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Does the term white privilege exist in America?

As an observation, I have included a 4 minute video regarding a philosophy of the term white privilege. Is white privilege as the video portrays? Why or why not?
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MikeSwi 4 Apr 22
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14

Color of skin is the lowest form of culture. Nobody born had a choice as to what color they would be. I spent 23 years serving this country and realized at a young age if you are wanting to judge people, judge their behavior and performance. Not by the color of their skin. Only then we can all get along, having been in 26 countries, there is no place like America. Lets keep it that way. Bless you all.

14

The term exists; the phenomena is a fiction.

11

First of all judging people by the color of their skin is the very definition of racism, but I’ll address the point more directly. I am a white man who grew up in a household where both parents worked, my father was a chef and my mother was a waitress. We were far from rich and the luxuries we did enjoy were patiently waited for and never taken for granted. My parents taught me about work ethic, how the world isn’t fair and how nobody owes me anything in addition to teaching me integrity and how to be a decent person in general. Today as an adult I make a decent living, but I am far from rich and every opportunity I capitalize on is the result of relentless pursuit and a little bit of luck. Programs exist on both the federal and state level such as free education, loan opportunity, grants for every tiny little thing imaginable, preferential treatment concerning job opportunities and the ever popular wellfare, all to elevate minorities based on their surroundings. Unfortunately “surroundings” means shitty, uninvolved parents and single parent households. So I’ll say this, substantively minority privilege DOES exists and it trumps anything progressive individuals would deem white privilege. However, the white privileged I enjoy is a two parent household where my parents taught me all the lessons I needed to succeed at life and continue to support me in advancing myself and becoming a better person. These are the problems that need to be addressed in the minority community, the las thing we need is another meaningless buzzword designed to lay blame at the feet of people who have no part in your own personal failures.

Well stated and agree with the reasoning. Of course the real problem is what would actually work in this day and age? Welfare does reward single mother hood minus the marriage part. While maybe having the father/boyfriend hidden out of sight of social services. It happens, have seen it. Somehow, as a society, we need to promote stable relationships and families again, if we can't figure that out annd how to prioritize that nothing will change, except more abortions, more one parent homes and more kids lost to crime and despair. Good first step, inforce immigration laws, maybe there would be more money to spread around on programs to help impoverished Americans... thats another fix might work!

8

This video ignores a lot. First it ignores practical marketing decisions. If you're going to make bandaids, you're going to make them the color that works for the largest group of people that buy them. That's really every race except black because the bandaid color works pretty well on Asians and brown people too. Hotel conditioner is the same.

Second, a lot of the arguments it makes are outcome based and that's not reasonable. There have been numerous studies that show blacks punch above their weight when it comes to criminal activity. If a group commits more crimes, you're going to get a higher incarceration rate in that group. As for the income disparity, you can't reasonably look at just average incomes and draw any conclusions. Education and work history must be considered as well as career choices.

No, the video doesn't convince me.

6

Preposterous. It's just an example of moving the goalposts. Here's a couple of questions. Which way is the better way to treat members of society? Should we adopt the 'black historical experience', or should we adopt the average 'white experience'. Let's just assume nobody's going to argue we should set the experience of the average black person, historically, as our standard. That pushes us right out of the mindset of 'privilege' or 'advantage' in the conversation. It re-centers the conversation instead onto 'hindrance' or 'disadvantage'. And, that makes more sense both linguistically and sociologically. And, it's more actionable. What is the most sensible action to white privilege? It's to knock white people down. But, the most sensibel action to black disadvantage is to bring black people up.

This is an example of my contention that the makers of the video and I want the same general things (assuming good-intentions). We just have VERY different ways of going about the task of change. The way of the video breeds mistrust, division, victimhood, an evil other, and a cycle of perpetuated bigotry. My idea--MLK Jrs. idea (because it's his idea and not mine) doesn't breed those maladjustments, but encourages unity, good people on both sides working together for good, empowerment of EVERYONE, trust and good-will.

Okay, go!

I disagree that "the most sensible action to white privilege" is "to knock white people down." I certainly don't see that zero sum view in the video. My sense is that the producers of the video are seeking awareness by contributing to the public conversation. They're giving us a perspective into what it's like to be black in America. That is important because it influences decisions about laws and how institutions are run.

That being said, I do not think awareness is enough. We do need to return to MLK Jr.'s vision. That vision was manifested by the demands of the civil rights movement which influenced the civil rights acts and Great Society legislation. The implementation of some of that legislation was stopped in its tracks and the parts that weren't continue to be watered down to this day.

The "Where do we go from here" speech by Dr. King

and this recent speech by Rev. Barber [facebook.com] get to the heart of the matter.

@WilyRickWiles, so what is the ACTION to white privilege then--that hopefully transcends the current death by a thousand cuts? Is this what it looks like to fix white privilege? Where does the victim narrative of white privilege go off track? The social justice isn't working--perhaps you noticed. There's a reason it's not working. It's called psychology and sociology--a fundamental misunderstanding of social change--or at least a one-dimensional understanding of social change dependent upon catastrophe. That doesn't seem that great. This mess has been recently exacerbated by the power and control through militancy worldview. Remember, this junk birthed antifa. Why? How did that happen? Which hate groups were birthed from MLK Jr.?

The speech you cited is a source talking about love and individual responsibility. Did you listen to it? What was different about that message in comparison to today's social justice militancy? Does that sound like what today looks like? Doesn't to me. At all. Or, were you using the MLK Jr. speech to agree with me in general?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you.

@chuckpo I think you're focusing more on style and tone than substance.

@WilyRickWiles, is that a way to not answer the questions?

@chuckpo I do wish white people would be more resilient to messages like this. While not all white people have the same privileges, and black people have some of their own, being white often does provide some psychological and physical security and the kind of speech in the video is not really a threat to them. And whether one realizes it or not, reacting by policing their tone comes across as an act of repression by the white majority.

@WilyRickWiles, think psychologically. Does that make sense? Sorry, but that's really annoying.

I'd like to think a lot of this new black discontent isn't ginned up by white elitist plastic people appropriating the black experience to heap yet another generation of superiority onto the black community. There are some exceedingly odd dynamics at play in all of this, but we're not supposed to talk about it because white people can't criticize white people who are simply trying to manage black people.

Sorry, trigger alert. But, I'm not sure I can write a better, more genuine complaint than that. And, it has NOTHING to do with black people--everything to do with white people who think they do a better job at being black than black people.

I'll virtually guarantee you all of this shit was created by white people, and that's disgusting.

@chuckpo

think psychologically

What?

