Why White Privilege Is A Myth & Affirmative Action Is Evil

The mythic nature of White Privilege is all too obvious should one visit Norwood and observe at the poor White trash there. Many are violent, functionally illiterate, on drugs and the product of unplanned birth - just your typical ghetto dwellers. White Privilege certainly doesn't do much for them, hmm? You know why that is?

Because White Privilege is ultimately a myth invented by White people. The origin of White Privilege was rich slaveowners telling poor Whites that it was all because of the Blacks that they didn't have jobs working the land. This myth was designed to keep poor Whites as enemies of the Black slaves and not as allies against the rich Whites who played them off against each other to enrich themselves.

This is also the historical reason why Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln were opposed to slavery: not that they cared about Black people, but that they believed slavery was a "moral & social evil" to Whites. The same basic dynamic can be seen today; even with the end of slavery, racist attitudes still engender a miasma of complacency on White Middle American populations that makes them less competitive and dynamic than other societies - holds them back.

White Privilege has never really been a kind of privilege at all. Rather, what is called White Privilege is nominal enfranchisement - access to social services such as housing, employment, education, police protection, etc.

The myth was later resurrected in the postwar era by demogogues who used it as a code word for stealing the White guy's cake instead of baking another cake for the Black guy. And the guy doing the stealing isn't a Black, it's some cynical White (and usually female) bureaucrat who hopes to keep a slice for himself, and prefers not to sully herself by dealing with the actual problems of Black people.

The cake in question - access to housing, employment, scholarships, social services etc - always belongs to a middle-class White male. It never belongs to a wealthy White (because they are wealthy and well-connected enough to make sure they keep their cake), a poor White (because they have no cake to steal), or a female White (because they are the single most overprivileged group in America, universally regarded with unequivocal sympathy and considered incapable of doing wrong, which is why the Feminist movement has been so successful in keeping their own White privilege firmly entrenched, and why White Women are at the opposite end of the spectrum from Blacks when it comes to being convicted, acquitted or granted diversion by criminal courts).

In short, White Privilege is and has always been a form of demagoguery - manipulating the lowest common denominators in the service of self-interest.

The contemporary answer to statistically superior White outcomes in employment, education and wealth is Affirmative Action. The answer is wrong, and I will tell you why it is wrong.

All Affirmative Action does, is string along the status quo and play into the hands of wealthy racists, who don't want to spend or get involved in the needs of Black communities by investing in things that could really make a difference for poor Blacks and Whites alike - police coverage, primary education, medical care, urban renewal, etc.

Affirmative Action, a new form of racial privilege, will turn out just like the old. White Privilege doesn't help poor White trash in Norwood (or even the frustrated and rapidly disappearing White middle class); it only helps a certain percentage of wealthy, well-connected Whites. By the same token, Affirmative Action won't really help poor Black communities or even middle-class Blacks; it will only help a small percentage of well-connected Blacks who are pulling the strings - people who are themselves totally uninterested in real change or progress, only holding onto their personal power.

Case study: Indian gaming. Indian gaming, or Alaskan oil franchising, hasn't bettered the lives of indigenous peoples. Why? Because all the money, power and connections go to a handful of tribal insiders who are more interested in their own betterment than improving conditions for their tribe. That's not race at work...just human nature.

The only way out is true equality of opportunity. Equalizing opportunity, not outcomes. Outcomes may or may not follow (the first modern Quota system was introduced in the universities of Czarist Russia, because Jews, despite being a widely despised minority, won entrance at a rate grossly disproportionate to their meager numbers). And what equality of opportunity means, is building the pyramid from the ground up: ensuring education, healthcare and public safety for the next generation.

But this is slow and difficult work, and the reason we have Affirmative Action is, no one - Black or White, Dem or GOP, rich, poor or middle-class - really wants to get down in the mud and get the work done. Unfortunately, it is easier for all parties involved to hand out jobs and degrees than critically examine and reform our social infrastructure.