Michael Enoch

The Right Stuff

January 28, 2014

The seemingly ubiquitous meme of “White Privilege” has been a favorite topic of TRS since we began. It has been explored at length on this site by myself and other authors and tackled from several different angles and we’ve had a lot of fun with it. I have suggested in previous writings that one sure way to fluster Social Justice Warriors, Tumblristas and “more progressive than thou” lefties in the course of argument is to accept their “white privilege” narrative without guilt or shame and challenge them to make their next rhetorical point. They can’t, because the narrative relies on whitey balking at the concept and arguing against it out of a desire to cleanse himself of the existential guilt implied by the accusation of privilege. I stand by this as an effective argumentative technique that sabotages the progressive narrative and could potentially lead to some valuable reflection both on the part of the leftist as well as their intended white victim.

Accepting the narrative and turning it around, while an amusing and effective argumentation tactic, does not address some of the fundamental problems with the narrative itself. One huge problem being that not all white people are actually privileged. That is of course if we take the common definition of privilege seriously. I hate to argue from definition because language is fluid, but the narrative relies on certain elements of how privilege is already understood, so I think it is relevant here. There are a few different dictionary denotations of the word. From Merriam Webster:

priv·i·lege noun \ˈpriv-lij, ˈpri-və-\ 1. a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others 2. a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud 3. the advantage that wealthy and powerful people have over other people in a society

Using these common definitions we can see that certainly some white people are privileged according to #1 and #3. But not all or even most white people are privileged like this, and for those that are it is not their whiteness that confers the privilege. Many people privileged according to #1 and #3 are not white. Ironically, non-whites that are privileged according to #1 are privileged in this way specifically because of their non-whiteness. (Affirmative Action anyone?) In terms of #2, only non-whites are privileged in this way in relationship to race, ethnicity or cultural identity, though some whites may enjoy this sort of privilege on an individual level. White homosexuals enjoy privileges according to #2, but that is in relationship to their homosexuality, not their whiteness and non-white homosexuals have equal (perhaps even superior?) privileges there.

The most important thing to understand about the “white privilege” narrative is that white people generally cannot see it unless they have been subjected to an intense round of cultural Marxist, critical theory re-education at a local progressive indoctrination center (University). They cannot see it because they are relying on the above definitions to frame their concept of privilege. Whitey is surprised and taken aback when confronted with his own privilege. This is exactly why power-seeking leftists love this narrative so much. They can quickly gain advantage and power in the short term and potentially resources in the long term. As I have noted elsewhere, rent-seeking and resource extraction from white males is one of the main goals of social justice activism.

The insidious trick the left plays here is to smuggle in to their definition of privilege basic social norms such as civil treatment and trusting behavior towards others, but re-frame them as some kind of systemic and conscious nepotism on the part of whites specifically to benefit whites. Things such as getting the benefit of the doubt from strangers, not being followed around a retail store for fear of shoplifting or not getting arrested for as many violent crimes are actually framed as privileges, when these are simply how we would expect a normal society to function with those displaying aberrant behavior being justly punished. (As you probably already knew but were afraid to say, whites in actual fact commit far fewer violent crimes than non-whites, and all research data bears this out.) One of the things you realize as you begin to wake up to the fundamental lie of progressivism is that to a large extent much of society still does function this way, and that it is these aspects of society that are under constant attack from the intellectual establishment.

So where does this twisted definition of privilege come from? A potential answer becomes clear if we look at exactly which demographic those individuals that have been pushing cultural Marxism and potmodernist deconstruction on our society overwhelmingly come from. Yes, that’s right the demographic that dare not be named, the Jews. The idea of conscious in-group loyalty and active nepotism is not something familiar to whites as whites. It may at one point in our history have applied to some extent to specific white ethnicities, though not anymore. Scots-Irish privilege? German privilege? Scandinavian privilege? I think not. Italian privilege? Well… maybe a little… But even so, whites in the US are almost all a mix a various European ancestries, so to engage in this kind of nepotism on behalf of a specific white ethnicity today would be difficult and pointless. It’s also not really the sort of thing that whitey does as a general cultural practice.

But certainly this is exactly the kind of behavior we see from Jews. Jews actively privilege other Jews over non-Jews for special treatment, grants of resources, employment, business deals, charitable giving and many other things. Not only that, which is relatively unobjectionable on its own, but they often actively mistreat non-Jews in these same areas and feel no shame in doing so. The recent murder case of Menachem Stark, a Jewish slumlord from Brooklyn, NY, is an example of exactly this phenomenon. Apparently his murderers did not worry so much about how absolutely politically incorrect it was to kill him.

Does this nepotistic, in-group behavior pattern sound at all familiar? Why yes. This is exactly the sort of thing that whitey is accused of! One way of interpreting the “white privilege” narrative is as an unconscious (or perhaps conscious) projection of the guilt the secular, progressive, left-wing Jew feels over Jewish nepotism on to white people as a whole. This also serves the function of allowing the progressive Jew to attack whitey while retaining the special victim status of Jews in our society. This victim status along with the Biblical “chosen people” complex forms a core part of Jewish identity, even for the secular progressive. How often do we see individuals criticizing themselves as “white” when attacking the myriad evils that whitey has inflicted on the world, only to find out that this person is actually Jewish? In some cases it is overwhelming. Certainly most anti-western, anti-white leftist causes are led by a Jewish intellectual vanguard, but they often include many non-Jews in the rank and file as well as the intellectual leadership. Second wave feminism is interesting in that as far as I can tell all of the intellectuals involved have been Jewish women. (One may even be tempted to posit a conspiracy that such women have a deep-seated desire to destroy the family unit. But LOL. That would be absurd, now wouldn’t it?)

Even more maddening is that if we use the sort of percentage analysis the left loves to use as proof of white nepotism but apply a Jewish filter, the case is absolutely overwhelming for the very real existence of Jewish privilege in our society. Certainly Jews enjoy vast over-representation at the head of media, financial, academic and political institutions that far outstrips their representation in the population at large, yet this is positively unmentionable in our society today. The easy out of course is an appeal to meritocracy. Jews are smart and hard working after all, aren’t they? Well, sure many of them are, but the meritocracy argument is not only incorrect, it would never be accepted as a defense by a white person. Imagine publicly stating that white people are smarter and work harder and this is the reason for their relative success in relationship to people of color in the US? We have been so effectively programmed that even thinking this is difficult for many. Yet to say this as an explanation for Jewish success raises no eyebrows.

This is a vicious double standard, and one we should not stand for anymore. Nor should we continue to ignore the very real existence of Jewish privilege out of fear of the consequences we may suffer at the hands of the many headed Hydra of Jewish influence in our society.