This thread got hella sidetracked, but anyway, I think the folks get hung up on slavery and reparations when white privilege is discussed. What I read from most of the white folks who replied in this thread was that you aint responsible for slavery, or your family wasn't even here, or that you don't want to pay for reparations, or that you didn't grow up rich because you're white and you had to work.
Obviously, today we live in a time where it's more of a class struggle than a racial struggle, it's true that there are rich Asians, blacks, and Mexicans. It's also true that there are poor whites. That being said, you cannot deny white privilege. Even if you don't think you benefit from it, it exists. B-san laid down a real solid post touching on how the black community in America has systematically been deprived of any kind of infrastructure or leadership. There has never been a systematic plan to wipe out white leaders or concentrate whites in housing projects with no access to jobs or quality education. Regardless of whether this plan is still in place today (which I believe it is) the fact of the matter is the product of that exists today. Even though a poor white may not directly benefit from this systematic destruction of the black community, the fact that the black community has been destroyed by various institutions indirectly puts the white man at an advantage, just because his people have not had to deal with that.
I can feel the Irish and Italian debates, but the fact is your skin color is white. There are no Irish/Italian projects where crack was introduced along with guns and liquor stores and Irish/Italian leaders were assassinated until they were wiped out and the youth had no forum to vent their anger. If you're of Irish/Italian descent, that means you have some kind of identity you claim. Some sort of culture, maybe language. Most black Americans don't have that, no culture, no language, no leadership, nothing. That's the privilege I see in being white. Even if you come from humble backgrounds, you are NOT the target in the American system. Until the poorer whites can come terms with this and understand that, there can really be no unity in the poor classes between black and white.
That all being said, I aint white and I aint black, but I did grow up in California and then spent a few years on the east coast where race was a big issue. I don't see why the poorer white folks can't understand what white privilege is and realize how this indirectly benefits them.
