Through The Looking Glass

White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

OAKLAND, CA (GLOB) - I read an article today titled “BLM Collected Over $90 Million in Donations. Where Did It Go?” Written by Sean Patrick Cooper, it is subtitled, As its leaders spent the money on tailored suits, birthday parties, and ‘big ass’ mansions, almost none of it went to the cause.

I wrote the following article on another site in June of 2020, and want to repost here because I fear that the fact that human beings make bad decisions when given lots of money will distract from the fact that black lives do matter.

I used the quote from Through The Looking Glass because these days people do seem to accept impossible things as possible. But one cannot and should not believe impossible things. Words should matter; if something is truly impossible, then it is impossible. Believe in possible things, maybe even improbable things, but not impossible things.

In what follows I argue two things. Black lives do matter and retorting “white lives matter” is ignorant. I also argue against the label “white privilege”. What I fail to get across below is that this styling of how all people should be treated with dignity and respect is actively derailed by a binary power dynamic which flows from Critical Theory. So, I will have a comment at the end.

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I’d like to start by stating that the phrase ‘black lives matter,’ is a true statement. I’d like to add that responding with ‘all lives matter,’ is a cheap shot. Nothing about the statement, ‘black lives matter,’ implies that only black lives matter. Saying ‘all lives matter’ belittles the visceral need that made it necessary for a people to scream, “I matter!” Please, people, just stop saying “all lives matter” as if you discovered an important concept. You just sound ignorant.

The phrase “black lives matter” is a cry for help and a plea for recognition about a certain fact in our society. And what is that fact? I’ll give you a hint. No white person in the USA has ever felt the need to exclaim “white lives matter.” Stop and look in the mirror for a moment. Have you ever felt you needed to protest and exclaim, “White lives matter!” Think deeply about what it means if you honestly answer, “No.”

Now, has a political organization risen and co-opted that phrase as a rallying cry and a way to raise money and gain political power? Yes, and of course. So, I’m not talking about the organization Black Live Matter, I’m talking about the true statement that black lives matter.

Everyone should try to understand that if the response to the cry for help of “black lives matter!” had been “Yes, yes they do,” the BLM organization would have failed to launch. Saying "all lives matter" was simply fuel they could use to build their political power group. Please just stop responding “all lives matter.” It is a stupid thing to say. Instead say, “Yes, yes they do.”

Regarding White Privilege, I’d like to start by talking about what privilege is. Not the social engineered virtue signaling definition, just the dictionary definition.

What is privilege? The Latin from which the word derives is a combination of two words, privus private, and leg-, lex law. Basically, in the original it simply meant a law enacted for or against a private person.

The current definition is
: a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor

The term now means a right or benefit granted to or for a person or persons. White privilege would then imply certain rights or immunities granted to white people and withheld from non-white people. At this point some readers are probably nodding their heads and thinking, “yes, exactly.” Others are probably insulted and feel like they are supposed to feel guilty for being white and getting angry about feeling that way.

So, what’s my point? That both sets of people are wrong. And they are very wrong for a very deep reason.

Let me try to explain. Rosie (my beloved spouse) told me that she realized that she never had to tell her son how to act if pulled over by the police. She viewed this as an example of white privilege.

But there was no right or immunity granted to her son.

It is not a privilege to be unafraid of the police. It is supposed to be that way. For everyone. Calling basic dignity and respect a privilege means we have completely lost our sense of basic human rights.

Basic human rights, first and foremost, are not a privilege. They are our due.

White people have not been granted privilege. Rather, people of color have had fundamental entitlements taken away. What entitlements? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are true and legitimate entitlements. These are inalienable rights, granted not by government but by God. As such they are inviolate. They are, therefore, to be safeguarded by legitimate human authority. That is the role of legitimate authority.

Simply, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our birthright and we should come to the aid of anyone being denied their birthright.

You can’t grant someone what they are due. You can only withhold what they are due.

Let me be clear here. There is no such thing as white privilege. Receiving basic dignity and respect is not a privilege to be granted, and it is not the sole birthright of white people. It is a universal right to be held sacred and is due all of us as human beings. But certain segments of our population are and have been systematically denied their God-given rights by the illegitimate abuse of authority.

Us white people don’t need to check our privilege. We aren’t enjoying a “privilege.” We are simply enjoying what is our due. It is wrong to think of it as a privilege. Thinking of it as a privilege implies that we can give and take these rights.

We should be offended by this type of thinking.

What all of us need to check is our complacency in the face of injustice.

We should be angry that our fellow humans are being denied what they are due. We should with righteous anger demand that our fellow humans have the rights they are due. Not privileges, rights. They don’t need to be granted rights or privilege. They need to be able to enjoy what is their due. And frankly, justice demands they be treated like the human beings they are.

They should be treated like they matter for this simple yet profound reason: they exist. They exist. This is not an impossible thing to believe. It is Reality.

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My comment on Critical Theory - This theory has a lofty goal. The goal basically is to free peoples from systems that oppress. I can find no fault with that idea. BUT, it has created a view of society as a power binary of oppressed and oppressor. While in its original form it did not assume that all governments and agencies are de facto oppressive organizations, it became easy to view all forms of governance as oppressive. As it has bled into Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, etc., it is presumed that anything that is currently dominant is an oppressive organization. And so we have oppressed = good and oppressor = bad. And, largely, Oppressor is associated with whatever currently happens to be the dominant view. There is no way forward from this view because it forces all human interactions into this power dynamic from which the only solution is for the oppressed to become the oppressor and vice versa. Note, there is no third party in this dynamic. There are only the oppressed and those who oppress. Once the dominant view has been replaced, well, it is the new dominant view and therefore oppressive and bad.

It is a broken world view that offers no solutions. Because the ideas flowing from Critical Theory are flawed, its intellectual offspring can offer no solutions. There’s no use adhering to these theories “because you cannot believe the impossible.” Instead, let’s recognize and call things what they are. Humans have rights, and systems should safeguard those rights. When they don’t they are broken and need to be fixed or replaced. Not because of an oppressor/oppressed world view but because they have failed to safeguard human dignity.