Check Your Privilege

[poliphilo]

American liberals have a guilt complex about the genocide of the Native American nations- as well they might.  Also about slavery. They can't undo the past so they try to make amends by putting the descendants of the people their ancestors exploited and dispossessed on an ideological pedestal. When one of these persons enters a debate they are elaborately deferred to- even if they are talking embittered shite- and it's bad form to interrupt or question.  Thereby arises a weird hierarchy of dispossession- a game of "my ancestors had it tougher than your ancestors so shut up!" (which reminds me of Monty Python's three Yorkshiremen.)  In many such debates no member of the oppressed minority is present so a white liberal has to ventriloquize for them- spouting a jargon dreamed up in the universities-  and everyone else in the room is expected to fall silent and cover their heads with theoretical ashes. This deep respect for the disinherited doesn't, of course, extend to securing social justice for them- because that would involve the elite actually letting go of some of the privilege they feel so burdened by.

Hey, guys, how about honouring some of the treaties you broke?

Anyway, this is an American trauma and I don't want to intrude upon private grief. By all means carry on with this talking cure carried out in public if it makes you feel better about the unrightable wrongs in your nation's past, only don't go laying your guilt trip on the rest of us- because that really is cultural imperialism. We have our own guilts- but we'll handle them in our own way, thank you very much.

Above all, child of the most powerful, murderous and exploitative nation on earth, please don't tell me to "check my privilege" because that really gets my goat.

Comments

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

We (at least in the U.S.) suffer from an INORDINATE amount of "white guilt". And, if we don't, then we fall into the category of "white supremacy". It seems that we are not allowed (if we are white, that is) to take any other position. It is kind of like the old Christian model of "Madonna or Whore".

I, personally, do not feel a great deal of guilt for what my ancestors supposedly did. For one thing, the ancestors on my father's side had nothing to do with it. They were WWI refugees. The ancestors on my mother's side may be connected with one of the great Native American activists in history. However, my parents were racist, but I am not. Period. (My parents were alcoholics, too... I'm not responsible for that, either).

I do find it TERRIBLY irritating when people who seem to have quite a lot more material means than I do berate me for my "white privilege". If I argue, then I am marked as racist.

I am actively engaged in social justice work, but for me it is a class struggle, not a racial issue. When people of color reach a certain level of financial means and then they, basically, bully white people who have less financial means, this is just a way to secure their own elevated position. It has nothing to do with social justice. And, they are using race to do it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

In an ideal world no-one would be discriminated against- or given a free pass- because of race, culture, gender, faith- or any other marker of identity.

As it is....

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

For another thing, you are not your ancestor. You didn't do it and you are not responsible for it. And as you say, you may spend a lot of your time working to equalise privilege, but people now use that phrase with anyone who disagrees with them, just to shut them down.