White Privilege, It Doesn"t Exist

I have been debating whether or not to post this. It was a tough decision because being a white guy I have 2 strikes against me, 1. I’m white and 2. I am male. Being white an male I am not supposed to have an opinion on race or if I do have such an opinion I am supposed to keep it to myself, I guess. Well, I have surgery on Thursday, 3/13/2014, and since “you never know” I figured what the hell. Here it goes…

 Have you watched or listened to the Dunn trial , AKA the Loud Music Trial, verdict at all? I admit I did not watch or follow it unlike the George Zimmerman trial which I watched from opening statements to the verdict so I don’t know everything about it. However, I did watch enough to know the prosecutors, like with Zimmerman and the same prosecutors as Zimmerman, overcharged Dunn with 1st degree murder and there is some room for reasonable doubt — not much, but some. Considering the driver of the car was on parole, I believe there is a reason for the three survivors to not be truthful, as their friend would go bye-bye for a while. In the end, I am pretty sure Dunn is guilty of murder though.

To be clear, before I get into this article, I have zero issues with anyone’s race, sex, creed or religion. I grew up in a middle-middle class neighborhood and some my fondest memories revolve around Mrs. Seals serving us delicious frozen fruit pops on hot summer days, bringing me to Ponderosa after going to her church, occasionally spending the night, when my brother would let me, and when she brought us to the zoo. My brother was good friends with her son, Charles, and me,being the younger brother, always tried to tag along. I also have fond memories of Brian Cage who’s rear end I saved many times from other people, his mouth wrote checks his body couldn’t cash. We often hung out at his house and traveled, by bike, to the mall like idiots. The mall was miles away on major roads and we were younger than 12. Later in life, I had other great friends and coworkers who were not white. My very closest friend is from Venezuela.

I am also fairly confident that we all have black, Asian or other “minority” blood running through our veins, we all have a common ancestor whether it is Adam and Eve or the missing link. I believe in the human race, period and only judge people on the content of their character, unless they can further my career of course! I don’t see Obama as black or white, he is both you know, he is the president and like the last few presidents I dislike him and his policies. I love everyone until I get t know them, OK, are we clear about this?

Many believe the Dunn verdict is a slap in the face of blacks and proves there is no justice. I disagree, as the media simplifies these cases, inserts their narrative, which is always the worst of human nature, which make people predetermine their opinion on guilt or innocence before the facts are all on the table. Look, there are 5 people who know exactly what happened that night, 1 is dead and the other 4 have a reason to not be truthful.

However, on certain networks, huh-hum, MSNBC, I have heard the term white privilege being used to “clear” guilty white people who “get away” with murdering black people. They throw around this term of white privilege as if it is fact and being white gets you off the hook when you do something stupid, it doesn’t. My Lord, some “victims” are not always victims and killers aren’t always evil racist, women hating bigots, in general, some are obviously. White privilege is being spread as a truth to stoke racial, in this case black against white, as if racism is always white against all, tensions, spread victimization and shift total blame on others. Sometimes this is justified, especially in historical context, but generally this is wrong and evil.

If there is white privilege I want to file a complaint or redeem some of my privilege points or whatever I need to do to cash in on my whiteness. I have clearly been screwed in this race thing because I don’t live in a big house, have a college degree, a big car, a huge bank account, devoid of any problems in fact I have too many problems. Contrary to popular belief I have had many run ins with the police, been unfairly treated, harassed and hassled, albeit not lately, like 25 years ago and for stupid things. I also got screwed by my doctors, I guess I didn’t give the right white privilege code word or coupon since 1 doctor did an unnecessary surgery on me that has crippled me for life. I was let go from a job because I moved a chair, seriously. Then I got fired from my very next job because they felt I should have disclosed a traffic ticket. Sure, it was a misdemeanor ticket, but basically a fine is not like I killed anyone or went to jail. I am kidding of course, as each of those issues are my fault, even the chair thing, except for the doctor and disclosure things, both of which were travesties to me and my family.

There is no white privilege and to propagate such a myth does nothing but enrage racial tensions. I will say there is such a thing as wealth privilege. Look at the affluenza case recently, Wall St., and a million other cases when wealth bought the best outcome possible, innocence. This applies to O.J. Simpson who killed 2 people, supposedly (lawyers) and who is not white, but maybe some of his deceased wife’s white privilege rubbed off on him. The bottom line is life is hard and not fair for all.

