September 17, 2008

White Privilege, the Media and McCain/Palin

Filed under: Media,Politics,Violence — Tags: , , , , , — Melanie @ 11:13 am

Tim Wise, author of “White Like Me:Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son,” posted an excellent essay, “This is Your Nation on White Privilege,”  that examines and comments on the media’s  recent coverage  of the McCain/Palin ticket. To read the full post, visit Tim Wise’s blog at Red Room.

“White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.”


No Comments »

  1. thank you so much for posting this. I believe it is the job of White people to acknowledge such problems–unlike the ridiculous assumption that it is the duty of the oppressed to teach the oppressors the evil of their ways, it is the job of those in power to fight for those who are not.

    Comment by ckuhn — September 19, 2008 @ 7:14 pm

  2. This essay makes some great points about how Palin’s family is getting away with so many social taboo’s and no one is saying anything about it in the news or during interviews because it would be “invading her families privacy.” Once you put yourself in the limelight, especially when in running for such a high public political position, you no longer have a private or personal life. All of your actions become the business of the public!

    Comment by melodysy88 — September 21, 2008 @ 12:37 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment