@totalbiscuit Even in America, the idea of "white privilege" is tenuous.



Let's go back to the SJWs favorite pet example, slavery. Slavery was when all the white people oppressed all the black people to get money and power, right? Well, it's more complicated. Looking at who actually owned slaves could tell us a lot about the actual power dynamics of the country.



Who actually owned slaves? It turns out that a small number of wealthy plantation owners owned the majority of slaves and land in the South. According to Wikipedia, "about a third of Southern families were slave owners": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Southern_United_States#Antebellum_Era_.281781.E2.80.931860.29



If I recall correctly, most of those slaves worked on large plantations with 100+ slaves. And as the civil war approached, plantations continued to consolidate. Poor, independent white farmers sold out to rich plantation owners. This is the origin of the "white trash" phenomenon. If you didn't have land, you worked for someone who did, and you were basically inferior. Even if you did have land, if you didn't have slaves, you had to work it yourself. Then you and your kids went uneducated. And you were still at a disadvantage to the rich people who could undercut you with their cheap labor. The poor whites in the South supported slavery not because because they were benefiting financially from it. They did because as long as there were slaves, they were not at the absolute bottom of the social totem pole, because "even though my life sucks, at least I'm not a slave".



Many northerners were not substantially better off either. Although there was social mobility and their society was more heterogeneous, the majority still worked on small farms or in factories. They were not rich, not by a long shot. And the smart ones properly perceived the expansion of slavery as a threat, because if the North did adopt slavery, well, then slaves would be doing their jobs instead of them, and they'd be shit out of luck.



In case it wasn't clear: slavery and racism in the United States was an economic institution designed to benefit wealthy Southern plantation owners, who composed only a very small number of white people in the South. Most white people actually suffered because of it.



So what we have is a pattern where the advantages (or "privileges") of the very upper class of a particular demographic (in this case, white people) are improperly ascribed to the entire demographic. For MANY white people in America (I'm talking about rednecks and trailer trash here), "white privilege" does not exist.



It completely blows my mind that any American with a decent public education could be so uneducated about their own country's history. To understand our current demographics, you need to understand where they came from. I'm beginning to suspect that many of the current "white privilege" arguments are just a coordinated attempt by those in power to solidify their position by keeping new entrants out. E.g., "don't try to succeed, you're already privileged enough." It wouldn't be the first time.



If you're curious, I'd encourage you to read about American history or watch a documentary or two (Ken Burns is pretty good). It's a fascinating subject and it can offer good insight into American politics and culture today.

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