Good Thing Sarah Palin is White

Good Thing Sarah Palin is White

Thursday, September 18, 2008

When it comes to the Republican vice presidential candidate, it really is all a matter of black and white.

Guest blogger Tim Wise came up with the following reasons he feels the Palin family is benefiting from "white privilege":

• When a white girl like Bristol Palin gets pregnant, everyone is quick to insist that her life and that of her family is a personal matter. But if you're a black and Latino teen who gets pregnant, you're considered irresponsible, pathological and an arbiter of social decay.

• When a white guy like Levi Johnston calls himself a "f*ckin' redneck" who likes to "kick ass" if people mess with him, and who likes to "shoot sh*t" for fun, he can still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be). If a black teen did that, he'd be labeled a thug.

• When a white woman attends four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did, no one questions her intelligence or commitment to achievement. If a person of color did this, she'd be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

• White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

To read Tim Wise's entire article, click here.

Do you agree with him?

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White privilege is also when you don’t get a job because it’s given to someone else less qualified to meet a “diversity” quota.

- Anonymous

Posted 09/18/08 02:13 PM

Yeh this Tim guy needs to get off his high horse. I am sorry he has a chip on his shoulder. Apparently he doesn’t watch tv or read much b/c people have questioned every aspect of Palin’s life, her kids lives and her son in law. So what is he even babbling about?

- Anonymous

Posted 09/18/08 02:30 PM

I agree with Anonymous #1. In fact it should be called black privilege.

- Me

Posted 09/18/08 03:06 PM

I agree with u Tim. In fact I said the same to my husband the other day. If it where Obama’s daughter at 17 who had gotten pregnant out of wedlock then things would be very different indeed!!

- Suri

Posted 09/18/08 03:09 PM

I have a VERY hard time supporting her as a politician and a mother! I don’t understand how she could STILL not support sex education or birth control?!

- praying4baby#2

Posted 09/18/08 03:39 PM

I hate when people have ignorant, stupid comments without knowing facts and put as name, anonymous. White women and military men are the ones who benefit the most from affirmative action.

- Marquita

Posted 09/18/08 03:40 PM

Tim Wise is an opportunist and a fraud whose “work” has been widely discredited in academic circles. Many prominent—and legitimate—race relations scholars thoroughly detest Wise because of the immature, uneducated, and uncivilized way he talks about race in America. While he raises a serious issue, the way in which Wise talks about what he calls “white privilege” is both counterintuitive and counterproductive to contemporary race and equality movements in America. Don’t fall into Wises’ trap: he makes his income stirring the pot, and jumping on the bandwagon is making his job ridiculously easy.

- Jana

Posted 09/18/08 04:12 PM

Tim Wise isn’t an academic, he’s an activist. It seems like he talks about race like regular people talk about it. If that doesn’t please academics, who cares? I wouldn’t agree with him all the time but it’s worth thinking about how people would react if Obama had a teenager daughter who became pregnant.

- Erin

Posted 09/18/08 04:39 PM

I hate how this election is being tauted as a race issue, because Barry doesn’t scream Black to me, and I am of Black descent. True, there are some issues that need to be addressed, such as how there has been white infiltrated and inherited racism in our country and in order for change to come, these truths need to be addressed. But it has nothing to do with this election. And I resent being told by others, that I am not ready to vote for a black man, simply because I am distrustful of Obama…if anything, it seems more are voting FOR him out of guilt for their own past racist judgements.

- cara

Posted 09/18/08 05:06 PM

This article is a piece of race-baiting trash. Last time I checked the media was full of scorn and snipe for young women such as: Jamie Lynn Spears Britney Spears Christine Aguilera

- 186

Posted 09/18/08 05:08 PM

Black privilege is when you work 3x as hard in school and work just to prove you’re “as good” as some white person ONLY to have OTHER IGNORANT WHITE PEOPLE *ASSUME* you got the job for some BS “diversity quota.” Don’t ASSUME, ok? There are plenty of people of color who have the success they do BECAUSE WE F——-G EARNED IT. AND btw…read a history book once a while and maybe you’ll find that if racists LIKE YOU didn’t start this cycle, retroactive policies like AA wouldn’t even be thought of…so if YOU don’t like AA, blame the racist attitudes of the past, not hardworking people LIKE ME.

