Re: [Marxism] Defining White Privilege

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

<Unless you have a concept like white privilege or some equivalent
substitute, like understanding social relations are hierarchical, you  
also
get into problems trying to explain and understand popular consciousness
among various social layers in the United States. The idea that relative
privilege has a corrupting influence that undermines solidarity among  
the
oppressed is one of long standing, which you will find expressed by many
great revolutionaries, from Marx to Malcolm X. IF you do away with
recognition of privilege then you have a much harder time explaining  
this
phenomenon (or in reality you do a lot of talking around the issue  
cause you
can't say directly that whites or males are better off).>

writes Joaquín.

<It papers over the racism of u.s. life and
society by wrapping it in fancy irrelevant packaging. The doctrine of
white privilege interferes with the fight against racism.>

writes Carrol.

I haven't read much from this new group of academics and activists  
either, but it seems to be distinguishable from Black and Latino  
activists because it is written by whites for whites. That is to say,  
it is a form of group "self-criticism" directed at whites to get them  
to reform themselves or see how racism functions at different levels  
in US society. I can understand why Carrol writes the above, but I  
tend to think that any critique of white racism from within the  
dominant group is relevant and worthy of attention.

Greg McDonald


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu