On privilige

[sqbr]

EDIT: *cough*, meant to post this to debunkingwhite. But hey, you guys may be able to help too :)(*) If you're unfamilar with the concept of "white privilige" I reccomend White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

A statement I've seen pop up fairly frequently is "I don't want to give up my white privilege, I want to share it with everyone". I've seen enough criticisms of this statement not to say it myself, but I don't have quite enough of a grip on it's wrongness to explain it to other people.

The counterarguments that I can see (which combine together in complex ways):
-Maybe POC don't want to live exactly like white people, but to have their own lifestyles validated (ie it's like turning women into men to remove male privilige)
-It may not be possible (ie it's like giving all peasants a castle to remove class privilige)
-Certain priviliges only work if there's another, less priviliged group (ie "not getting suspected of shoplifting")

But I have a feeling that's not all there is to it, and can't express it very well.

So, in words of one syllable: why is this wrong? It is wrong, right?

(*)n.b. to sonnlich, I realise this oversimplifies the position you were taking in our particular discussion, but I decided to pare down the question to it's simplest form rather than adding a bunch of qualifiers etc, esp. since I'm interested in general.

Comments

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

The first thing a privileged person needs to face when they engage with the issue of privilege - something that you have to remember is initially largely invisible from the privileged person's point of view - is that there is very little they might do or say on the subject that will be taken well.

This appears to be the same sort of thing - a fairly bland, innocuous statement which is used as an example of why the privileged person is wrong. To my mind the biggest problem with the statement is just its banality - it doesn't demonstrate any sort of understanding or commitment, just a happy wishfulness. Which a privileged person can afford.

[alias_sqbr]

Mm, like all the people who say their solution to poverty is to create a post-scarcity society.