The Premise of the White Privilege Debunked by the YouTube User Archduke

Sociology live posted a youtube video called, “White Privilege” that not only talked about how some people don’t think white privilege is a thing, but it addressed why it is a thing using an academic article written by Peggy McIntosh in 1988 called White and Male Privilege. This video instantly ties into the reading by talking about how some white people will say “I don’t have privilege” or “I worked for everything I earned”.

Some whites dismiss it with comments like that and some even dare get upset and will say that we are being racist towards them.

This reminded me of our first class when a student mentioned that he was not fond of what he called “secondary privilege”. Our secondary privilege was us being able to get scholarships, certain grants, having clubs on campus for our race, etc. I found his whole statement to be triggering because he is an example of someone who ignores the fact that if white privilege wasn’t a thing we wouldn’t need this secondary privilege he spoke of.

There has been systematic rights and unearned privileges that have been given to whites and have helped them get to where they are now. These same rights and privileges are not given to people of color therefore leaving us with a lack of resources to move on and up in the world. It’s like a game of cat and mouse and us people of color get ate every time. In the book, it refers to this as an invisible knapsack of privilege where a white person doesn’t recognize their privilege because they don’t have to, nothing negatively effects their life so they have no need to notice this as a problem.

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A video on Facebook went viral when a guy known as Archduke debunked white privilege in 5 minutes. He used a ton of examples to explain what white privilege is from explaining how white people are labeled anything negative, they can wear their hair however they want, etc. He did an amazing job pointing out all common stereotypes that people of color (focusing on black people) face such as: singing well, playing basketball, dancing well, etc.

Also pointed out what white people would see as white stereotypes but people of color would see as facts such as: culture appropriation, world domination (politics), ruling almost every nation (ruling most manager, CEO type jobs), etc. He imitated how a white person would say that they worked for everything they got and how resistant they are when told about their white privilege which kind of goes back to the sources of resistance mentioned in the book. Confronting stereotypes can cause a lot of resistance, uncomfortableness, and hostility between people but it is necessary if we want to get anything done and accomplished.

AJ+ went to the street to get the people opinions/thoughts on what white privilege and everyone acknowledge it was a real thing surprisingly. In this video, it defines white privilege as the benefits that white people get from society that people of color don’t. It’s not being micro aggressed because of your skin tone. White privilege is going into a store without being followed or watched because they assume you can’t afford to be there and figure you are going to steal. It’s not having to worry about others clutching their purses closer to them or locking their car doors when they see you. It’s getting an actual chance at a job position and not getting your application tossed just because your name sounds too “ghetto”.

In this video one black man stated not caring about white privilege but then would asked what he would do if he was white for a day he mentioned things such as having a better job, not being judged or looked at funny, and not having to fear for his life. These are all things that you should be able to get without being white. For the few white people in the video who acknowledge it was a thing they seemed to sound sorry for things being the way they are which isn’t their fault but acknowledging it and knowing that it isn’t right is a big step.

An Asian man in the video pointed out that with the way things are in the world now it is impossible to not see white privilege everywhere. Most people of color just want not to be judged, given a fair chance at the same jobs, not told to change to European standard to be accepted into the work force, and to simply not have to live in the fear of dying just because of their melanin. People of color are born with targets on our backs and we never know when we’ll be used as target practice.