If you were like me and did stupid stuff as a kid, which you were guilty of even though not convicted, do you really blame the police pulling you over? Shinning a spot light on your home at 3 AM, randomly searching you, calling your school to let the administration know you are a punk? Perhaps if I didn’t do such stupid things or hangout with other idiots, it is a safe bet I wouldn’t have been harassed the way I was. Regardless, I did and my behavior, actions and choices were mine to make, my responsibility and had nothing to do with me being of a particular race.

Did you know more white people are on food stamps than black people? is that white privilege? Did you know that only 40% of the prison population is black? Awful, right? Well, yes but that leaves 60%, the majority of prisoners, being of non-black origins; 34% are white and 20% are Hispanic, according to Wikipedia, which shows that there are more blacks in prison overall, but total population is split mostly between black and white with a 6% difference overall. Now, some will use statistics to bolster their case because pulling X% out of 100,000 usually helps them make their point, but the bottom line is whites and blacks are in prison and are the 2 largest groups. At least closer than you thought, right?

Even arrest rates are fairly close, with 49% of black males having been arrested by age 23, 44% of Hispanic males arrested by age 23 and 38% of white males arrested by age 23, found on Wikipedia. We can argue sentencing disparities if you want, I didn’lt pull data on that, but I am willing to say, I think, because of mandatory sentencing guidelines minorities get screwed because they are more likely to be arrested for drugs which carry minimum sentencing guidelines and this helps explain why mandatory sentencing needs to go. However, just because one group prefers to stick to one area of crime that they know has harsh sentencing that doesn’t mean the system is rigged or racially biased in my opinion. i am sure there is bias but that bias is in the sentencing guidelines, its hard to argue that thousands of police, judges, jurors, etc. are all out to imprison young black males.

Here is a great statistic, in 2001 only 640,000 black males were in college which meant more black males were in prison than in college, which was/is very sad. However, a decade later, there are now 1,440,000 black males in college while the prison population is the same, 800,000 or so. That means more black males are getting a state education that doesn’t involve supervision by armed guards! Seriously, this is a great stat, but still too low, give to the United Negro College Fund, seriously, its a great cause although i dislike the term negro.

We can discuss cause and effect of race incarceration, but I think its fairly clear, poverty is the main problem. Poverty is a major problem for every race, but within the black community the poverty problem is compounded by the fact that the poverty is generational and the family unit has declined so much it is a rarity and almost doesn’t exist. You can say women are strong and can raise a family on their own, I was raised by a single mom, but my father was around which mattered. I guess its not PC to say it, but having both male and female role models, positive role models, gives even the impoverished a better chance of getting out than having only 1 parent. Look, it may be old fashioned, but try to stay together in some way. Having 10 kids by 10 different women doesn’t make you cool it makes you a deadbeat dad.

It is also clear that while we are all Americans but we have separated ourselves in different communities even though we have an integrated country. Little Italy, Chinatown, Polish, Russian, and, of course, the South Side, which is usually the “bad” area, are all common names in big cities and even small cities. I can tell you where all these areas are in dumpy Syracuse NY. So, we segregate ourselves in different ways but its mostly done with ethnicities. the funny thing is that it is crystal clear that other cultures break into other cultures, but the strongest imfluence on all cultures is the black culture.

Its not a bad thing the culture overlap and it shows that we have come a long way. Black culture, in particular, has penetrated white culture, but the opposite hasn’t happened. I am talking about the baggy pants around the knees, slang like ‘get jiggy wit it’, a personal favorite or mine, etc. When you’re a teenage this stuff doesn’t matter but as an adult and in the business world baggy pants and using a different slang language isn’t going to fly, not yet anyhow and I hope it never does as we butchered the English language enough already.

You can call me a bigot, which isn’t true, or other nasty terms most of which I bet I never even heard of before, but you have to admit I make some good points. This is clear when we have a national case like a George Zimmerman or Dunn, we all go into our corners and then come out swinging. Blacks call us all racists and claim there is no justice and whites either go on the defensive or side with the blacks and are more radical in their divisive racist claims.

I can assure you of a few things, if I think someone is guilty after the evidence is presented it is because the prosecution made their case. If I think the defendants not guilty it means the defense made their case. I do not and nor should anyone let the media decide the case for us. Look at George Zimmerman, sure, you hate him, he is an idiot, but anyone looking at the case without the political or racism add-ons it was pretty clear that there was reasonable doubt. Say what you will about Zimmerman’s wounds he was the only one with marks on him, except the gunshot, obviously.

