Racism and Classism

An organization called the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites has given (see here) the following explanation of white privilege:

Institutions provide benefits to groups of individuals based on their whiteness. As white people experience white privilege, people of color experience racial oppression. Throughout history, whiteness has been constructed as a means to inequitably distribute resources. Contrary to popular belief, white people do not experience racism (i.e., “reverse racism” or otherwise). While we acknowledge the existence of colorism, which serves to divide communities of color based on skin tone; this “light skin privilege” is not the same as white privilege. Additionally, we respect the self-identification of people of mixed heritage and do not see it as the role of white people to determine if individuals “pass” or “don’t pass” as white. Lastly, whiteness operates differently across gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, religion and other facets of social identity.

I have to object to the claim that “white people do not experience racism.” When I was in Taiwan, I as a white experienced it. It wasn’t strong, but it existed. And it is only natural that within a culture of Asians there might be some racism directed against anyone who wasn’t Asian. (Nor were all Asians part of the “club,” for one Taiwanese admitted to me that he didn’t like Koreans.) Plus, there is no reason in principle why whites cannot experience racism, and to say otherwise is to be guided by theory rather than empirical evidence.

Also, the claim that “institutions provide benefits to groups of individuals based on their whiteness” seems like something that was true up until the Sixties, but with affirmative action in place, it just isn’t true anymore, or at least it isn’t as true as it used to be.

Finally, while the last sentence gives a nod to class issues, there are plenty of institutions that provide benefits to groups of individuals based on not just whiteness, but on their class background as well. Academia, certain elite law firms, and for that matter those few individuals who are chosen as columnists for The New York Times seldom come from the lower classes, unless they have managed to go to an elite school.

What would be astonishing to any leftist from the Thirties is how their whole world of leftism has simply vanished, because for them class was paramount, and the idea that leftists one day would talk of white privilege while saying nothing about class privilege would be unimaginable.

Hat tip to Keith Burgess-Jackson (see here), who directed me to this site (Legal Insurrection).

Comments

[Bradley J Borougerdi]

The group that wrote this is clearly an American organization. Racism in the sense in which they speak is an American phenomenon. I sometimes have a hard time explaining this concept to my students, but the same misunderstanding occurs in black nationalism. People like Malcolm X used the term brother to designate his relationship with another black man, without understanding that this shared oppression based on skin color is particularly American and does not exist outside of the American Nation-st. Africans, in other words, would not agree they they werer brothers with African Americans (or other Africans either).

And white people have not experienced "privilege" throughout history. This is clearly not a historical group, for they would know better than to make such a bad statement. White supremacy had to be learned, and was learned by the 17th century. Before that, race was not an issue. One can find a great deal of evidence from the middle Ages of painting depicting white and black on an equal playing field. The process of enslavement brought racism. Whites needed a labor source, and Africans were available, so they created racism to solidify a labor source.

I agree with your comments, except that you should not designate the 1960s as the end of this discrimination, for it was clearly going on up until the early 80s. Now, all that is left are a bunch of old racists who cannot act on their convictions, or subliminal racist who keep it to themselves because they fear what will happen to them if they act on their beliefs in society.

[Borepatch]

What's weird is that my ancestors didn't own slaves, and cleared farmland by themselves, using axes.

I quite frankly reject the term "privileged" when my father was the first to get a college education.

[Coach Factory Store]

And what we want to see is true substantive power-sharing negotiations so that they can agree on a cabinet, and so that Zimbabweans can feel that they have a future