White Privilege: The Line Between Being Privileged and Prejudiced
In the current racially charged environment in South Africa, the term “white privilege” is something we hear almost daily. But do we know what we’re saying when we use the term? What does it mean? What do we mean when we use it? And how do we think about it?
The definition of white privilege on Wikipedia is as follows: “White privilege (or white skin privilege) is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in Western countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.” In academia, the concept of “white privilege” is used to study how racism affected the lives of white people. Of course, this can be taken to imply that only whites can be racists and that no other race can benefit from racism. It could also be argued that it suggests that white privilege only takes place in Western countries. Both of those interpretations are, however, incorrect.
Clearly, examples of white privilege are found in many non-Western countries as well; mostly in former colonies. We see many examples of it in Africa, for example. But let me give you an example of non-whites benefiting from racism, to show you why the second implication is wrong. Apart from the Black Economic Empowerment policies in South Africa, which benefit non-whites (and which should accelerate change towards proportional representation, but is implemented in the wrong way), there are hundreds of government-paid posts in South Africa (traditional leaders), that have roughly equivalent salaries to analogously ranked government officials – and all those posts are permanently and bluntly forbidden to white people, and have both race and tribe as requirements.
A belief that many people have is that white people benefit from past or present racism, simply by having white skin. It is not necessary to be racist to benefit from white privilege, thus most white people benefit from it. An example would be that, in South Africa, white children are more likely to receive good quality education because of riches that some white people accumulated during Apartheid. White privilege means that some white people receive benefits that they do not necessarily earn and that other races do not receive.
The concept is criticised often enough. Critics point out that race is not the only factor that causes these discrepancies. Factors that influence this are social class, work ethic and culture. I tend to agree with this, although I do admit that race does play a role in South Africa due to the legacy of Apartheid. One must be careful, though, not to mistake statistical facts for universal truths – that way lies racism and hate speech, not progress, redress or reconciliation.
Other criticisms include alternative definitions for the term “whiteness” or questioning the limits of white identity. Critics point out that there are many differences between groups of white people – in culture and religion – and thus, white privilege does not include all white people. It is also notable that white privilege ignores the differences between non-white people, and thus has only limited relevance to their situations. Other constructive criticism highlights that other racial groups are no longer oppressed by any racial injustices and thus have the opportunity to enrich themselves and create good lives for themselves – and have done so in many cases.
In this article, we will use one specific variation of the meaning of racism, in which one race is seen as superior to another and the race that is seen as inferior: this was commonly used as a justification for oppression. Throughout history, particularly during colonial times, the self-proclaimed “superior” race was often white-skinned. This means that studies on racism often disregard racism that was not practiced by white people (white-on-other racism is the common and modern stereotype of racism), thus, there is an academic focus on “white privilege”, while we hear very little about “non-white privilege”. This is understandable, given the dominant narrative of the last few hundred years.
The article On Racism and White Privilege, from the webpage Teaching Tolerance, describes white privilege in the following way: “[…] white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society.” This implies that white people do not necessarily maintain white privilege on purpose. It may be something that they are entirely unaware of.
I understand that white privilege is something that is difficult for a lot of white people to talk about. It is understandable. It feels like you are being blamed for simply being born white. It feels like an accusation. And in South Africa, “white privilege” is often used as an accusation. I feel that this is unfair. During Apartheid, many black people were often made to feel unclean, simply for being black. And just as this was wrong, it is wrong to make white people feel guilty, simply for being white. The issue of white privilege should be dealt with, but before it can be dealt with, we must allow ourselves to be free of hatred, free of a desire for revenge.
So where does white privilege come from? I believe we all need to accept that Apartheid is definitely a part of the reason. But we also need to accept that it is not the only reason.
It is no longer true that white people control the economy. Although the average income per capita is much higher among white individuals than any other racial group, I argue that this is changing. As is, higher positions in business still belong mainly to white people. Before drawing hasty conclusions, keep in mind that such positions not only require a certain degree of education, they require long-term experience. As long as the government fails to provide the opportunity for education to rural areas of South Africa, many people of colour will face more obstacles in reaching these higher levels of business. It has very little to do with race, and a lot to do with the fact that people are not provided the opportunity to gain an education – and even when education is available, the statistics take decades to change due to the experience requirements. Despite this, those who control the economy are not the white people of South Africa, but a small elite group of the private sector, many of which are, indeed, black.
