Quick Thoughts About White Privilege
By: Deante L. Young
Tags: Dylann Roof, White Privilege, Self, Life Lessons, Racism

I hate that this world is so filled with racism and discrimination. I hate that people hate people for trivial things such as the color of their skin, or even their sexual orientation.

Racial tensions in this country have been at an uncomfortably vitriolic level for what seems like forever and I’m not going to pull any punches; much of that stems from the soon-to-be outgoing Trump administration and the extra empowerment that it gives white nationalists and white supremacists.

One of the recurring themes during his White House stint has been something called “white privilege,” which has been a real thing since the beginning of time. Most white folks don’t believe there is such a thing, but I am here to declare that it definitely exists.

I’m not here to take sides or denounce anyone. I actually think that the existence of white privilege makes a lot of sense, no matter how much it annoys me. The United States is roughly 73% white, leaving the remaining 27% to be divided up among Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Greeks and every other race that lives in this country.

In other words, whenever there is an overwhelming majority in anything, things will favor the overwhelming majority. Whenever I hear that a white person doesn’t believe that white privilege is a real thing, I always shake my head and think to myself that whenever something has existed in a person’s life since Day 1, they typically won’t view it as a privilege because their life has never been without it — it’s just normal.

For example, hip hop legend and business mogul JAY-Z was born and raised into poverty. He actually experienced living in run down housing projects, his mother struggled to make ends meet and was always faced with the threat of not having electricity, food or heat.

Granted, it’s been decades since he and his mom lived that way, but the fact remains that he certainly did live through it and I know he remembers those times very well. By contrast, his children will never ever know what that life was like because they have been born into extreme wealth.

Their lives from the very start have consisted of limousines, high end luxury vehicles, five star chefs, sprawling estates located in some of the most elite communities on the planet, multi million dollar art and décor and the consistent presence of media and iconic celebrities.

That is a fairy tale life that 99.9% of the people on this planet will never experience. Even being told about the type of impoverished life their father (and mother Beyoncé) lived as children will never fully register in their minds because that has never been something that they experienced. This is true of many children born into extreme wealth.

So, to complete the analogy, white folks can’t ever understand that their white skin gives them a substantial advantage in life, even if they are poor. A guy like Eminem, before he was ever famous but instead was a broke aspiring rapper living in a poor section of Detroit had an advantage.

Imagine he and one of his black friends breaking into a house and getting caught. What would the odds have been that pale faced Em would’ve been treated the same as his black friend? Very slim, (no pun intended) and that’s been proven with all of the real life situations that have taken place in recent years.

Black people have been getting shot and killed by trigger happy cops in astonishing numbers for a long time, but in recent years, these murders have been filmed by ordinary people on smartphones. Think about how crazy that is; there’s video proof of cops unlawfully killing them and it still makes no difference.

Many of the blacks who have been killed were cooperating with the authorities and were still shot and killed. Contrast that with people like white supremacist Dylann Roof, the 21-year old maniac who shot up a black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. He callously murdered nine blacks as if he were simply playing a video game and admitted that he wanted to ignite a race war. The cops handled him delicately and even bought food for him.

If that is not white privilege, I am the village idiot.