- Black Privilege

Posted 09/18/08 05:20 PM

CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

- foxymama

Posted 09/18/08 06:04 PM

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THIS! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS ENTIRE SITUATION IS A JOLTING WAKE UP THAT WHILE RACE RELATIONS “APPEAR” TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER, THE TRUTH IS, ITS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE USA. I FIND IT SADLY IRONIC THAT DURING A TIME OUR COUNTRY HAS CHOSEN TO INTRUDE IN THE BUSINESS AND GOVERNING OF IRAQ TO SPREAD DEMOCRACY, JUSTICE AND EQUALITY. WE ARE CURRENTLY ENGAGED IN WHAT MUST BE ONE OF THE MOST BIASED ELECTION OF OUR TIMES. FORTY YEARS AGO, ROBERT KENNEDY PREDICTED GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE NEXT FORTY YEARS, SO MAGNIFICENT, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN WOULD/COULD BE PRESIDENT. WHILE THE DREAM IS ALIVE AND BEING REALIZED, MR. KENNEDY’S VISION IS NOT YET REALIZED - AND GROSSLY THREATENED BY UNDERLYING, RACIAL BIAS. AND YES, IF SARAH PALIN WAS NOT WHITE, SHE AND HER FAMILY WOULD BE VIEWED AS IRRESPONSIBLE, THEIR MORALS WOULD BE QUESTIONED, THEY WOULD WITHOUT A DOUBT BE LABLED AND STEREO TYPED. THE RECCOMENDATION WOULD BE THAT THE SEEK COUSELING, TRY TO FIX HER DISFUNCTIONAL FAMILY. THESE CHILDREN ARE CRYING OUT FOR ATTENTION—DOES THE TERM “AT - RISK” RING A BELL? I AM A PROFESSIONAL, MOTHER OF 6 AND WHILE I LOVE MY CAREER, MY CHILDREN AND MY FAMILY WILL ALWAYS COME FIRST. WHEN THEY NEED ME, I’M THERE. TO SUPPORT THEIR ACTIVITIES, ACADEMICS, DREAMS, WISHES.. I’M THERE. GOD BLESSED ME WITH CHILDREN, I ACCEPTED THE CHILDREN AND I/WE ARE CHARGED WITH THE RIGHTS, DUTIES, GIFT OF RAISING OUR CHILDREN. SARAH, I TOO,AM WOMAN… BUT AS WOMAN, I AM FIRST MOTHER. I BELIEVE A WOMAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE WOULD BE WONDERFUL…CONDALEEZA RICE COMES TO MIND .., INTELLEGENT, PROVEN, EXPERIENCED. I THINK MCCAIN MADE THE WRONG CHOICE

- LISA

Posted 09/18/08 06:59 PM

Try not to type in all caps, less people will read your post and therefore won’t receive any benefit from your message simply due to visual aggravation.

- birdsfly

Posted 09/18/08 11:04 PM

Anyone who doesn’t recognize the truth in this is so sadly delusional.

- Kate

Posted 09/19/08 12:01 AM

i agree with the post, it’s all true.

- anouk99

Posted 09/19/08 12:52 AM

Hello? Anyone home? This country is about to put a black man in the White House. It’s real rough out there for people of color, huh?

- Get a Clue!

Posted 09/19/08 01:48 AM

Well, I’m a white woman and I tend to say that any pregnant teen of any race or creed is in the same boat - one that is filling with water ever so rapidly and there’s a few spoons to work that out. And I recently read “A Lesson Before Dying” and that kind of gave an interesting look into the whole race thing…and it really opened my eyes to something: that the black community as a whole had issues that had to be addressed which had nothing to do with any other race of people. It was very enlightening to read of the internal struggle of a situation that has always been blamed as one-sided - all on the “whitey’s” shoulders. And anyone who looks into a history book will see only what the author wants to spin. You’ve got to read A LOT of history books to get the true picture of the past - and even that is hard to discern and it surely is not the way to study up for BLAME. So my advice? Look at today and what YOU can do to change your little world!

- Lea

Posted 09/19/08 03:16 AM

I am sick of the “poor me” I’m black and the world is against me lie! When I was going to college, as a white man, I couldn’t get a scholarship to save my life. YOU HAD TO BE A MINORITY! That is bull crap! I worked my ass of in school and I deserved a scholarship. My father-in-law applied for a job and had to put that he was hispanic on his application to get the job. Ridiculous!!! You think black people are the minority. Sorry…but you are WRONG!!!! Stop whining! Who cares if Levi is a RedNeck. He’s young…he’ll grow up one day just like you will. And, yes, racism is alive and well…but in my state it’s against white people!

- Bob

Posted 09/19/08 08:56 AM

You are so wrong TIM! Stop the “I’m so mistreated bologne because I am not white” lie. Honestly, I am sick to death of hearing it. If you don’t like something you have the power to change it! Quit complaining and do something. I have seen the opposite where I live so I’m not buying it. Sarah Palin is where she is because SHE WORKED HARD TO GET THERE. TRY IT!

- Jasmine

Posted 09/19/08 09:17 AM