@chuckpo I do think that mainstream identity politics is a product of the capitalist elite reproducing itself. But there are nuggets of truth and I'll take such politics over aristocratic nativism (i.e., white identity politics) any day. MLK Jr.'s approach was better because of its working class solidarity and systemic critique.

@chuckpo I do genuinely want to empathize with and understand people better (even people I don't agree with or who have done horrible things) so that I can be a better neighbor, co-worker, friend, and citizen so I find some utility in videos like this, and don't find them threatening.

@WilyRickWiles, not sure what you're meaning by mainstream identity politics being a product of the automation of captialist elites. We absolutely agree there are nuggets of truth--even in stereotyping. I fully accept, for example, that before political correctness was weaponized, it served simply to create decorum. It was useful, sensible. And, we've all lost something in its weaponization. This stuff always goes full circle, so as people dismiss pc because of it's weaponizing, there's the chance meanness will replace it. Good intention gone bad. White privilege and microaggressions--those never had good intentions. They were designed to be weapons. I think it's important to call this stuff out, because it's clearly an obstacle to anything resembling consensus.

@WilyRickWiles, videos like this are threatening, but that's not the point. They're psychologically bereft. They MUST perpetuate the negative cycle, because they ignore anything remotely close to how you might heal an attachment injury. You'd NEVER see this garbage in couples counseling. Why not? Because that's not the way human beings work. It's naive, puerile in its lack of consideration. These are tactics, and tactics will never work to make an 'other' to feel acceptable, let alone important. Virtue signaling in the best case, and that level of superficiality sends exactly the wrong message, if your goal is to be heard/seen.

@chuckpo By "capitalist elite reproducing itself," I meant that content like this is useful for establishing a shared understanding in the multicultural workplace from which the next generation of capitalists will emerge. The working class does not operate in professional or academic circles, so it finds such content alienating. And part of that may be by design--if you can wrap your head around it, you probably have what it takes to self-anoint yourself into the elite. The irony is that it is difficult to do so without some privilege.

@chuckpo I disagree that the "victim" lens is the right way to view this sort of thing, though. It's more about recognizing real social and power dynamics and creating a language to navigate differences among a new multicultural (but still mostly white) elite.

@WilyRickWiles, I'd quibble a bit this working class identity. I think we're a long way from the proletariat. What's changed? Like almost everything. Education in non-traditional ways has never been as accessible as it is now. Remember those pictures of caravan's coming up through Mexico where they all had cell phones? Think about that. Think how advanced is the 'working class' now over the same group from the 1800's. It's likely our working class is the educated of the 1800's. I imagine if we asked, we'd find quite a range of education on IDW, and here we are all having conversations once reserved only for the educated. I think the elite divided itself on different lines--maybe ideological--maybe some other factor. I can't be in the elite in THIS world. Even if I won the lottery I'd never be accepted as an elite by the elites--probably for a host of reasons.

I think privilege is a stupid idea used in this way. It's a privilege to eat every day. That makes sense. I had advantages that others didn't have ONLY in relation to their disadvantage. Without that disadvantage, my privilege would have no concrete meaning. I don't see the point. It's enough to understand hierarchical structures. For example Herman Cain is well above my reach, and Obama is well above Cain's reach. Two black men who hold privilege over me. I literally can't touch them, and in all likelihood I can't even view them from a distance without armed guards between me and them. What relevance is my privilege in relation to the ruling class? It falls away and disappears, and race has nothing to do with it. Multiculturalism isn't the division at this level.

Decades ago, as well as generations ago, black people were directly disadvantaged. It's documented. Provable. However, if they were not disadvantaged, I'd be in no different position than I'm in now (assuming I wasn't disadvantaged). There's only 12% blacks in the country, and we're not talking about all of them being in line for wealth-building--just like all whites weren't in line for wealth-building. So, we're talking about a smaller group of people than all blacks or all whites.

Of course, that disadvantage didn't just go away. It's going away. But, the black crime statistics people like to use are likely a reflection of the disadvantage of the 40's. It was someone's decision, and it was based on race, and it was undoubtedly born of remnant bigotry. Our culpability today is those 'race reservations' where so much crime is contained and in a sense controlled (poor black neighborhoods). So, I get the sociological influences underlying the conversation. Most 'conservatives' do too. It's not lost on everybody outside of the left. But, the point is--like feminism--we're working on it. And, we've made huge strides. But, it's not 'fixed', and it may never be fixed. BUT, if we perpetuate the cycles of hate because we're too ignorant or acquiescent to do the right thing psychologically, it CAN NEVER be fixed. That freaking hate just keeps going around and around and around. That's NOT the way forward. We have to start having the right conversations and NOT have the wrong conversations, but honestly we're not having a conversation at all. There are just accusations, blame, and hate. I missed where MLK Jr. said any of those things were the way to co-exist.

By the way, multiculturalism can work within a national identity. It won't work in a tribal identity. That's nearly a guarantee. Tribalism creates splintering. Imagine trying to implement a policy like that in a nuclear family. How would that work out?

@chuckpo It's like corporate liberals are saying "as long as we let a few minorities into executive positions and rural whites stop being racist, racism is solved," and conservatives are saying "racism is already solved." When really we need to do more to give average people regardless of race to get a leg up. And the only way to do that IMO is to tax the rich and rethink our monetary policy. I do however think we owe a special debt to descendants of slaves and victims of Jim Crow and that affirmative action helps deserving people who would otherwise be passed over. In the long run, though, I have my money on corporate liberals. Their identity politics and Trump's white identity politics are two sides of the same coin and they work to create a polarization that is working in the Democrats' advantage. Trumpism is a huge turnoff for people in the suburbs. Not sure how well that will work in the short term or in the rest of the world, though.

@WilyRickWiles, we're not going to get even close to agreement on that. Systemic racism is solved, but there are lingering effects that need time to dilute further.

Kind of like feminism. Women got equality and some thought they should then have the top CEO positions--IMMEDIATELY. No, that's not at all how it works. CEOs most often spent a great deal of time training for those positions--often waiting decades to assume roles as someone retired. Women were not in line to get those promotions. Only when they started training for the positions were those opening up to them. And, you have to wait until someone leaves, because it's not ethical--not responsible in any sense to take someone out of their job to put someone else in there who was at best equally qualified. It's NATURAL. Black people don't need a leg up. You want to teach a new generation of white people to hate black people? Keep doing what you're wanting to do. You don't end racism by being racist. It's antithetical to reason, but it also flies in the face of human nature. Cycle of hate. Y'all on the left are making things worse--not making things better--even in the best case scenario when there are good intentions. You can't sidestep human nature.

