White guilt.

[pr126]

HuffPo Writer: I Will not Have Children So I Will not Spread my White Privilege

Ali Michael, a writer for the Huffington Post, sometimes wishes she wasn't white. And she decided in her 20s that she would not "have biological children because I didn't want to propagate my privilege biologically."

In an article titled, "I Sometimes Don't Want to Be White Either," Ms. Michael details her feelings on being white and the Rachel Dolezal story.

Ms. Michael writes of Dolezal, "She is stuck in the immersion/emersion stage, in which White people, having learned extensively about the realities of racism, and the ugly history of White supremacy in the U.S., "immerse" themselves in trying to figure out how to be White in our society, and "emerge" with a new relationship to Whiteness."

She concludes, "her way of dealing with the pain of the reality of racism, was to deny her own Whiteness and to become Black."

Ms. Michael notes that Dolezal is not alone, however. In fact, she went through it herself and identifies with Dolezal.

"I definitely experienced this," she explains. "There was a time in my 20s when everything I learned about the history of racism made me hate myself, my Whiteness, my ancestors... and my descendants. I remember deciding that I couldn't have biological children because I didn't want to propagate my privilege biologically."

Thus, Ms. Michael details, she will never have children, but she may adopt.

"If I was going to pass on my privilege, I wanted to pass it on to someone who doesn't have racial privilege; so I planned to adopt. I disliked my Whiteness, but I disliked the Whiteness of other White people more," she writes.

[Sargon The Grape]

I was going to write this long post about my thoughts on white guilt and how/why to approach it, yadda yadda yadda, but then I realized that as a white person, any answer I give on this is only going to inspire rage. So I decided on a more sensible response:

[Shiranu]

The way I see it is everyone reacts differently to the atrocities of their recent ancestors. Germans and their ban on anything remotely Nazi, many Turks refusal and outright anger to dare mention the Armenian genocide, the Japanese and the issue of of the mass rape and murder of Koreans and Chinese... everyone of them is dealing with their past in one way or another.

So if one wants to be ashamed of their "whiteness" or privileged... by all means, be ashamed of it. So long as you do not lie about who you are, or hurt anyone in the process, I see nothing wrong with being ashamed of the actions of your parents, grandparents, or society at large.

[pr126]

What is white privilege? Could someone explain it?

[Hydra009]

[Shiranu]

What is white privilege? Could someone explain it?

In simplest terms, it's the fact that you can do drugs at a similar or higher rate than blacks, yet make up a much smaller percentage of the jail population. Or walk around a neighbourhood at night and not have an idiot with a gun follow you because you look like a thug. Or assumed you are a terrorist just because your skin is brown and you wear a turban (and thus have a temple of yours shot up). And so on and so forth...

[Munch]

So if one wants to be ashamed of their "whiteness" or privileged... by all means, be ashamed of it. So long as you do not lie about who you are, or hurt anyone in the process, I see nothing wrong with being ashamed of the actions of your parents, grandparents, or society at large.

And I find it an absolute ridiculous concept for anyone to take the weight of what their ancestors did. They are not responsible for anything, they didn't choose to be born into a certain type of people.
By this same logic, my German boyfriend should feel guilt over being German generations s on from world war 2?

What matters is what we do here and now, ourselves, not what shit our ancestors did.

[pr126]

In simplest terms, it's the fact that you can do drugs at a similar or higher rate than blacks, yet make up a much smaller percentage of the jail population. Or walk around a neighbourhood at night and not have an idiot with a gun follow you because you look like a thug. Or assumed you are a terrorist just because your skin is brown and you wear a turban (and thus have a temple of yours shot up). And so on and so forth...

well, this explains it then.
Apparently there are separate laws for whites and coloreds. I assume that this is only happens in the USA?

Here in the UK we have similar systems, one for Muslims and one for non Muslims.

For example, bigamy is an offense only for non Muslims. 
To mention just one. There are a few more.

[Shiranu]

And I find it an absolute ridiculous concept for anyone to take the weight of what their ancestors did.

Fair enough, but the majority of the world doesn't think that way... and I personally see no reason that should change. Blood is important, to try to make ourselves out to be any more than the animal we really are is cheating yourself out of a large part of the human experience imo.

They are not responsible for anything, they didn't choose to be born into a certain type of people.

It's not about responsibility, it's about sorrow and respect. It's about saying, "We do not agree with what Group A did to Group B, and we want to show you the respect they never did.".

I consider myself a good bit a loner, but at the same time I realise we are group animals at our core. Just because it doesn't click for me doesn't mean I should therefor think everyone else is stupid and only I have the right idea on how humans should actually behave.

That said, it's also 3:30 in the morning so explaining how I feel about that is pretty difficult.

[aitm]

I think the "white guilt" thing is a supposed national conscience thing alluding that many if not most whites have. The reality is that several people have been fortunate enough to be able to reach millions through media and have pronounced that there is a thing called "white guilt" and now some people assume it is widespread when in fact if probably barely exists.

No doubt the idea that many have "white guilt" probably enrages racists into thinking they must counter with more racism.

[TomFoolery]

Apparently there are separate laws for whites and coloreds. I assume that this is only happens in the USA?

Not in the literal letter of the law, but our prison system houses a disproportionate amount of black people. Our prison system in general houses a lot of people who don't belong in there for all manner of petty crimes. It's not that uncommon to find a woman serving time because she let her drug dealing boyfriend (who she may not have even known was a drug dealer) crash at her apartment, or a guy to go to prison simply for riding in the same car as someone who had an illegal firearm. What adds to the problem is blacks are far more likely to be stopped by the police or have their property illegally searched, meaning these minor infractions are also a lot more likely to be discovered than if they were white. Lastly, our prison system has become strangely privatized, and private industry is allowed to contract prison labor at an egregious, slave-labor wage (often less than a dollar per hour), meaning that the prison industry has incentive to seek out cheap labor that's easy to exploit because after all, people in prison don't take leave days to deal with family problems or illnesses, they don't show up late or leave early, and if they don't cooperate, they just get thrown into inhumane solitary confinement. What capitalist wouldn't want such a labor pool? We just found a way to reinvent slavery is all, and black people fall into that system far easier than white people simply because they're often poorer to start out with.

In short, our laws apply equally to everyone, but they aren't applied equally to everyone.

[Mike Cl]

What is white privilege? Could someone explain it?

Pick up any US high school history book and read it.

[Johan]

And I find it an absolute ridiculous concept for anyone to take the weight of what their ancestors did. They are not responsible for anything, they didn't choose to be born into a certain type of people.
By this same logic, my German boyfriend should feel guilt over being German generations s on from world war 2?

Well one difference between your German boyfriend and the white/black thing is the white/black thing is still happening today. So its not completely about what our ancestors did. Its also about what our peers are still doing now.

I could further into this but like the others I'm going to opt for the 10ft pole on this one.

[Mermaid]

I'll jump in here, no 10 foot pole necessary.

Race is a social construct (made by a white guy culture) based on caste and control, and the concept that lighter people are superior to darker people.

I know that's quite a provocative statement, a friend posted this after the Charleston shootings the other day, and my first instinct was to be all "psh. Please". And then I thought about it for a bit.

[Mermaid]

I'll also tackle white privilege. When you grow up white, more doors are open to you from the beginning, dictating your path in life. You take those doors for granted because you don't know any different. They're just open.

You assume that people of other races have those same doors open for them because, again, you don't know any different.

I think this is an incredibly important thing to talk openly about. No tiptoeing, honest dialog.