It is something I'm comfortable with talking about since I am referring to my roots as it were, both my parents come from wealthy New England families who have been around those parts since the year dot. From Boston to Burlington down to New Canaan across to the yacht club in Newport they own property and land. Most of it by merely being around for longer than most, and partly because they were nastier than many.
How do I know I'm privileged?
1] I'm a trust fund brat, it paid for my education and the house in which my partner and I live, and it pays for our everyday needs. At 33 I have no debts nor financial worries.
2] Private education, I have no experience it what it would be like not to have the best education money can buy. Quite frankly until I went to university it just seemed banal.
3] The people we all know tend to be able to get things done to our advantage.
4] We were raised with the goal in mind of helping others, since apparently we didn't need help ourselves.
How do I know it was white privilege?
Well quite frankly, you didn't meet anyone else.
Any sexism because of gender, and bigotry because of sexuality have been largely overcome by this simple accident of birth. It is through my partner that I have been made aware of just how pernicious racism still is, both at home and here in France.
White privilege is evident when:
1] You look at the make-up of the board of multinational corporations.
2] You wander down K Street and see the movers and shakers.
3] You enter the halls of government and see who is running the show.
4] The bankers and brokers on Wall Street hardly represent the greatest cross cultural segment of the population.
Simply put many of the people we know with financial and political power also happen to be white, I used to think there was nothing unusual about this at all.
I wouldn't call it racism , more racial ignorance the way in which many in my family behave [although there are a few a**holes in any family], just an acceptance of the way things are:
And that Mr Beck is White privilege in a nutshell.
It is also why I am distressed by the co-option of a remarkable day by a group of whiners. Instead of remembering one of the greatest Americans ever to live they will moan about taking their country back. The history of this day wasn't to whinge about government, it was about being an equal player in government and society.
Mr Beck you are the antithesis of Martin Luther King.