Also, what happens when you give a lump sum to people who've never had money in their families for generations. What do you think is going to happen? They'll lose it all. Then what? They're going to ask for more money. What will the left want to do? Give them more money? Cycle of dependence on white people--that doesn't seem like what you were wanting to do. You can't duck human nature. And, this is demonstrable. It literally happens all of the time when people are given money they've never had. Very few of them step off with it.

I don't agree that Trump is about white identity politics. That's a leftist talking point, and it's NOT demonstrable. It's predicated on flat out deceptions and fear and ascribing the absolute worst possible motive to every breath the guy takes. I'm more for Trump than I am for republicans--mostly because he fights the battles your way. No 'respectable' republican has the sack to do that. Trump is a reflection of the left, and it's fascinating how much they hate him for it.

@chuckpo Probably going to sit out responding to your last reply, but here's what I was writing when the notification popped up. It's on the topic you've touched on about the right way to have conversations and achieve social change:

I think one may be able to change someone's mind for a minute, but if they're not around people like you all the time, it's not going to stick. For example, I have a couple of married gay friends. Around the time of their wedding, they visited some rural relatives and were able to gain their acceptance. But that acceptance didn't spread to their neighbors and even the relatives saw them as an exception ("one of the good ones" ). There's probably some law in network science that explains it. Regardless, I think Obama and Trump have taught people some lessons. Obama taught us that leadership and representation alone don't cure social problems. Trump taught us that people can be manipulated with propaganda. Together, they taught us that there are some people, a toxic minority, who you can't win over to your side. They may be well-intentioned, but you just have to defeat them, using propaganda, voting, changing the system (as Republicans are known to do), or whatever means necessary. That doesn't mean you stop representing them in good faith when you're in power--it just means you do everything you can to overwhelm them politically. Mass culture will always trail the liberal position, but it be pulled gradually toward it.

@chuckpo I'll just say that recognizing racism is not the same as racism. And that human nature stuff is reductive. I do agree that people need much more than just a check. I don't agree that our institutional responsibilities equate to blaming white people.

@chuckpo Oh, and we may be talking about different groups of people, but I think the working class was better at self-education in the 1800s. At least in terms of using politics to their collective advantage and working their way up in the world. But there's no denying that there is the potential for the average person to be better educated today--and probably on average (across classes) people are. But I think truly working class people (think janitors, truck drivers, factory workers, care workers, and Dunkin Donuts employees) don't have the same time to educate themselves as past generations and they are more atomized. The ones who do are probably going to night school.

@WilyRickWiles, when we talk, this is what I often experience.

I think Obama and Trump have taught people some lessons. Obama taught us that leadership and representation alone don't cure social problems. Trump taught us that people can be manipulated with propaganda.

I'm not sure what to do with that. I tend to push back. 'Obama, the great and wondrous Christ was simply not enough to cover the sins of everyone--which really means republicans'. 'Trump is the devil asshole.'

I'm sorry. I just don't find that a reasonable premise for discussion, and I don't respond to it well. It's not interesting to me, and I can see myself getting cranky in my responses.

To start with, we have wildly different worldviews--probably irreconcilable, though I'm not sure that applies to a personal relationship. I'm diametrically opposed to the far left worldview. It's not like I'm opposed to it because it feels bad. I think it's gravely ill-considered through my psychosocial lens. I'm just not sure where we can go with that. It's not like we can 'blend' our two perspectives in some kind of mutually beneficial compromise. I feel like I'm trying to fight through a majority 'privilege' culture that's inescapably constrained.

@chuckpo Well you don't have to continue engaging if you don't want to. There is a difference I've noticed between our replies. I try to reveal parts of my perspective that might be illuminating to you or other people who come across the conversation--this place can be quite an echo chamber--and try to contest ideas that I think are worth engaging. You on the other hand, make metacriticisms, verging on the personal, and attempt to constrain the frame of debate, while posturing about rationality and civility. If I were to return the favor, I imagine the conversation would get very uncivil, very quickly (admittedly, with this reply I am now guilty of doing that). Something to think about. As I hinted above, I don't just believe having friendly debates to change minds. It's OK to have enemies.

@WilyRickWiles, yep, not worth it.

@chuckpo I thought I'd post MLK Jr.'s Where Do We Go From Here speech, putting in bold parts that might be surprising to those who are bothered by the video in OP:

Dr. Abernathy, our distinguished vice president, fellow delegates to this, the tenth annual session of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, my brothers and sisters from not only all over the South, but from all over the United States of America: ten years ago during the piercing chill of a January day and on the heels of the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, a group of approximately one hundred Negro leaders from across the South assembled in this church and agreed on the need for an organization to be formed that could serve as a channel through which local protest organizations in the South could coordinate their protest activities. It was this meeting that gave birth to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

And when our organization was formed ten years ago, racial segregation was still a structured part of the architecture of southern society. Negroes with the pangs of hunger and the anguish of thirst were denied access to the average lunch counter. The downtown restaurants were still off-limits for the black man. Negroes, burdened with the fatigue of travel, were still barred from the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. Negro boys and girls in dire need of recreational activities were not allowed to inhale the fresh air of the big city parks. Negroes in desperate need of allowing their mental buckets to sink deep into the wells of knowledge were confronted with a firm "no" when they sought to use the city libraries. Ten years ago, legislative halls of the South were still ringing loud with such words as "interposition" and "nullification." All types of conniving methods were still being used to keep the Negro from becoming a registered voter. A decade ago, not a single Negro entered the legislative chambers of the South except as a porter or a chauffeur. Ten years ago, all too many Negroes were still harried by day and haunted by night by a corroding sense of fear and a nagging sense of nobody-ness. (Yeah)

But things are different now. In assault after assault, we caused the sagging walls of segregation to come tumbling down. During this era the entire edifice of segregation was profoundly shaken. This is an accomplishment whose consequences are deeply felt by every southern Negro in his daily life. (Oh yeah) It is no longer possible to count the number of public establishments that are open to Negroes. Ten years ago, Negroes seemed almost invisible to the larger society, and the facts of their harsh lives were unknown to the majority of the nation. But today, civil rights is a dominating issue in every state, crowding the pages of the press and the daily conversation of white Americans. In this decade of change, the Negro stood up and confronted his oppressor. He faced the bullies and the guns, and the dogs and the tear gas. He put himself squarely before the vicious mobs and moved with strength and dignity toward them and decisively defeated them. (Yes) And the courage with which he confronted enraged mobs dissolved the stereotype of the grinning, submissive Uncle Tom. (Yes) He came out of his struggle integrated only slightly in the external society, but powerfully integrated within. This was a victory that had to precede all other gains.

