Power, Privilege and Guilt

A second post by guest writer and fellow angry white kid Joshua Deutsch.

Why do privileged people feel guilty? Is it a genuine feeling of empathy and remorse? I don’t think so. Personally, I’m white, from a wealthy background, American, male, and heterosexual, making me one of the more privileged people in the world. I used to be extremely insecure about my background, and wished I had a hardship to fall back on to prove that I’m really down for the cause. Mostly, I worried that my privileged background would cause people to dismiss my progressive worldview as nothing but insincere rhetoric. More recently, I feel comfortable talking about my privileged background with people I meet. This change occurred because I feel confident that I am using my power and privilege to make the world a better place and undermine the power structure that benefits me.

The median income for Whites is $18,000 higher than for Blacks in America. This means that if you grew up in an average Black family rather than an average White family, you would be making $18,000 less. Yet very few Whites would admit that $18,000 of their income is solely attributable to the color of their skin. They feel guilty about racial disparities, yet they have a hard time acknowledging that this extra income is a product of a racial hierarchy and therefore completely illegitimate. If I lived in Malawi, I’d probably make less than $2 per day. That means that 98% of my money is the result of living in the heart of the empire. If we took the money, resources, and freedoms that we get for being among the powerful and used them to benefit the disempowered, the feelings of guilt would most certainly disappear. The guilt stems from the fact that the disempowered deserve more than our sympathy and our charity, they deserve an equal share. As long as we hoard our privileges, we cannot be in solidarity with the oppressed, and we are condemned to that feeling of guilt.

A final example to illustrate this point: Let’s say that I live in Malawi and someone offers me a pill that will transform me into an American citizen of Anglo descent. Would I take the pill? Absolutely. And from my experiences living in Morocco and Senegal, so would most of the entire African continent. But there’s a catch. Taking that pill in no way disrespects my heritage. It would not change my love of my dark skin and African ancestry and possibly my hatred for white skin and Anglo-American ancestry. I would take the pill as a sacrifice. Because gaining the power of whiteness and American citizenship would allow me to do more for my family and my community than saving my identity. Consequently, I would use all of that power and privilege to advance the causes that I believed in but was previously powerless to affect. But if instead I saw my new powers as an entitlement and used them to advance my personal interests, I would feel guilty every day of my life for letting down my people.

Powerful people are much more capable of making change, even though their selfishness makes them much less likely to push for change in the first place. The paradox is that you can’t both have the power but be part of the powerless group. If you want to have the power to make change, you have to come to terms with your privileged identity. There’s nothing wrong, on an individual level, with being born into privilege. Most underprivileged people would trade places with you. The catch is that you must dedicate the entirety of your illegitimate privileges to benefit the people who have been harmed to put you and me where we are today.

Comments

[Yawn]

Wow, you're no better than Scott when it comes to taking complex issues and reducing them to silly props for your lefty agenda. Hmmm, so SKIN COLOR ALONE determines an $18,000 income difference between blacks and whites? Hmmm, does the fact that 70% of all blacks kids are born in single parent homes have anything to do with it (with single-parenthood being the single biggest determinant of poverty for children in the U.S. today)? Or generations of liberal welfare programs that create dependency? Or an urban culture than disparages and penalizes kids who do well in school, in favor of rap "artists" and athletes? And, yes, also racism, both the historical legacy and its current forms, from the left and the right.
This is both the problem and glory of the Web -- any idiot can get published.

[Jack Jones]

In your post you mention that you come from a background of wealth and privilege. As one who doesn't come from such a background I'd be interested to hear your answers to a few questions.

What is your net worth? be sure to include trust funds, investment income, inheritances etc. What is your annual income? How much do you pay in income tax annually?

"The catch is that you must dedicate the entirety of your illegitimate privileges to benefit the people who have been harmed to put you and me where we are today."

When do you plan to start dedicating "the entirety of your illegitimate privileges to benefit the people who have been harmed to put you and me where we are today?

Lastly, to what extent does the renowned Jewish guilt influence your belief system?

