The Urban Dictionary defines the phrase as follows:
A term screamed by far left sheltered liberals when they hear a white person say something that might offend someone that isn’t a straight white male. You will have this term screamed at you if say anything offensive to the LGBTQ, blacks, or any other kind of person that’s not white, straight or male.
Initially, I like this definition.
And the rest of this definition is quite frankly not politically correct:
One example of a privilege so “checked.” And reality unchecked.
CheckMyPrivilege.com challenges you to take their test.
And so, how did you fare?
And yet, despite the submitted pushback, there is in fact actual pushback:
Why I’ll Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege
by Tal Fortgang
Behind every success, large or small, there is a story, and it isn’t always told by sex or skin color.
There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them.
“Check your privilege,” the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year. The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laser-like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung.
“Check your privilege,” they tell me in a command that teeters between an imposition to actually explore how I got where I am, and a reminder that I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world.
A series of excellent points; and he goes on:
I do not accuse those who “check” me and my perspective of overt racism, although the phrase, which assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it, toes that line. But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. Furthermore, I condemn them for casting the equal protection clause, indeed the very idea of a meritocracy, as a myth, and for declaring that we are all governed by invisible forces (some would call them “stigmas” or “societal norms”), that our nation runs on racist and sexist conspiracies. Forget “you didn’t build that;” check your privilege and realize that nothing you have accomplished is real.
Fortgang had no idea the crapstorm he created.
A White Privilege Conference.
More to come.
BZ
I live in So Cal, I drive about 6 miles to work every day, through the urban sprawl and I’ve noticed something extremely odd in the last 6 months:
Homeless Racial Count:
White-26
Black-4
Hispanic-3
Now the breakdown of Race through out my area: 40% Hispanic 36% White 20’s % Black. So why is the homeless so white? I contend that “White Privilege” is not only a myth its a freaking lie. Look at the prison population breakdown. Now you see that disparity switched. Is it because cops target blacks and hispanics? NOPE, Its because generally speaking, white people are raised to be within the law, let me explain that statement before the “RACIST” cries start:
White people are the butt of jokes by comedians for this reason: White people in general are taught to obey the law or you will be locked up. We’re taught early to fear being locked up. We don’t generally have family members or friends who have done hard time in prison. We only have the “Fear” that was instilled in us by our parents about being in prison. In the black/hispanic community, in general there’s a sense that if you get locked up, you’ll meet someone that your family/friends knows, you’ll get “Street Cred” you’ll come out and have the power that “Pookie” or “Joker” has on the street…
So, back to the homeless: I contend that white people so fear prison from youth that they’re more inclined to live off the street rather than to commit crime in order to feed themselves or put a roof over their head. I also believe that white families have expectations of their members, if they make bad choices in life, they have to deal with the consequences and white families tend to help for a while then disown/forget about their blacksheep… Just my opinion based on my experiences.
Back in Detectives, statistics told me all the story I needed to know. It was readily acknowledged that I was NOT to print the racial breakdown of suspects whilst I was in the Robbery Bureau. I was threatened with discipline if I were to have done so.
BZ
Your privilege level is SHITLORD with a score of 110
Is that good or bad? Should I be proud or ashamed of myself?
I found the square in the”Check Your Privilege Bingo” titled “not a redhead” offensive. As a lifelong ginger, I had always suspected that I was viewed as somewhat inferior by the more pigmented people in my neighborhood.
By more pigmented, I mean Caucasoids with a darker complexion and a hair color with no red pigment.
The negative portrayal of redheads in movies, television and commercials did little to allay my suspicions. Think Scut Farkus in “A Christmas Story” or the “Gingers Have No Soul” episode of South Park.
The presence of the “Not A Redhead” square verifies my impression.
Remove the “Not A Redhead” square from the “Check Your Privilege Bingo” image and apologize to me and all of the other Gingers, or we will be forced to boycott your blog.
If that is unsuccessful, a media campaign, followed by litigation and a forced sale of your blog will undoubtedly follow.
Submit or starve.
Hand me that bowl of air.
BZ
You must loan me the bowl, low interest of course. Air, especially the heated kind, I have plenty of.
Gingers are not inferior. I’ve known some Gingers, they are all fine people.
If anyone tells me to check my privilege my answer will be
Go f**k yourself. This “white privilege” crap is one thing I will not put up with.
If someone tells me to check my privilege I’ll tell them they need to quit being a sugar cookie.
I guess I’m a bit dense here. As I live ‘overseas’ and not in the homeland I have no idea what this is about. What does this mean? I feel as if I am trying to decipher a foreign language. Or culture. Is this something people are saying to strangers on the streets? Is it a college thing? Are these people serious?
BTW, about that privilege test, noticed there is no category for income levels between 30 and 45000 dollars. So what’s a gal to mark?
“Check your privilege” is a Leftist bleat BY GOWPs about GOWPs. GOWP = Guilty Overeducated White Person.
It means, translated: if you’re Caucasoid then everything has been handed to you on a silver platter, by sheer dint of your lack of melanin.
Further translation: those only with darker melanin are deserving, and Caucasoids are truly deserving of nothing as they have never worked for anything.
Make sense now?
Of course not. I worked for nothing. I was given everything. My sole job in life has been to keep those with a higher melanin count down and oppressed, 24/7.
BZ
So basically more stirring of the racial pot. Who comes up with these things. And how long will whites put up with it? I think I would have a very hard time readjusting to life as it is now in America.