In short, over the last ten years the Negro decided to straighten his back up (Yes), realizing that a man cannot ride your back unless it is bent. (Yes, That’s right) We made our government write new laws to alter some of the cruelest injustices that affected us. We made an indifferent and unconcerned nation rise from lethargy and subpoenaed its conscience to appear before the judgment seat of morality on the whole question of civil rights. We gained manhood in the nation that had always called us "boy." It would be hypocritical indeed if I allowed modesty to forbid my saying that SCLC stood at the forefront of all of the watershed movements that brought these monumental changes in the South. For this, we can feel a legitimate pride. But in spite of a decade of significant progress, the problem is far from solved. The deep rumbling of discontent in our cities is indicative of the fact that the plant of freedom has grown only a bud and not yet a flower.

And before discussing the awesome responsibilities that we face in the days ahead, let us take an inventory of our programmatic action and activities over the past year. Last year as we met in Jackson, Mississippi, we were painfully aware of the struggle of our brothers in Grenada, Mississippi. After living for a hundred or more years under the yoke of total segregation, the Negro citizens of this northern Delta hamlet banded together in nonviolent warfare against racial discrimination under the leadership of our affiliate chapter and organization there. The fact of this non-destructive rebellion was as spectacular as were its results. In a few short weeks the Grenada County Movement challenged every aspect of the society’s exploitative life. Stores which denied employment were boycotted; voter registration increased by thousands. We can never forget the courageous action of the people of Grenada who moved our nation and its federal courts to powerful action in behalf of school integration, giving Grenada one of the most integrated school systems in America. The battle is far from over, but the black people of Grenada have achieved forty of fifty-three demands through their persistent nonviolent efforts.

Slowly but surely, our southern affiliates continued their building and organizing. Seventy-nine counties conducted voter registration drives, while double that number carried on political education and get-out-the-vote efforts. In spite of press opinions, our staff is still overwhelmingly a southern-based staff. One hundred and five persons have worked across the South under the direction of Hosea Williams. What used to be primarily a voter registration staff is actually a multifaceted program dealing with the total life of the community, from farm cooperatives, business development, tutorials, credit unions, etcetera. Especially to be commended are those ninety-nine communities and their staffs which maintain regular mass meetings throughout the year.

Our Citizenship Education Program continues to lay the solid foundation of adult education and community organization upon which all social change must ultimately rest. This year, five hundred local leaders received training at Dorchester and ten community centers through our Citizenship Education Program. They were trained in literacy, consumer education, planned parenthood, and many other things. And this program, so ably directed by Mrs. Dorothy Cotton, Mrs. Septima Clark, and their staff of eight persons, continues to cover ten southern states. Our auxiliary feature of C.E.P. is the aid which they have given to poor communities, poor counties in receiving and establishing O.E.O. projects. With the competent professional guidance of our marvelous staff member, Miss Mew Soong-Li, Lowndes and Wilcox counties in Alabama have pioneered in developing outstanding poverty programs totally controlled and operated by residents of the area.

Perhaps the area of greatest concentration of my efforts has been in the cities of Chicago and Cleveland. Chicago has been a wonderful proving ground for our work in the North. There have been no earth-shaking victories, but neither has there been failure. Our open housing marches, which finally brought about an agreement which actually calls the power structure of Chicago to capitulate to the civil rights movement, these marches and the agreement have finally begun to pay off. After the season of delay around election periods, the Leadership Conference, organized to meet our demands for an open city, has finally begun to implement the programs agreed to last summer.

But this is not the most important aspect of our work. As a result of our tenant union organizing, we have begun a four million dollar rehabilitation project, which will renovate deteriorating buildings and allow their tenants the opportunity to own their own homes. This pilot project was the inspiration for the new home ownership bill, which Senator Percy introduced in Congress only recently.

The most dramatic success in Chicago has been Operation Breadbasket. Through Operation Breadbasket we have now achieved for the Negro community of Chicago more than twenty-two hundred new jobs with an income of approximately eighteen million dollars a year, new income to the Negro community. [Applause] But not only have we gotten jobs through Operation Breadbasket in Chicago; there was another area through this economic program, and that was the development of financial institutions which were controlled by Negroes and which were sensitive to problems of economic deprivation of the Negro community. The two banks in Chicago that were interested in helping Negro businessmen were largely unable to loan much because of limited assets. Hi-Lo, one of the chain stores in Chicago, agreed to maintain substantial accounts in the two banks, thus increasing their ability to serve the needs of the Negro community. And I can say to you today that as a result of Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, both of these Negro-operated banks have now more than double their assets, and this has been done in less than a year by the work of Operation Breadbasket. [applause]

In addition, the ministers learned that Negro scavengers had been deprived of significant accounts in the ghetto. Whites controlled even the garbage of Negroes. Consequently, the chain stores agreed to contract with Negro scavengers to service at least the stores in Negro areas. Negro insect and rodent exterminators, as well as janitorial services, were likewise excluded from major contracts with chain stores. The chain stores also agreed to utilize these services. It also became apparent that chain stores advertised only rarely in Negro-owned community newspapers. This area of neglect was also negotiated, giving community newspapers regular, substantial accounts. And finally, the ministers found that Negro contractors, from painters to masons, from electricians to excavators, had also been forced to remain small by the monopolies of white contractors. Breadbasket negotiated agreements on new construction and rehabilitation work for the chain stores. These several interrelated aspects of economic development, all based on the power of organized consumers, hold great possibilities for dealing with the problems of Negroes in other northern cities. The kinds of requests made by Breadbasket in Chicago can be made not only of chain stores, but of almost any major industry in any city in the country.

And so Operation Breadbasket has a very simple program, but a powerful one. It simply says, "If you respect my dollar, you must respect my person." It simply says that we will no longer spend our money where we can not get substantial jobs. [applause]

In Cleveland, Ohio, a group of ministers have formed an Operation Breadbasket through our program there and have moved against a major dairy company. Their requests include jobs, advertising in Negro newspapers, and depositing funds in Negro financial institutions. This effort resulted in something marvelous. I went to Cleveland just last week to sign the agreement with Sealtest. We went to get the facts about their employment; we discovered that they had 442 employees and only forty-three were Negroes, yet the Negro population of Cleveland is thirty-five percent of the total population. They refused to give us all of the information that we requested, and we said in substance, "Mr. Sealtest, we're sorry. We aren't going to burn your store down. We aren't going to throw any bricks in the window. But we are going to put picket signs around and we are going to put leaflets out and we are going to our pulpits and tell them not to sell Sealtest products, and not to purchase Sealtest products."