[Jennifer]

Hmm. I'm trying to understand what it is about this post that generated so much hostility. I can only assume that Yawn and Jack are feeling some of the guilt the author mentioned. *shrug*

[DoubleYawn]

No, Jennifer, not feelingguilty in the least. I'm not going to apologize for who I am to anyone, least of all these self-righteous jerks who (inaccurately) diagnose the ills of the world, and then prescribe their own quack medicine. Partly, I'm astounded anyone is stupid enough to believe this stuff; partly, I'm amazed that weenies like scott and Joshua, who have never held a real job, had kids, paid a mortgage, are just out of college and/or are still in some hippie bubble town, and are still soiling their nappies, are so arrogant as to think they're qualified to tell anyone anything.

[Joshua Deutsch]

Yawn, your focus on single parent families confuses the symptoms for the causes. It begs the question of why there are more social problems within low income communities of color. The "liberal welfare programs" that you speak of have not been around for generations. African Americans were excluded from the New Deal "liberal welfare programs" that allowed White Americans to overcome the depression. A similar New Deal for African Americans and the new urban poor in conjunction with adequate funding for social services would do wonders to alleviate the $18,000 racial disparity. But this is unlikely to happen because the powerful in this country want to hoard their privileges and maintain the hierarchies of Whites over Blacks and rich over poor.

[Joshua Deutsch]

Jack, I'd be happy to share my financial information with you. I have about $5,000 in the bank. I pay $467 per month rent sharing a 3 bedroom apartment with 3 other people. I cook all my food so I have a very low food budget. I mostly drink in my house because I can't afford bars and club. Over the years I've had my tuition covered by my parents, hence my benefits from wealth and privilege. I spend most of my extra money cooking food for my friends and neighbors so they can eat better, live healthier, and we can build a stronger community. I plan to work in international health so I can help to poorest in the world lower the burden of disease. Helping the people in your immediate community is the easiest thing you can do to share your wealth and privilege

[Jack Jones]

Joshua, I'm sorry but you didn't really come clean about your finances. In your post you mention that you are from a "wealthy background". Remember, I requested Info about trust funds, investment income, inheritence etc. In the spirit of stark honesty you should include your parents income and net worth. Even so you did mention that you have $5,000 in the bank. This is far more than you need. Why do you need that much money given that there are so many poor people who could make better use of it? When do you plan to begin disbursment of those funds to the poor? For that matter, couldn't you find a cheaper apartment and give the surplus to those less fortunate? Certainly many people live in far less expensive digs. What gives you the right to live such an opulent lifestyle? You sound like a very greedy young man. Shame on you. Incidently, you never addressed the subject of jewish guilt as I requested. Could it be you feel guilty because you feel guilty?

[Jack Jones]

...In other words Josh, your not even in the ballpark of dedicating ""the entirety of your illegitimate privileges to benefit the people who have been harmed to put you and me where we are today." I'm sure your a very nice person, but like most people, you seem primarily concerned with your own comfort and security.

[trey]

I'm sure your a very nice person, but like most people, you seem primarily concerned with your own comfort and security.

Interestingly, from the posts and comments alone, I don't get that from Josh, but I'm definitely starting to get that from Jack.

I grew up in the South, I lived in what seems to me now to be a microcosm of the U.S. in some ways. Our town had a population of around 450. 200 of those were descendents of slaves, most of who were slaves of the ancestors of the other 250 people. The white half lived in inherited houses and on inherited land, or had jobs they had because the others had been barred almost till the 70's by law or power from those same jobs, or because they had publicly funded educations in segregated schools that were much much better than the ones the black kids went to.

Some blacks made it to the middle-class in our town, even though most were worked very hard. But in addition to hard work, it often takes capital, banks willing to loan, jobs willing to hire, family wealth safety nets and education large groups of people to make it out of the lower class. It's better now, but the disparity is still there.

[Jack Jones]

Trey, I'm only asking that Josh put his money where his mouth is. Like limousine liberals everywhere, he talks the talk while people who actually work for a living are expected to walk the walk. Also, reality isn't as cut and dried as people like yourself would like. For instance, in the thirties my father's family--all white--farmed land which they rented from a black woman who owned quite a bit of property in the small town where they lived--in the south. I can't imagine that their circumstance was unique. Anyway, I'm still awaiting precise figures regarding Josh's income and net worth so that I can determine whether or not he is giving his fair share. Also, as one who rarely feels guilty about anything, I'd be very interested to read about his guilt issues. What's that all about?

