White Privilege-Boston Marathon Bombing.

[Wadani]

Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness

 

Posted on April 16, 2013

 

 

 

 

As the nation weeps for the victims of the horrific bombing in Boston yesterday, one searches for lessons amid the carnage, and finds few. That violence is unacceptable stands out as one, sure. That hatred — for humanity, for life, or whatever else might have animated the bomber or bombers — is never the source of constructive human action seems like a reasonably close second.

 

But I dare say there is more; a much less obvious and far more uncomfortable lesson, which many are loathe to learn, but which an event such as this makes readily apparent, and which we must acknowledge, no matter how painful.

 

It is a lesson about race, about whiteness, and specifically, about white privilege.

 

I know you don’t want to hear it. But I don’t much care. So here goes.

 

White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in white folks generally being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI.

 

White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for whites to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening, or threatened with deportation.

 

White privilege is knowing that if the bomber turns out to be white, he or she will be viewed as an exception to an otherwise non-white rule, an aberration, an anomaly, and that he or she will be able to join the ranks of Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols and Ted Kaczynski and Eric Rudolph and Joe Stack and George Metesky and Byron De La Beckwith and Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton and Herman Frank Cash and Robert Chambliss and James von Brunn and Robert Mathews and David Lane and Michael F. Griffin and Paul Hill and John Salvi and James Kopp and Luke Helder and James David Adkisson and Scott Roeder and Shelley Shannon and Dennis Mahon and Wade Michael Page and Byron Williams and Kevin Harpham and William Krar and Judith Bruey and Edward Feltus and Raymond Kirk Dillard and Adam Lynn Cunningham and Bonnell Hughes and Randall Garrett Cole and James Ray McElroy and Michael Gorbey and Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman and Frederick Thomas and Paul Ross Evans and Matt Goldsby and Jimmy Simmons and Kathy Simmons and Kaye Wiggins and Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe and David McMenemy and Bobby Joe Rogers and Francis Grady and Demetrius Van Crocker and Floyd Raymond Looker, among the pantheon of white people who engage in (or have plotted) politically motivated violence meant to terrorize and kill, but whose actions result in the assumption of absolutely nothing about white people generally, or white Christians in particular.

 

And white privilege is being able to know nothing about the crimes committed by most of the terrorists listed above — indeed, never to have so much as heard most of their names — let alone to make assumptions about the role that their racial or ethnic identity may have played in their crimes.

 

White privilege is knowing that if the Boston bomber turns out to be white, we will not be asked to denounce him or her, so as to prove our own loyalties to the common national good. It is knowing that the next time a cop sees one of us standing on the sidewalk cheering on runners in a marathon, that cop will say exactly nothing to us as a result.

 

White privilege is knowing that if you are a white student from Nebraska — as opposed to, say, a student from Saudi Arabia — that no one, and I mean no one would think it important to detain and question you in the wake of a bombing such as the one at the Boston Marathon.

 

And white privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Belfast. And if he’s an Italian American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.

 

In short, white privilege is the thing that allows you (if you’re white) — and me — to view tragic events like this as merely horrific, and from the perspective of pure and innocent victims, rather than having to wonder, and to look over one’s shoulder, and to ask even if only in hushed tones, whether those we pass on the street might think that somehow we were involved.

 

It is the source of our unearned innocence and the cause of others’ unjustified oppression.

 

That is all. And it matters.

[Wadani]

http://www.timwise.org/2013/04/terrorism-and-privilege-understanding-the-power-of-whiteness/

[Safferz]

Tim Wise is great.

[Wadani]

I know right.

[Chimera]

Its a white superstructure.

[Alpha Blondy]

are you serious? the whites were responsible for the marathon bombing?

[GaraadMon]

Shouldn't it be called majority privilege? I wonder what would happen if 10 Kikuyu men resided in Mogadishu and 1 decided to kill a few Somalis. What would happen to the remaining 9?

[AfricaOwn]

Blackflash;939345 wrote:

Shouldn't it be called

majority privilege?

I wonder what would happen if 10 Kikuyu men resided in Mogadishu and 1 decided to kill a few Somalis. What would happen to the remaining 9?

This would be called the Somali privilege? but you're right, its actually a majority privilege and has nothing to do with race, but there are always the racial bias groups lecturing you about nonsense.

 

in any case, attempting to politicize tragedy like this is pretty low.

[xabad]

Well said Black, took it out my mouth. it's their damn country for heavens sakes.

[Che -Guevara]

^It's land of immigrants!

 

And everything has to do with race in America..

[xabad]

America is not a land of immigrants, America is land for North West European immigrants, the rest are an underclass whether they accept it or not.

[Safferz]

Blackflash;939345 wrote:

Shouldn't it be called

majority privilege?

Unhelpful semantics. The point is to talk about race because it's central to the society we live in. White privilege is also a well studied and heavily theorized concept, Tim Wise is not the first to name it.

[xabad]

you're racist saffz, you just wanna blame whitey when your enjoying the fruits of his toil. naga da dee

[GaraadMon]

Safferz;939364 wrote:

Unhelpful semantics. The point is to talk about race because it's central to the society we live in. White privilege is also a well studied and heavily theorized concept, Tim Wise is not the first to name it.

It's not a phenomenon that is unique to the United States, or the west for that matter, so why should it be discussed as if it is a unique issue? Minorities tend to be disproportionately ostracized when a negative act is attributed to a member of their community. One example is the high profile nature of crimes committed by U.S military personnel in Japan.

 

I never said it didn't exist, just that I don't consider it to be something unique enough to warrant such a specific name.

[Safferz]

xabad;939366 wrote:

you're racist saffz, you just wanna blame whitey when your enjoying the fruits of his toil. naga da dee

lol elaborate xabad, what fruits am I enjoying and how is "whitey" the one that worked for them? I have to say I enjoy the unintentional hilarity of your planting/harvest imagery, considering that white folks enslaved black people for that very purpose and it's slavery that underpins the history of race relations in this country (and the concept of white privilege itself).