We did that. We went through the churches. Reverend Dr. Hoover, who pastors the largest church in Cleveland, who's here today, and all of the ministers got together and got behind this program. We went to every store in the ghetto and said, "You must take Sealtest products off of your counters. If not, we're going to boycott your whole store." (That's right) A&P refused. We put picket lines around A&P; they have a hundred and some stores in Cleveland, and we picketed A&P and closed down eighteen of them in one day. Nobody went in A&P. [applause] The next day Mr. A&P was calling on us, and Bob Brown, who is here on our board and who is a public relations man representing a number of firms, came in. They called him in because he worked for A&P, also; and they didn't know he worked for us, too. [laughter] Bob Brown sat down with A&P, and he said, they said, "Now, Mr. Brown, what would you advise us to do." He said, "I would advise you to take Sealtest products off of all of your counters." A&P agreed next day not only to take Sealtest products off of the counters in the ghetto, but off of the counters of every A&P store in Cleveland, and they said to Sealtest, "If you don’t reach an agreement with SCLC and Operation Breadbasket, we will take Sealtest products off of every A&P store in the state of Ohio."

The next day [applause], the next day the Sealtest people were talking nice [laughter], they were very humble. And I am proud to say that I went to Cleveland just last Tuesday, and I sat down with the Sealtest people and some seventy ministers from Cleveland, and we signed the agreement. This effort resulted in a number of jobs, which will bring almost five hundred thousand dollars of new income to the Negro community a year. [applause] We also said to Sealtest, "The problem that we face is that the ghetto is a domestic colony that's constantly drained without being replenished. And you are always telling us to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps, and yet we are being robbed every day. Put something back in the ghetto." So along with our demand for jobs, we said, "We also demand that you put money in the Negro savings and loan association and that you take ads, advertise, in the Cleveland Call & Post, the Negro newspaper." So along with the new jobs, Sealtest has now deposited thousands of dollars in the Negro bank of Cleveland and has already started taking ads in the Negro newspaper in that city. This is the power of Operation Breadbasket. [applause]

Now, for fear that you may feel that it’s limited to Chicago and Cleveland, let me say to you that we've gotten even more than that. In Atlanta, Georgia, Breadbasket has been equally successful in the South. Here the emphasis has been divided between governmental employment and private industry. And while I do not have time to go into the details, I want to commend the men who have been working with it here: the Reverend Bennett, the Reverend Joe Boone, the Reverend J. C. Ward, Reverend Dorsey, Reverend Greer, and I could go on down the line, and they have stood up along with all of the other ministers. But here is the story that's not printed in the newspapers in Atlanta: as a result of Operation Breadbasket, over the last three years, we have added about twenty-five million dollars of new income to the Negro community every year. [applause]

Now as you know, Operation Breadbasket has now gone national in the sense that we had a national conference in Chicago and agreed to launch a nationwide program, which you will hear more about.

Finally, SCLC has entered the field of housing. Under the leadership of attorney James Robinson, we have already contracted to build 152 units of low-income housing with apartments for the elderly on a choice downtown Atlanta site under the sponsorship of Ebenezer Baptist Church. This is the first project [applause], this is the first project of a proposed southwide Housing Development Corporation which we hope to develop in conjunction with SCLC, and through this corporation we hope to build housing from Mississippi to North Carolina using Negro workmen, Negro architects, Negro attorneys, and Negro financial institutions throughout. And it is our feeling that in the next two or three years, we can build right here in the South forty million dollars worth of new housing for Negroes, and with millions and millions of dollars in income coming to the Negro community. [applause]

Now there are many other things that I could tell you, but time is passing. This, in short, is an account of SCLC's work over the last year. It is a record of which we can all be proud.

With all the struggle and all the achievements, we must face the fact, however, that the Negro still lives in the basement of the Great Society. He is still at the bottom, despite the few who have penetrated to slightly higher levels. Even where the door has been forced partially open, mobility for the Negro is still sharply restricted. There is often no bottom at which to start, and when there is there's almost no room at the top. In consequence, Negroes are still impoverished aliens in an affluent society. They are too poor even to rise with the society, too impoverished by the ages to be able to ascend by using their own resources. And the Negro did not do this himself; it was done to him. For more than half of his American history, he was enslaved. Yet, he built the spanning bridges and the grand mansions, the sturdy docks and stout factories of the South. His unpaid labor made cotton "King" and established America as a significant nation in international commerce. Even after his release from chattel slavery, the nation grew over him, submerging him. It became the richest, most powerful society in the history of man, but it left the Negro far behind.

And so we still have a long, long way to go before we reach the promised land of freedom. Yes, we have left the dusty soils of Egypt, and we have crossed a Red Sea that had for years been hardened by a long and piercing winter of massive resistance, but before we reach the majestic shores of the promised land, there will still be gigantic mountains of opposition ahead and prodigious hilltops of injustice. (Yes, That’s right) We still need some Paul Revere of conscience to alert every hamlet and every village of America that revolution is still at hand. Yes, we need a chart; we need a compass; indeed, we need some North Star to guide us into a future shrouded with impenetrable uncertainties.

Now, in order to answer the question, "Where do we go from here?" which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus, half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we turn to the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share: There are twice as many unemployed; the rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites; and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population. (Yes) [applause]

In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools (Yeah) receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. (Those schools) One-twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, seventy-five percent hold menial jobs. This is where we are.

Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amid a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values. We must no longer be ashamed of being black. (All right) The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.

Even semantics have conspired to make that which is black seem ugly and degrading. (Yes) In Roget's Thesaurus there are some 120 synonyms for blackness and at least sixty of them are offensive, such words as blot, soot, grim, devil, and foul. And there are some 134 synonyms for whiteness and all are favorable, expressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity, and innocence. A white lie is better than a black lie. (Yes) The most degenerate member of a family is the "black sheep." (Yes) Ossie Davis has suggested that maybe the English language should be reconstructed so that teachers will not be forced to teach the Negro child sixty ways to despise himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of inferiority, and the white child 134 ways to adore himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority. [applause] The tendency to ignore the Negro's contribution to American life and strip him of his personhood is as old as the earliest history books and as contemporary as the morning's newspaper. (Yes)

To offset this cultural homicide, the Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood. (Yes) Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks this necessity is only waiting to be buried. (Yes) As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. (Yes) Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation, no Johnsonian civil rights bill can totally bring this kind of freedom. The Negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation. And with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to himself and to the world, "I am somebody. (Oh yeah) I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. (Go ahead) I have a rich and noble history, however painful and exploited that history has been. Yes, I was a slave through my foreparents (That’s right), and now I’m not ashamed of that. I'm ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave." (Yes sir) Yes [applause], yes, we must stand up and say, "I'm black (Yes sir), but I'm black and beautiful." (Yes) This [applause], this self-affirmation is the black man's need, made compelling (All right) by the white man's crimes against him. (Yes)

