. Privilege is like having a head start in a foot race. If all run at the same speed, the runners with the head start always win. Runners without the head start can win, but to do so, they have to train harder and run faster just to level the playing field. Just to try to make things fair. But the race set up like this can never be fair because the runners without the head start had to train harder and run faster to even have a chance of winning.

In this article, I'm not going to cite statistics to support my claim that white privilege is alive and well in the United States. I believe we need a dialogue. I welcome comments. Because if we are complacent about racism, we are no better than the German people who during WWII stood by as the Nazis murdered innocent people.

Links to news story and video:

Video