A NOTE ON WHITE MALE PRIVILEGE

The next series of posts look at the concept of privilege and how it is used today.  Who are the privileged  and how did they gain or how do they keep that privilege.

Privilege is most often attached to so-called white folks as white privilege and almost in all those cases attached to the word male for white male privilege.  This creates a favourite catch phrase of some people who purport to be left-wing.

  
Is there such a thing as white male privilege?  The formulation on a typical blog advancing the notion describes white male privilege as social, economic, and political advantages or rights that are made available to men solely on the basis of their sex.

Is white male privilege a systemic characteristic?  Are our institutions organized in order to privilege white males or more broadly all white folk.

The notion of white male privilege is of course associated with people who advance identity politics.  According to the identity politics theorists so called people of colour are universally not privileged; white people particularly white males are universally privileged.  How are they privileged?  According to Peggy McIntosh, whites in Western societies enjoy advantages that non-whites do not experience, as "an invisible package of unearned assets".   She says that white privilege denotes both obvious and less obvious passive advantages that white people may not recognize they have, which distinguishes it from overt bias or prejudice.  These include cultural affirmations of one's own worth; presumed greater social status; and freedom to move, buy, work, play, and speak freely. The effects can be seen in professional, educational, and personal contexts. The concept of white privilege also implies the right to assume the universality of one's own experiences, marking others as different or exceptional while perceiving oneself as normal.”

Needless to say most white males - particularly blue collar white males - would ask about these supposed cultural affirmations of their self-worth.  Where are they?  Do they get respect?  Are they favourably portrayed in the media?  Do they get advantages in custody and access battles.  Do they have the benefit of income security?

Most white guys would answer no to all of these questions.  They certainly do not have any special freedom to move, work or play?  They are constantly buffeted by economic streams which force them to move around for work.   Typically they do not have much time for play unless unemployed and then they do not have the money to engage in play.

Academic identarian Frances Kendall says that white men have greater access to power and resources than men and supports that claim by saying “that, while white men constitute about 43% of the work force, they hold 95% of senior management positions in American industry”.  

This comment starkly outlines the fallacy of the notion of white male privilege.  Senior management positions are held by less than one per cent of white males - a plumber is not in the competition for a senior management position.  Neither is a roofer or a truck driver or a construction labourer.  Senior management positions are held by the elite.  They are held by people who were born into the elite, who went to the right schools, the right universities, belong to the right clubs.  They are not open to white men generally.  They are open to a tiny portion of the white male population.  A white CEO earning ten million per year does not benefit or otherwise bestow privilege on a janitor earning $40,000.00 per year.  It is absurd to suggest otherwise but that is exactly the proposition that Frances Kendall advances.