Now another basic challenge is to discover how to organize our strength in to economic and political power. Now no one can deny that the Negro is in dire need of this kind of legitimate power. Indeed, one of the great problems that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. From the old plantations of the South to the newer ghettos of the North, the Negro has been confined to a life of voicelessness (That’s true) and powerlessness. (So true) Stripped of the right to make decisions concerning his life and destiny he has been subject to the authoritarian and sometimes whimsical decisions of the white power structure. The plantation and the ghetto were created by those who had power, both to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness. Now the problem of transforming the ghetto, therefore, is a problem of power, a confrontation between the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to the preserving of the status quo. Now, power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, and economic change. Walter Reuther defined power one day. He said, "Power is the ability of a labor union like UAW to make the most powerful corporation in the world, General Motors, say, 'Yes' when it wants to say 'No.' That's power." [applause]

Now a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often we have problems with power. But there is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly.

You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. It was this misinterpretation that caused the philosopher Nietzsche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject Nietzsche's philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love.

Now, we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. (Yes) Power at its best [applause], power at its best is love (Yes) implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. (Speak) And this is what we must see as we move on.

Now what has happened is that we've had it wrong and mixed up in our country, and this has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through love and moral suasion devoid of power, and white Americans to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience. It is leading a few extremists today to advocate for Negroes the same destructive and conscienceless power that they have justly abhorred in whites. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times. (Yes)

Now we must develop progress, or rather, a program—and I can't stay on this long—that will drive the nation to a guaranteed annual income. Now, early in the century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual's abilities and talents. And in the thinking of that day, the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious habits and moral fiber. We've come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty.

The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold: We must create full employment, or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available. In 1879 Henry George anticipated this state of affairs when he wrote in Progress and Poverty:

The fact is that the work which improves the condition of mankind, the work which extends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature and elevates thought, is not done to secure a living. It is not the work of slaves driven to their tasks either by the, that of a taskmaster or by animal necessities. It is the work of men who somehow find a form of work that brings a security for its own sake and a state of society where want is abolished.

Work of this sort could be enormously increased, and we are likely to find that the problem of housing, education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished. The poor, transformed into purchasers, will do a great deal on their own to alter housing decay. Negroes, who have a double disability, will have a greater effect on discrimination when they have the additional weapon of cash to use in their struggle.

Beyond these advantages, a host of positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he knows that he has the means to seek self-improvement. Personal conflicts between husband, wife, and children will diminish when the unjust measurement of human worth on a scale of dollars is eliminated.

Now, our country can do this. John Kenneth Galbraith said that a guaranteed annual income could be done for about twenty billion dollars a year. And I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth. [applause]

Now, let me rush on to say we must reaffirm our commitment to nonviolence. And I want to stress this. The futility of violence in the struggle for racial justice has been tragically etched in all the recent Negro riots. Now, yesterday, I tried to analyze the riots and deal with the causes for them. Today I want to give the other side. There is something painfully sad about a riot. One sees screaming youngsters and angry adults fighting hopelessly and aimlessly against impossible odds. (Yeah) And deep down within them, you perceive a desire for self-destruction, a kind of suicidal longing. (Yes)

Occasionally, Negroes contend that the 1965 Watts riot and the other riots in various cities represented effective civil rights action. But those who express this view always end up with stumbling words when asked what concrete gains have been won as a result. At best, the riots have produced a little additional anti-poverty money allotted by frightened government officials and a few water sprinklers to cool the children of the ghettos. It is something like improving the food in the prison while the people remain securely incarcerated behind bars. (That’s right) Nowhere have the riots won any concrete improvement such as have the organized protest demonstrations.

And when one tries to pin down advocates of violence as to what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly illogical. Sometimes they talk of overthrowing racist state and local governments and they talk about guerrilla warfare. They fail to see that no internal revolution has ever succeeded in overthrowing a government by violence unless the government had already lost the allegiance and effective control of its armed forces. Anyone in his right mind knows that this will not happen in the United States. In a violent racial situation, the power structure has the local police, the state troopers, the National Guard, and finally, the army to call on, all of which are predominantly white. (Yes) Furthermore, few, if any, violent revolutions have been successful unless the violent minority had the sympathy and support of the non-resisting majority. Castro may have had only a few Cubans actually fighting with him and up in the hills (Yes), but he would have never overthrown the Batista regime unless he had had the sympathy of the vast majority of Cuban people. It is perfectly clear that a violent revolution on the part of American blacks would find no sympathy and support from the white population and very little from the majority of the Negroes themselves.

This is no time for romantic illusions and empty philosophical debates about freedom. This is a time for action. (All right) What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program that will bring the Negro into the mainstream of American life as quickly as possible. So far, this has only been offered by the nonviolent movement. Without recognizing this we will end up with solutions that don't solve, answers that don't answer, and explanations that don't explain. [applause]

And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence. (Yes) And I am still convinced [applause], and I'm still convinced that it is the most potent weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for justice in this country.

And the other thing is, I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'm concerned about truth. (That’s right) And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. (Yes) Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. (That's right) Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. (All right, That’s right) Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that. [applause]

And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. (Yes) And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. (No) And I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. (Yes) For I have seen too much hate. (Yes) I've seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the South. (Yeah) I've seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate, myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities, and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. (Yes, That’s right) I have decided to love. [applause] If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we aren't moving wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. (Yes) He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.

And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels (All right); you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing. (That's right) Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction (Yes sir) and understand the behavior of molecules (All right); you may break into the storehouse of nature (Yes sir) and bring forth many new insights; yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement (Yes sir) so that you have all knowledge (Yes sir, Yes); and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. (Yes) You may even give your goods to feed the poor (Yes sir); you may bestow great gifts to charity (Speak); and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing. (Yes sir) You may even give your body to be burned and die the death of a martyr, and your spilt blood may be a symbol of honor for generations yet unborn, and thousands may praise you as one of history's greatest heroes; but if you have not love (Yes, All right), your blood was spilt in vain. What I'm trying to get you to see this morning is that a man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego, and his piety may feed his pride. (Speak) So without love, benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.

