- White privilege, as defined by Francis Kendall, means “having greater access to power and resources than people of color [in the same situation] do.” There is, of course, no definition for either power or resources given in her essay, which implies a movement from rigorous demonstration to emotional communication i.e. the reader is supposed to “get” what she means by this. Power is defined by Merriam Webster in various ways, including “ability to act or produce an effect” and “capacity for being acted upon or undergoing an effect”. A resource is defined by Merriam Webster as “a source of supply or support : an available means”.
- I am not going to try to guess what various authors and writers mean when they use the term “white privilege”. I am instead going to argue that the entire reason this term is used is so it is unfalsifiable, and is thus the very definition of pseudoscience. What central claim does white privilege make about the world? Is there a proposed mechanism by which it is possible? Is there an empirical
- Any social idea that does not make specific, empirical assertions cannot be useful and must be subordinated to claims that do have this ability. Again, if it operates an abstraction, I can choose not to believe it, and you cannot convince me otherwise.
- If white privilege is not a rigorous sociological concept, what is it? Perhaps it can be thought of as a mental model, where the assumption is that whites who are in comparable situations will be treated slightly better than other groups of people. For example, a white person will be treated slightly better than an African American in a comparable social situation where the African American and the white are normalized for income etc.
- Two questions: Does this matter? Even if one were to believe that white privilege existed, because it is not sociological claim subject to empirical, one could not argue that it affects any measurable outcomes. If one does, it reverts back to the situation before.
- Do white people deserve it? If we treat people as intentionally race-conscious and treat people as groups, does it necessarily follow that everyone group should be treated the same? If, for example, white people can be depended upon being magnanimous and culturally accepting, then wouldn’t want to be around these people more often than people from groups who could not be depended upon to be nice?
- What does this say about any other kind of racially differential interactions? What about the nth move? |Does a black person who lacks the characteristic “black accent” get treated better because the person makes the mental calculation that this person is dissociated, either intentionally or unintentionally from the culturally
- The first impression is said to be a very important thing from a psychological perspective. But what defines a first impression? Do I have a first impression of someone by looking at them? By hearing their name? Can I have my first impression of someone by imagining what people in a certain setting will be like?
Why I don’t believe in white privilege
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