Letters to the Editor
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Emily
My point is that young white males who are not EXPERIENCING their privelege are shamed for complaining that they feel marginalized.
I think the whole point of racial privilege is that it's something that very many (if not most) whites *do* experience - that it's something so pernicious and ingrained into our culture that it isn't even noticed until it's pointed out. And it's something that's completely separate from economic issues (because people who are marginalized economically come in all kinds of skin colors).
As a white chick, does it bug me when I see thoughtless comments assuming that whites are all closet racists? You bet it does. But I've taken to thinking of it as a tax I pay for the privilege of not being treated with automatic suspicion at a routine traffic stop (as I might as a black person), or for the privilege of not having to worry about nasty comments every I step out of my house because I wear a hijab (as a Muslim woman might).
Racial bigotry sucks, no matter who's on the receiving end. But the truth of the matter is that, yeah, white people *do* have a lot of privileges in our society right now, and white males in particular. Saying that is *not* the same thing as saying that white males automatically have easier lives, because they don't. But there's something to be said for being able to pass unremarked on in the general sea of American society because you fit the physical characteristics of the people in charge of government, business, etc.
I'm sorry that there are men (and women) of any race who feel marginalized in our society. But when you can turn on the TV and see that the majority of the faces are members of your own race...well, that's part of the unspoken privilege. As whites, we have to recognize that and try to see it from the other side.