Views from the Abyss #30: White Privilege

Q. Is white privilege a reality in 2016 America?

A. No.

As with 'micro-aggressions' (or 'micro-umbrages', as they should more accurately be known), and other 'progressive' ideas, 'white privilege' is an academic construct and cannot exist outside of a very specific idea space context.

Furthermore, it is also like 'micro-aggressions' in that the specific naming was chosen to illustrate a perspective, but when taken literally, only fosters hate and divisiveness.

'White privilege' is a rare example of a two word concept where both words are problematic:

• 'White' (referring to the skin colour of those perceived to be privileged) is in fact describing a societal 'majority'.
• 'Privilege', which by implication of its definition can only be ascribed to a minority group, is by necessity describing a societal 'normality'.

Somehow 'majority normality' lacks the punch of 'white privilege'.

In fact, as describing phenomena goes, this is as about as redundant as it gets. It's practically tautological.

Now this is not to say that many non-whites in America don't face disadvantages due to their skin colour because I'm sure they do (citation needed), but that's exactly what they are—disadvantages. The experience of the majority must necessarily be the yardstick by which normality is measured, so any deviance from this should be described in terms that reflect this.

It's somewhat ironic that by insisting on the existence of 'white privilege', 'progressives' of all ethnicities are actually invalidating and erasing the disadvantages experienced by minorities.

Q. How so?

A. For the white majority to have privilege on the basis of their being the white majority, the disadvantaged minority must by that reasoning represent normality, which puts them in no position to complain about their lot in life.