Dreamer’s World June 22 2015 - White Privilege is the Main Obstacle to Overcome

White Privilege is a term that recently arrived in the public consciousness via Social Media in response to the epidemic of police brutality and murder across the nation. White Privilege is the mindset that affects many Whites and prevents them from seeing the real problems of racism and inequality that are plaguing our society.
White Privilege is the mindset that everything is really fine, and that racism is a thing of the past. White Privilege is a way for whites to walk around the thorny issue of racism. White Privilege assumes that all people are treated equally because that is what Whites are led to believe. The instances of inequality and racism are always attributed to “isolated incidents” and will NEVER constitute a pattern of racist behavior.
White Privilege teaches whites that whenever blacks or other monitories bring up the issue of racism that it must be because they are lazy and unwilling to work hard to earn anything. This viewpoint is in itself, extremely racist, because it automatically places the blame on the victims of racism and not on the perpetrators, because racism doesn’t exist. The mental gymnastics required to reason this way are ridiculous and offensive.
White Privilege can be used in almost any circumstance because it has a nebulous definition. Non-Whites are the cause of their own trouble, and there is no blame that can be laid at the feet of White society for these problems.
Whenever racism is identified, the first response by White Privilege is to exclaim that the non-whites must be attempting to get “something for nothing”, or that they are trying to obtain special rights. The idea that there are legitimate grievances doesn’t occur to the followers of White Privilege.
“They need to work harder”. or “I never have been a racist and am offended by that suggestion” are often used as defensive arguments by the followers of White Privilege. They exist in this bubble of unreality where only hard work gets results. Actually in the real world there are multiple instances of where the color of one’s skin can and is used to enforce preferential treatment. It is as if the followers of white Privilege know that they are benefiting from the system and do not want the level playing field that they so often brag about.
White Privilege and Racism are finely wound together. One cannot exist without the other. Instances of Racism need to be clearly called out, as well as the accompanying White Privilege that goes along with these instances.
Since I am White, I cannot clearly define all of the aspects of White Privilege, I understand that. It is something that is os insidious that I will miss aspects of it, and I don’t want any unintentional omissions to be counted against me. This is just what I can determine from my first review of the subject, it cannot possibly be complete but at least it is a start.