I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about "Where do we go from here?" that we must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. (Yes) There are forty million poor people here, and one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. (Yes) And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. (Yes) But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. (All right) It means that questions must be raised. And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, "Who owns the oil?" (Yes) You begin to ask the question, "Who owns the iron ore?" (Yes) You begin to ask the question, "Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that's two-thirds water?" (All right) These are words that must be said. (All right)

Now, don't think you have me in a bind today. I'm not talking about communism. What I'm talking about is far beyond communism. (Yeah) My inspiration didn't come from Karl Marx (Speak); my inspiration didn't come from Engels; my inspiration didn't come from Trotsky; my inspiration didn't come from Lenin. Yes, I read Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital a long time ago (Well), and I saw that maybe Marx didn't follow Hegel enough. (All right) He took his dialectics, but he left out his idealism and his spiritualism. And he went over to a German philosopher by the name of Feuerbach, and took his materialism and made it into a system that he called "dialectical materialism." (Speak) I have to reject that.

What I'm saying to you this morning is communism forgets that life is individual. (Yes) Capitalism forgets that life is social. (Yes, Go ahead) And the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis. (Speak) [applause] It is found in a higher synthesis (Come on) that combines the truths of both. (Yes) Now, when I say questioning the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. (All right) These are the triple evils that are interrelated.

And if you will let me be a preacher just a little bit. (Speak) One day [applause], one night, a juror came to Jesus (Yes sir) and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved. (Yeah) Jesus didn't get bogged down on the kind of isolated approach of what you shouldn't do. Jesus didn't say, "Now Nicodemus, you must stop lying." (Oh yeah) He didn't say, "Nicodemus, now you must not commit adultery." He didn't say, "Now Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that." He didn't say, "Nicodemus, you must stop drinking liquor if you are doing that excessively." He said something altogether different, because Jesus realized something basic (Yes): that if a man will lie, he will steal. (Yes) And if a man will steal, he will kill. (Yes) So instead of just getting bogged down on one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, "Nicodemus, you must be born again." [applause]

In other words, "Your whole structure (Yes) must be changed." [applause] A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will "thingify" them and make them things. (Speak) And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. (Yes) And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together. (Yes) [applause]

What I'm saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, "America, you must be born again!" [applause] (Oh yes)

And so, I conclude by saying today that we have a task, and let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction. (Yes)

Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. (All right)

Let us be dissatisfied (Yes) until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. (Yes sir)

Let us be dissatisfied (Yes) until those who live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security.

Let us be dissatisfied (Yes) until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history (Yes), and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home.

Let us be dissatisfied (Yes) until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality integrated education.

Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.

Let us be dissatisfied (All right) until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the basis of the color of their skin. (Yeah) Let us be dissatisfied. [applause]

Let us be dissatisfied (Well) until every state capitol (Yes) will be housed by a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy, and who will walk humbly with his God.

Let us be dissatisfied [applause] until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. (Yes)

Let us be dissatisfied (Yes) until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together (Yes), and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.

Let us be dissatisfied (Yes), and men will recognize that out of one blood (Yes) God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. (Speak sir)

Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, "White Power!" when nobody will shout, "Black Power!" but everybody will talk about God's power and human power. [applause]

And I must confess, my friends (Yes sir), that the road ahead will not always be smooth. (Yes) There will still be rocky places of frustration (Yes) and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. (Yes) And there will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. (Well) Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. (Yes) We may again, with tear-drenched eyes, have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. (Well) But difficult and painful as it is (Well), we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. (Well) And as we continue our charted course, we may gain consolation from the words so nobly left by that great black bard, who was also a great freedom fighter of yesterday, James Weldon Johnson (Yes):

Stony the road we trod (Yes),
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days
When hope unborn had died. (Yes)
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place
For which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way
That with tears has been watered. (Well)
We have come treading our paths
Through the blood of the slaughtered.
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last (Yes)
Where the bright gleam
Of our bright star is cast.

Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. (Well) It will give us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. (Yes) When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair (Well), and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights (Well), let us remember (Yes) that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil (Well), a power that is able to make a way out of no way (Yes) and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. (Speak)

Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Let us realize that William Cullen Bryant is right: "Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again." Let us go out realizing that the Bible is right: "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. (Oh yeah) Whatsoever a man soweth (Yes), that (Yes) shall he also reap." This is our hope for the future, and with this faith we will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow, with a cosmic past tense, "We have overcome! (Yes) We have overcome! Deep in my heart, I did believe (Yes) we would overcome." [applause]

@WilyRickWiles
MLK went to a Communist training school, and was a serial womanizer.
There is no ‘white privilege’. Its a Communist term made up by jealous feminist bimbos to ‘stick it to whitey’

@madjewesswoman OK boomer.

@WilyRickWiles

Nope, X’er, nice try Winifred.

@madjewesswoman It's a state of mind.

5

I believe dvarga succinctly hit the nail on the head (response on April 22). It's an intentional agenda driven by the far left using Alinskian tactics to divide the US into the 'haves' versus the 'have-nots' so they can reshape society as they see fit. They use tactics involving white privilege, intersectionality, Islamophobia, transphobia, police brutality, etc. To them, the end justifies the means.

far left

Really? Seems to be a corporate liberal thing to me.

using Alinskian tactics

Are "Alinskian tactics" really that novel? You know the Tea Party used them...

reshape society

Isn't that what politics is about?

the end justifies the means.

I hear this used a lot, but for it to be relevant, I think you first have to establish that the means are really bad. And that's debatable. You could say the same about the right. I'm more partial to what Kant said about treating people as ends rather than means (capitalism does the latter).

Seems to be a corporate liberal thing to me.

How is it a corporate liberal thing?

Are "Alinskian tactics" really that novel? You know the Tea Party used them...

No, it has been around for a while now and yes, they have. I'm trying to understand your point here.

Isn't that what politics is about?
And?

...I think you first have to establish that the means are really bad. And that's debatable. ...

The means involve pitting segments of society (some I mentioned) against other segments. For a nation, especially as diverse as the U.S. is, I believe that is bad.

I've noticed in the past when statements are dissected like this, it normally means that it has touched a nerve, so to speak. I contributed my opinion and I am steadfast in my belief. However, I am interested in hearing the answer to my first question.

@WilyRickWiles

How long have you been a Left wing Gasbag, Winny?

@madjewesswoman How long have you been a boomer?

@WilyRickWiles << pussy. Mamas boy.

5

The oppression olympics exists here in the USA - but it’s more and more being seen as the Special Olympics.

4

I think that her facts are about 60 years behind the times. The ' white folks ' folks she should be 'real talking' about are the same politicians that currently amplify and decry 'white priviledge'. They are plantation owners of a different name. Time to wake up from that state of 'wokeness', imo.

