White privilege exists, and black people are creating it.

This one is going to make me enemies on the right and on the left. The former because many conservatives vehemently deny the existence of white privilege but will argue in the same breath that voting democrat is destructive to black lives (logical consistency is important to me, but not all conservatives). They will also deny it because “white privilege” feels like a personal indictment; in that you’re not only benefitting from it, but creating it to boot. They can’t grasp the idea that it’s possible to have absolutely nothing to do with its creation and sustainment but still benefit from it. The latter, because many liberals won’t have a white man even mentioning race (much less African-Americans), they wouldn’t be caught dead criticizing black people out of feelings of guilt and fear, they are actively engaged in propping black people up as collectively beyond reproach, they have encouraged (and subsequently conditioned) black people to cry racism in any negative interaction when the accusation may not apply, they won’t like me putting the two traditional variations of the n-word into printed form, they want to gatekeep culture (or at least enable black people to gatekeep), many believe that only white people can be racist and all are, and that only black people will understand the turning of the horrific and dehumanizing slave master word “nigger” into the loving, fraternal affectation “nigga”. Far left liberals are taking the skin-color experience to its logical (and foolish) conclusion and making so much about skin color nowadays that they are painting white and black people in broad and (no other way to say it) very racist terms. But that’s an essay for another day. In the name of brevity, I’ll get to my point.

I understand taking the pain of the hard “r” and turning it into the victory of the soft “a”. I think the soft “a” can be dehumanizing and therefore I disagree with the usage it, but I get it. Problem is that in this country, black people have had and continue to deal with all sorts of stereotypes from all directions. White people have a few stereotypes about them also, but not nearly as many as black folks do. One of the issues with a stereotype about any race in this country is that all races are far too numerous, spread out, and divergent in thought/actions/behaviors/beliefs that painting any of them with a broad brush is doomed from the beginning. But I digress. A stereotype contrived and maintained as a joke can be emotionally harmful, but as long as there’s not racial hatred behind it, there’s not a crossing over into dreaded racist territory. But a stereotype used and proliferated as a means of justifying one’s disdain, scorn, haughtiness, or hatred are morally abhorrent. What I see happening is a proliferation of stereotypes attached to “nigga” being used by black people (usually women).

I’m an outgoing and friendly extrovert with a very large number of people I call “friend”, many of whom probably see me more along the lines of “acquaintance” (due to the conflicting definitions of “friend” between extroverts and normal people). I won’t go into my personal history too deeply but I have befriended, lived near/with, worked alongside, been employed by, employed, and taught many African Americans. Anyway, my Facebook feed is filled with a wonderful smattering of people from all walks of life. Just a few minutes of scrolling shows me that there are many, many black women who see “niggas” as so far beneath them and who attach such negative collective attributes to them that racism in the form of self-hatred is being blatantly manifested. I could build an extensive and really creepy scrapbook of all that I’ve seen, but I’ll only attach a few screenshots to give you an idea. Names and faces have been blacked out so as to protect the not-so-innocent.

In the gallery below, we have black men:

Acting creepy at parties and direct messaging later due to…cowardice or social awkwardness, I guess.
Being poor and doing things only a poor person would do.
Only wanting to link up for sex but being broke.
Putting on the image of wealth but being financially stingy once they’ve landed a girlfriend.
Maintaining an easy lifestyle full of lying, having sex with anything, smoking, and hanging with the guys.
Having to be fed by their lover for fear of starving otherwise.
Turning down honest work because they’re too “street”.
Trash-talking 8-year-olds on Call of Duty as a grown adult

The list goes on and on and on. I argue in my latest book (link below) that conservatives have to wrap their minds around the idea that white privilege exists in this country and liberals have to wrap their minds around the idea that non-whites are creating it. Liberals need to recognize that non-racist whites aren’t creating in or proliferating it. Conservatives need to recognize that black people are marginalized still in this country. Both sides need to recognize that in two diametrically opposed human reactions to reality, the truth is usually (almost always, actually) somewhere in the middle.

No subgroup in America is more marginalized than black men. Feminism of the super-woman variety, the justice system, the family court system, counting on the empty promises of politicians (from both major parties), lingering generational curses, the nanny/welfare state, and black women are keeping them that way. Black women adopting a generalization containing negative attributes toward a whole group, spreading the message, and acting accordingly are making the plight of the black man worse and worse.

Where does white privilege come into play? This is where the kneejerk reaction of “I’m white, I don’t have privilege, and have struggled all my life” comes in. That may very well be true, but one’s plateau can be low and still privileged if another’s is actively lowered farther by the willful actions of others. Perfectly decent white men don’t have to deal with a myriad of negative collective attributes assigned to them by white women so as to justify their continued marginalization. It may be a small one, but it is privilege nonetheless.

Yes, in the land of opportunity, much of the direction of your life depends on your choices and not trifling, superficial matters like the amount of melanin in your skin. But not all of the direction of your life, and primarily for black men. You hear black and (occasionally) white men saying “my nigga” in a brotherly manner to denote love and friendship. You hear black and (occasionally) white women using it in another manner entirely. A good argument for our society to scrap the colloquial usage altogether, then relegate it to artistic output of the historical dramatic kind, the annals of philosophical treatise, and posterity.

And then demolish this ridiculous notion that there’s a white America and there’s a black America, recognizing there’s an America, and what is good or bad for one is good or bad for the other. Maybe throw in a dash of the Asian’s and Latino’s perspective, who I imagine might be sitting in the cut wondering “what exactly is wrong with y’all?”.

Hey there, beloved reader! Don’t stop reading yet. I enjoy writing and creating content for you, but I don’t get paid to do it just yet. Recently, I took on the Herculean task of fixing America and wrote a book on the subject; the very literal-titled “I’ll Fix America Tonight”. There is a a link where you can conveniently add the book to your Amazon cart (if you’re flush with about $20 in cash right now) or your wish list (if around $20 in cash is a little too much right now, but hypothetically not too much in the near future). Buy it, and help end poverty (namely my poverty). Thanks for reading!