Out of Egypt:

the nature of white male privilege, pt. ii

A second response to Jonathan Weiss:

I have more hope about the future of Christianity than I think you do. The Word will run swiftly and be glorified, among every tribe, tongue, and nation. Renouncing the "theology of glory" which says whites, the middle class, Americans, etc. ought to have power has been profoundly liberating.

Look at the proportions in our government. It's still mostly white and upper-class. And that could be a great opportunity, if the people who have power exercise their power to be a voice for the voiceless. Insofar as people like Bill Gates are doing that, good for them.

If you think white privilege doesn't exist, come live with me in Dorchester or else next-door Roxbury. You think that most people who live here *chose* to live here? For a lot of people, it's a combination of systemic bias and the sins of the (absent) fathers. On the other hand, take the Red Line up to Cambridge & check out the demographics there. Little different, eh?

I work at an organization that promotes racial reconciliation through education, particular in the area of technology. I don't hate who I am, and I don't think you should either. It is precisely because I don't hate who I am that I don't have to defend my race. I have an identity in what I have chosen to be, not in what I was through birth.

And finally, about white poverty: yes, it's a reality, and it's tragically ignored by the mainstream media (except for when particularly lurid, as in Gone Baby Gone & all the other movies about Southie). John Kerry's comments about the poor soldiers serving overseas hit on a major sore spot of our society. Many people that I know (primarily white, since I know more whites from my childhood in Lancaster County) joined the military because they didn't see other options.

It might be more precise to talk about class privilege rather than white privilege, since the systemic problems of our society tie in oftentimes to class (not just economic resources, but class access & identity (social capital)). However, because of our nation's history, race and gender are one of the primary engines feeding class privilege (not to mention that white males, because of their appearance, have the easiest time assimilating into middle/upper class values, and thus have the most class mobility). You seem to think that privilege has to be overt in order to be existent. This is a common error. But, just as Jim Crow followed abolition, so covert individual & unseen systemic racial bias have followed the Equal Rights Amendment and other events of the '60s.