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I do believe in a certain amount of white privilege. But I don’t believe it is as the video says. Facts can be manipulated to fit an agenda. Is the disparity between black and white income due to color or percent of people within that color that have higher education? Can’t afford higher education? Do what my husband did and my son is doing now- serve in the military to earn your college education. Hotels don’t have black hair products? What’s the percentage of blacks vs whites staying there? All that being said prejudice does still exist unfortunately and as long as people judge people by the color of their skin there will be racial divide. Political agendas aside no one should be judged by that. It’s sad it still is happening.

Wasn't sure what the hair product was she was referring to, but agreed on that much if there is a special product needed for that type of hair, it should be made available in the hotels inventory.

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But let us not judge people by the color of their skin.

You mean the way many colored people call whites, ‘white mother fckers?’

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Identity politics at work. Gangsta rap, Chicago violence, Black Panthers, Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Spike Lee, and this video are all individuals or agents that foster the concept of "white privilege". The concept is a generality and thus entirely conceptual to the individual in both or all races. It is true to some individuals and not true to others because it is a generality. The term only makes sense if it is applied collectively.

The collective concept blacks have of whites is instilled in the individual and vice versa. Whatever concept is forwarded is what is formed in the minds of individuals. This video, as an example, paints a bad picture of whites collectively. It forwards division of the races and is thus a self-prophesying presentation. They show Chris Rock trying to flag down a taxi and ask Blacks if they have ever had trouble flagging down a taxi. Many people have had trouble flagging down a taxi but they portray that blacks only have trouble because they are black.

It is like racial profiling. Everyone has a concept of a different race as a whole. We are all human but the race of someone tells individuals something about it as a whole based upon our own experiences and education. A good experience changes our concept positively and a bad experience changes the concept negatively and those experiences are extrapolated by the individual to his concept of the whole race.

This video is a negative presentation to black people of the white race. It isn't experiential it is "educational". since it is a generality and because people have different experiences it presents a false concept to some and a true concept to others based upon personal experiences. A person may have trouble flagging down a taxi for many reasons, one of which may be based on race, but other possibilities must be considered such as, location (a high or low crime district) time (daytime or nighttime), demand (hi or low), etc.

It's a pity that people will generalize but it is a valuable tool. I mean a tiger is going to be very similar in behavior to another tiger. We can pretty much expect that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.

Martin Luther King tried to separate the individual out from the race by wishing the individual to be judged by the content of his character and not the generality of the color of his skin. The races must have mutually beneficial experiences generally for "privilege" to not be an issue. A negative educational presentation that is a generality is not helpful.

@MichaelSwinney As I said, looking at things from a collective perspective is a valuable tool. Part of your knowledge of the collective is your experience and part is 3rd party information and education.
White privilege and male privilege are constructs that provide lenses to view life or society through, and are not formulated out of experience but are presented as educational. If individual experiences align with the educational information, the individual will think it true. If it doesn't the individual will think it false. If he has no experience he will look to confirm its validity and as the author notes, "Others can make their own lists from within their own life circumstances." Now their attention is focused on looking for these things to put on their lists, a self-prophesying venture.

Does the author ever look for things that disprove the thesis. Was a black person ever treated equally by a white individual? What's the comparative frequency?

Every individual that has friends,relatives, associates, etc., has experienced privilege in some respect so putting a qualifying group noun in front of the word has a pejorative intent.

If you want to really experience white privilege look before the enactment of the civil rights act when there were actual laws giving whites privilege. They are gone and social attitudes had to change to adjust to the new equality. Things were going well but I have to criticize Obama because he brought about some regression. I don't know if he really believed in white privilege but he certainly stoked the fires by accenting racism as a problem. One thing that is worse than racism, in my view, is race-baiting.

There are lots of biological male privileges but I think the greatest female privilege is that they are favored by males. The two genders are intended to be complementary, in my view, this is obvious in procreation. There is a single natural way to reproduce.

That's all I have for now.

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Here is another example of "if you talk about it enough people will believe you".

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No, this is silly, I really don't believe any of it. They are playing with statistics which are very easy to manipulate.

as they say: figures lie and liars figure

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White Privilege is a tool used by dysfunctional Blacks and Marxists who reach and search out new rational or ways of Blaming Whites for their miserable station in the world!

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Poorly worded question. Yes, the term does exist...but white privilege is a myth. Rich privilege like that the Kennedy family knows, yes that is most certainly real. White liberal guilt is a real thing, and they are the idiots pushing the myth of white privilege.

Well stated Claude.

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I am a white kid from a poor family without a father. Our grade school coach was a black man that treated me like a son. He taught me how to be a responsible man (little guy at the time). I looked up to him then and look up to him now. I believe when people talk about white privilege it ignores all the contributions that black men have made - even raising a couple of white kids along the way....Like myself.

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White Privilege is a rhetorical change up pitch. You can read the seams as it comes in. Verse yourself in the numbers of Europeans taken slave and the dates and cultures who did it. When they come back with ....we must admit that slavery in N. America was a unique form in a unique era...Call Bull Sh@t...explain there is only history. Practice this and you can make this a home run every time!!!

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Privilege enough to have hard earned money taken and given to free loaders and enemy of America.
Privileged enough to have the children sent to war and to die for other nations and races.

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It is abundantly clear to me living in America that the same opportunities of prosperity exist for all people in it. Why are we talking about it? I don't, it holds no chains on me, and I do not place its chains on others. Unfortunately there is a vocal portion of society wrapped in their own chains and they have not realized yet that they are there own keepers.

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I grew up in rural NC in the 1940s and 1950s, worked in diverse ethnic groups most of my life and believe "white privilege" is a product of urban thinking created to help explain the social issue caused by overcrowding. I base this observation on watching what happened when our oldest daughter let the gerbil population in her high twenty aquarium get to high and they started eating each other. If the gerbils could talk I'm sure the black gerbils would have started to complain about brown gerbil privilege.

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Well let’s see if white privileged is even a thing.
We have. 9.0 million black Americans living under poverty level. We have 10.8 million Mexican Americans living under poverty! We have 700,000 native Americans living under poverty level! “for us so called privilege” there are over 17million Americans living under poverty. So no I don't call white people having privileges of any kind.

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I don’t think it exists, that’s based on personal observation and if you take the concept and apply it to every culture it also fails the smell test. I think economic and political privilege exists under the same concept at even greater precedent.

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only way to fix it is to move all non whites out into their own groups so they can claim all their benefits for themselves and no one need feel guilty ever again ...NO MORE FREE GUILT

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Of course it does. The term itself exists everywhere.

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