The term “white privilege” has been tossed around by people in the mainstream media for the past half-decade and, in the past, I agreed with its usage. I was down for white people acknowledging their privilege — especially since I spent eleven years of public school dealing with teachers who always seemed to protect the white kids, no matter what they did. I was bullied because I would not join any of the athletics teams despite being an almost six-foot-tall African American at the time. I just wanted the kids around me to stop being so mean. This experience pushed me to the left, and I spent my middle school and most of high school hating my white classmates, not for the content of their character, but for the color of their skin. Though to be fair, the content of their character wasn’t exactly immaculate. It was not until I came to UT that I threw away most of my racist worldview and began to view people as people again. However, many white liberals have not come so far, and view the world, including themselves, through a race-based lens in which they themselves receive unearned privilege. Why do they do this? I blame participation trophies.
More generally, I find that this generation takes itself too seriously, and I believe it is partly due to the participation trophy mindset. A 2014 Reason-Rupe survey asked participants what they thought about kids receiving participation trophies. 57% of Americans say only kids that win should receive trophies. However, the survey notes the views of those who prefer participation trophies. For example, older responders were more likely to think only winners should get trophies. Those between 18-24 were more likely to believe that all kids should receive a trophy. Respondents who believe a government should provide more services were more likely to think that kids should get participation trophies. I take this to believe that the leftists believe in participation trophies. However, the ratio was 54-42, so there is room for debate on this conclusion. What is true is that the modern left believes there are things that they should receive just for existing; a “human right” as they say. Personally, I do not believe people have the “privilege” of just receiving things, especially at someone else’s dime.
So what does all of this have to do with “white privilege”? As mentioned before, I think “privilege” is the result of a whole generation taking itself too seriously.
Basically, it happens like this: these white liberals grew up with participation trophies, and other self-esteem boosters, which lead them to have an inflated ego. This leads them to have a patronizing view of other people, including other races, which manifests itself in a belief in their personal white privilege — but in the most patronizing way possible. These white liberals think they know best about achieving social justice, all the while becoming more and more incompetent due to the “participation trophy pampering”. Don’t get me wrong, I have met white people my age who are competent and functional human beings. At the same time, I have also seen members of the same demographic being unable to justify why they believe in even the most basic things they do.
I will leave off with one particularly egregious example of white liberal patronization. I used to believe that Trump was as bad as Hitler, but then I changed my mind because, last I checked, being an impulsive idiot and lacking a filter does not make one Hitler. That is not to say I am a member of the MAGA movement. In fact, I have gotten one of my friends to stop being a diehard Trump supporter, and he now has a more realistic view of the former president. At the same time, white liberals expected me to vote for Joe Biden despite the patronizing things he says about other races. How am I supposed to look at either of these candidates and think “this one is more unifying than the other” not that I care much for “unity” so long as people call one side white supremacists for disagreeing with them. The “appeallus ad populus” and “argumentum ad verecundiam” have made “white privilege” leftists insufferable. They sit around and complain about white privilege, all the while doing nothing except telling people how to vote and asking for handouts. It has led to the “white liberals” looking down on less privileged people to the point where they don’t think black people can even get IDs. Ultimately, I think that white liberals remain committed to the ideas of white privilege I rejected in my youth because it distracts them from their own white privilege, which is really just incompetence and a lack of independence.
