Thursday, March 19, 2009

First thoughts on White Privilege

So in the not so distant past I posted an entry asking for people's feedback on "white privilege". I asked people to write in and give their opinions on specific questions that I posed. And I got two responses. OK three, but Colin responded twice. It was somewhat interesting to me that my army of readers had virtually no responses. After a few days I became worried and so I reached out to some of my friends and most loyal readers (aka friends that have responded before) and asked them to post something. Than nothing. At this point I almost concluded that no one has any interest in my blog and that's why they aren't commenting. What if no-one except for Colin and Marcus actually read my blog? I was a little worried and so I installed a handy-dandy counter at the bottom of the page so I could figure out just how many people were coming to visit. My most recent count is 120 in a week. That said I've probably checked on it 20 times myself and you can count Colin in for another 5 or 10. And let's assume there are like 50 erroneous landings from the interweb. That leaves 40 or so legitimate views of this blog in one week. I'm sure that Heather Armstrong from dooce.com is scared. She gets like a million views a day. In fact she probably just got another reader because I just posted her link. It's true that the rich get richer but I digress.

So there are at least a few of you out there. So what gives? Are you chicken?
Well that's going to be my conclusion for now.

In the meantime, I've asked my partner Laura to help me with my next posting. I think it is going to be good so you should continue to check in and see what it's all about. About half of my visitors are related to her anyway, so hey I figure I might as well cater to my base.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Exploring White Privilege

This is a giant one. In fact I think I'm going to make this a long term discussion. And since I'm just getting started, I will begin by asking questions. Does white privelege exist? Why do you think so? (you can assume I think it exists)
If it does exist, what can a white person do about it? What can a person of color do about it? Can people of color have white privelege, at least sometimes? What is the connection between racism and white priviledge? Are all white people racist?

It's kind of interesting when you think about it. These questions get asked all of the time if you are in a radical community. But I'm not sure there really is a consensus among radicals, minus the basics. It get's even more complicated the when you look at communites that aren't extremely radical but left leaning. These questions are also asked in those environments but with less frequency. And than they are gigantice segments of the population that never ask these questions because there to busy asking if the USA is racist against white people.

I have some ideas. But I want to hear what other people have to say. So now is the time for my legion of loyal readers to chime in. What do you think?