Skip to main content

The Privilege of Racism

Racism is ignorance.
Individual racism is willful ignorance, plus fear.
Black people have been oppressed since the very day the slave ships brought them here.
Systemic racism is a set of laws and standards put in to protect those who enslaved them.
Slavery, at one time, was a form of currency, which depicted wealth. 
Policing, in its earliest form, was a job given to poor White people to watch slaves/
Oppression was the system of policing that kept Black people from organizing.
With organization comes power.
The Second Amendment had more to do slave control than anything else.
The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves and created fear of retribution.
Jim Crow Laws were enacted to create a society of "free" slaves.
Without money, freedom actually weakened Black people's ability to organize.
For nearly 100 years, Black people simply attempted to be viewed as human. 
The Civil Rights Movement and the following Acts were simply appeasement and a voice.
This right to vote and be viewed as equal was merely words since its declaration.
Many states refused to acknowledge interracial marriage until this century. 
That's only 20 years ago that a black person was afforded the right to marry who he/she loves.

In 2020, Black People systemically

Live in much more poverty than White People
Are killed at a higher rate than White People
Have less chance for advanced education than White People
Are harassed, questioned, beaten, arrested, and killed by police at a higher rate than White People.
Have nearly a 6x greater chance of being arrested in their lives than White People.
Have a 2.5x chance of being killed by a police officer and a much higher chance of being the victim of excessive force than a White People.
Have less ability to get quality health care than White People.
Have much harder times voting in their communities than White People.
Have far fewer candidates who represent, even look like them, than White People.
Have fewer people in power, meaning a share of the wealth based on a percentage of the population, who represent their race, than White People. 
Have lived substantially shorter lives than White People. So much so, that Black people today, have almost the identical mortality rate of White people in the 1950s and Black men have the same life expectancy in 2020 and White Women had in the late 1030s. and the early 1940s.

As a White Person f you 
Grew up poor. 
Got a public school education.
Paid for your own college.
Worked to pay for it and pay it off.
Got a good job. 
Never committed a crime.
Are vehemently against racism.

If all those things directly above apply to you, then look a little bit higher and ask yourselves, do any of the other things posted apply to you, your parents, your grandparents, or any of your family during the history of their time in the United States?

Do you still believe you do not live with a privileged life?


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo

11 Rules of Life - Bill Gates?

I read this on Facebook this morning.  A friend had posted it and said that every child should have to receive this. I of course read it and started to think.  I immediately wondered who really wrote this, as I rarely see things like this attributed to the proper person.  I immediately found it was written by Conservative Charles J. Sykes when he wrote a book about how America is dumbing down our youth.  I read it twice and started to wonder how true it was.  Below is a link to the actual picture I saw. So let's look at each of the rules and analyze them. Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it! - Life is not fair in that we are not all afforded the same opportunities based on race, creed, color, socio-economic background, but in general, those who are afforded the same opportunities to succeed are very often rewarded for their individual efforts.  Sure there may be underlying circumstances, but hard work is proven to pay more often than not and those who strive for succ

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her