However, if Martin was the complete victim wouldn’t there be wounds on him? There weren’t any. We know Martin was no stranger to fighting so I can see him confronting Zimmerman, who was in the wrong for being there, and I can see Martin being the aggressor. We know he tried to get a gun in the past so it was not out of the question for him to go for Zimmerman’s gun especially if Martin felt like his life were in danger. Just no matter how you cut it there was either outright forensic evidence backing Zimmerman or enough reasonable doubt to acquit.

If you didn’t watch the trial and let the media fill your head with their “facts” you would assume Zimmerman was guilty or you wanted him to be guilty. You can’t frame someone as a racist unless you know they are a racist and, frankly, calling Zimmerman a racist is racism or forcing racial bias against the defendant. Just because a white guy, FYI Zimmerman is a mixed race Hispanic, killed a black kid it is highly unlikely he planned it and to think otherwise is ridiculous and I hope to God you are never an a jury. Not every white guy who has shot a black person is guilty of murder and vice versa.

Another aspect is the fact that youth as a whole are much more aggressive than ever before. I don’t know why this is happening, but it is. This aggression is, in my opinion, equal among the races with minorities being slightly more aggressive. I can only speculate as to why but we likely covered it in one of the above paragraphs with one additional point, extreme poverty means that people feel like they have nothing to lose which may lead to more violent, aggressive or confrontational behavior. Not to mention in poor neighborhoods toughness is a positive trait which sends the message to young kids that fighting or violent behavior is ok. Gangs often perpetuate this as well, look at initiations which involve, often times, getting beat up or beating someone else up or worse.

I have a personal example, when I was a young man, 20 years ago, my friends and I were at a gas station getting a soda. A group of 3 or 4 young, like 14 years old, kids come up to my friend and demand his change. He said no, but the kid didn’t like that.

The kid took a swing at my friend and the kids friends surrounded him which led to me and my other friend to go to his defense. I didn’t want to hurt these kids so I threw one around a little and got us back to the car as we were already up to no good that night and didn’t need the cops around. Anyhow, the kids regrouped and came towards me in the car. My window was down, I was the driver, and all of a sudden I see a knife in his hand and he stabbed me in the arm! A 13 or 14 year old just stabbed me!

Anyhow, like I said kids are more aggressive nowadays than ever before which leads me to believe Zimmerman and Dunn were likely either aggressively confrontationed or did something to instigated the violence in some way. I mean, if a guy starts talking about hitting me, or teaching me a lesson or whatever I assume we are going to fight. If someone starts using a racial slur in the context of the previous sentence I would likely take the threat more seriously… a side note, who would call a white guy the N word especially if they are black, I don’t get it, find it offensive and would lead mw to believe I am in trouble. That’s what the N word does to mean, its code for I’m gonna hurt you. If you are going to degrade me which a word that degrades yourself like that I think you are a punk or worse, it just seems more violent to me.

The bottom line is there is no white privilege, life is hard and not fair for everyone, period. Life doesn’t owe us anything, no one owes us anything for that matter, so stop thinking like that. Each race has to be more respectful of themselves and others, no more calling ourselves names, i.e. white trash, the N word or what have you. If we don’t respect ourselves how can we respect each other? Stop assuming everyone is racist as that is beyond stupid. Sure, racists exist in every ethnic group, but it is a small percentage of each group that are real racists. However, I see a trend of blacks becoming more racist than ever before mostly because the race hustlers are fanning the flames of manufactured outrage in a society that is very tolerant of most people and things nowadays.

Whites don’t wake up and plan on shooting blacks and blacks don’t wake up planning to shoot whites. We are all just trying to get through life but sometimes 2 people collide and one or both do something stupid and someone dies. It doesn’t mean race was at the forefront of whatever started it. We also need to know that even in America different words or actions mean different things to different races of people keep that in mind. Whites can’t use the N word, blacks shouldn’t either, and when we hear blacks use it to each other or in talking about us it seems threatening. Dressing like a gangster, regardless of your race, seems threatening. Keep this stuff in mind. Unfortunately I do not know what actions make blacks feel threatened, calling 911, kidding, but seriously i don’t know… That’s the problem, we just don’t know each other well enough. We have to stop boxing ourselves in our little segregated communities and only then will we all change.

Just stop letting Al Sharpton, MSNBC or any other media outlet makeup your mind before the facts are aired. Odds are they are wrong, will lead you down the wrong path so far you can never reverse your position even after you know you have been proven wrong. If you are easily led by the race hustlers, MSNBC, other media idiots, I beg of you, please, let the judge and attorneys know your an idiot. We don’t need more bad jurors.

White Privilege, It Doesn"t Exist