Unfortunately, certain political parties would have South Africans believe otherwise, because many of them fall into this small elite group and because it is beneficial for them to promise economic empowerment to the poor black majority of South Africa. What they try to hide is the money they spend on themselves and on luxurious events for their parties and cronies, paid for by the tax payers of South Africa. Would this money not be better spent building schools and providing more opportunities for the poor?
It would be both futile and unfair to deny that some of the advantages that many white people have are due to things that happened during Apartheid – often simply by having a chance to make an honest living, rather than the oft-claimed land thefts that we hear about so often now. Undeniably, there are many other factors that also play a role. And I would like to point some of these factors out.
The first factor is culture. It generally accepted that it is a tendency in many African cultures for couples to have many children. Black families tend to be larger than white families. The economic effect of this can be proven with basic mathematics, but is often overlooked. According to statistics and census data that suggest that the average income per capita for black people is lower than the average income per capita for white people, we can assume that most black families do not have as much money as an average white family. And we should all be aware of the fact that children do not pay for themselves. Children are paid for by the parents, though the state contributes a small amount where financial strain occurs as a result. The more children one has, the more one has to pay for children and the less one has left to spend on, say, a car, a house or better education.
Another factor of culture that plays a role is the importance of brand names. Can anyone deny that there is a trend amongst all cultures – black cultures are certainly no exception – that emphasises the brand names of the products one owns? This is a trend that is less evident in some cultures than others, and even varies between individuals. The impact is, of course, that people from affected cultures sometimes prioritise brand products or luxury goods that act as status symbols, at the expense of other, more beneficial things.
The next factor is work ethic, which is also influenced of culture. Many people in South Africa are hardworking. And I would like to argue that the white population of South Africa is above average, for a few reasons: the nature of most white cultures is individualistic and supportive of capitalism and ambition, and with the pressure against white people in this country – BEE, quotas, threats of genocide – a strong work ethic becomes central to one’s likelihood of survival. So in terms of work ethic, white people tend to believe that if the individual works hard, they are likely to get far in life.
This is also true in terms of community efforts. White people tend to believe that working hard is an essential part of life. I am sad to say that from personal experience, anecdotal evidence and gathering information from the media, it seems to me that there is a large amount of “deadwood” in our society. These people are the ones – black, white or otherwise – that are unwilling to change their own situations for the better. When Apartheid ended, the African National Congress (ANC) promised everything to its supporters, including economic empowerment. Sadly, they left out the part about “We need to work hard, together, to build a new future!”
One of the negative mentalities amongst people in South Africa is: “Our ancestors worked hard to build South Africa, why should we work now?”, or “It’s not fair unless we all get a good life. I want to have it easy too!” A lot of South Africans have a feeling of entitlement, a sense that each person is owed a set of privileges by the world at large. They believe they are entitled to a good life, or entitled to land without having to pay for it, or entitled to revenge against perceived wrongs. Too many traditions that spoke of hard work are left by the wayside, victim of self-proclaimed have-nots demanding their fair share from supposed haves.
For a better understanding of why Apartheid and white privilege – or one of the other boogiemen of modern South African society – are poor scapegoats for our current situation, look at America and Australia as examples. Both these continents were colonised and experienced some form of Apartheid (or segregation). Both America’s and Australia’s economies are flourishing. What is keeping us from moving forward? I tend to believe that it is due to clinging eagerly to the past and its legacy, either out of pride or out of desire for a scapegoat, when we should be shrugging off the oppressive prejudices of years past and forging onward. Apartheid should never have happened, but it is forevermore a dark cloud in the past. It will take time and teamwork, but we can move from its ominous shade to find a cloud more likely to water our young democracy, so we can flourish together on this rich natural bounty.
Transformation will not be instant. This is something I feel many people fail to realise. It will take time, but that does not mean it is not happening – we should be measuring by what we gain or lose, not what we have. A man on a mountain is not always a climber, nor is a man in a valley always bad at climbing; it is where they are headed that predicts their future. Our responsibility lies in working hard to build our own lives up and in keeping the government accountable.
So, yes, there are often advantages to being white – and those advantages are a privilege that is not earned. But we tend to forget there are advantages to being Indian, or African, or Asian as well. And these differences are certainly not entirely due to Apartheid. Ignoring the other factors influencing our situation is not just foolish, it is even dangerous. One cannot expect to change what one cannot understand. So let us all try to understand more, so we may change what needs changing.
Please watch the videos “What does the white man owe blacks” and the interview with Dinesh D’Souza on racism.
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