Talking Points #8

Tim Wise: "Whites Swim in Racial Preference"

Premise:

~ white
~ affirmative action
~ privilege
~ citizenship
~ race
~ racial preference
~ people of color
~ America
~ invisible
~ discrimination

Argument:

Wise argues that because of "racial preference", white people are basically blind to privilege because they have received it every day of their lives. Because of this they are blind to the inequalities betweem them and people of color.

Evidence:

1. "Yet few whites have ever thought of our position as resulting from racial preferences. Indeed, we pride ourselves on our hard work and ambition, as if somehow we invented the concepts." (1)

2. "We ignore the fact that at almost every turn, our hard work has been met with access to an opportunity structure denied to millions of others." (2)

3. "Privilege, to us, is like water to the fish: invisible precisely because we cannot imagine life without it." (2)

4. "... but made clear the inability of yet another white person to grasp the magnitude of white privilege still in operation." (2)

5. "Once again, white preference remains hidden because it is more subtle, more ingrained, and isn't called white preference, even if that's the effect." (2)

6. "'If I had only been black I would have gotten into my first-choice college.' Such a statement not only ignores the fact that whites are more likely than members of any other group - even with affirmative action in place - to get into their first-choice school, but it also presumes ... 'that if these whites were black, everything else about their life would have remained the same.' In other words, that it would have made no negative difference as to where they went to school, what their family income was, or anything else." (3)

7. "So long as those privileges remain firmly in place and the preferential treatment that flows from those privileges continues to work to the benefit of whites, all talk of ending affirmative action is not only premature but a slap in the face to those who have fought, and died, for equal opportunity." (3)

Other Stuff:

Surprisingly enough, I really liked reading this article. Ever since the beginning of this class and how we first started to talk about "white privilege", I have realized how blind whites really are, especially myself. I never once realized about the effects of affirmative action on the mindset of the whites. I also never realized how big of a deal it really is. After first talking about affirmative action in class last Thursday, I started to realize how it kind of contradicts Muwakkil's arguement about how the white women and black women are up for the same job (or college in the case of our discussion last week) with the same exact credentials, and the white women gets the job. To me, as i could be completely wrong, the idea of affirmative action is the complete opposite of Muwakkil's statements in his article. I am also unsure if affirmative action is a good thing or a bad thing. I think that "racial preference" in the favor of the whites goes out the door when working with affirmative action. My ideas are kind of jumbled right now and I think I may be mixing some things up, but hopefully our class discussion will help me to clarify.