[Tulip]

Precise figures regarding Josh's net worth or Josh claiming to use the entirety of his priviledge to help those without is not, in my opinion, important in understanding the wealth gap and guilt. The real discrepancy between individuals coming from different sides of the playing field is that people who come from wealthy backgrounds cannot fuck up. If you are poor, you live in fear of circumstances fucking you up. If the prosperous somehow manage to squander their inherited wealth, stocks, property and college funds, they can still run to their wealthy family memebers and their wealthy family connections. They have a safety net, security. They can start doing drugs and get sent to $200,000 a year treatment programs. Being sent to the hospital will not cause them bancruptcy. If you're poor and you are laid off or start doing drugs to cope with your problems and your landlord evicts you, you can be homeless in a second. Your family can be split up in an instance, off to foster homes or shelters. Whether Josh comes from a family that pulls in 50,000 bucks a year or 1 million is not, to me, the issue. Either way, he'd feel safe to know that neither he nor his loved ones would spend Hannukah on the street. No child should go to bed hungery or worry about where they'll be living in a month. No parent should have to worry that her child will be taken away if she can't work another job or get a welfare check this month after she spends days dealing with beauracracy. Poverty is real. Racism, the system that keeps people of color poor and powerless is also real. I don't believe band aid solutions like better welfare and health insurance will ever really work because the system is in itself heirarchical and therefore oppressive. White guilt should stop focusing on band aid solutions, charity, and socialism. The system itself needs to be dissolved, liqified, obliterated. The white race needs to stop pussy footing around with safe reform solutions and instead take action towards destroying the imperialist system which put them on their throne.

[TripleYawn]

Your comments on the single parent issue are ridiculous. Nobody forces anybody to have children out of wedlock, again and again and again and again and again, to the tune of SEVENTY PERCENT ILLEGITIMACY. Nobody forces a man to abandon his responsibility to a woman and to his kids. Nobody forces anyone to make the choices that the MAJORITY of Black America is apparently making. Are there institutional issues, or, as Tulip put it, problems with the "imperialist system"? Of course. But way back when the parents of you 24 year old experts on the world were growing up, and even before that, racial discrimination was far worse. The effects were far more blatant. More legitimized, more legalized, more accepted. And, guess what? The illegitimacy rate was a fraction of what it is today. And the Black middle class was healthier, crime was way lower, people were (I'm guessing) much happier, DESPITE Mr. Crow. By your misguided calculus, there should have been some 98% illegitimacy, and resultant near total poverty. And these welfare programs HAVE indeed been around for generations (the Great Society began 40 years ago).
I'm admitting that some of the some of the problems can be laid at the feet of racism, actual, perceived, historical, and present. You need to admit that many of the problems are also moral in nature, and the result of the choices that people made of their own free volition as responsible adults. Stop patronizing people of color by saying they are only able to respond to what is done to them, that they have no free will, and that they are puppets controlled by the Man. That's far more insulting than calling someone a racial epithet.

[Jack Jones]

Tulip, the facts are that people every bit as dark as you and darker--I'm assuming you're black--come to this country every day of the week and manage to do quite well for themselves. They become business owners, doctors, lawyers, landlords etc. Racism far for flagrant than that found in the US exists all over this planet and has since the beginning of time. It's caused by hatred of the type you exhibit in your comment. People from other countries choose to come here because they know that their chances of success are far better than anywhere else. If you fail it's your failure, not mine. You've made the choice to allow hatred to take root in your soul and fester, I didn't put it there. In any case we're getting way off track. Josh seems to have left the building. I hope he comes back because I'm dying to read about how he gave that five grand to the poor and needy.

[Jack Jones]

...And I really want to hear more about the guilt thing.

[Joshua Deutsch]

Hey Jack, sorry for the delay. I don't have any trust funds. My parents both have graduate degrees and our family income growing up was around $100,000 per year. My rent is extremely low for the Bay Area, and I don't know anyone that pays less than me. I really don't understand what you're getting at with the Jewish guilt thing. I think the stereotype that you're alluding to is that Jews place guilt on others. Given the privilege that Jews have aquired over the past 50 years, I think my article places a responsibility on Jews to act in the interests of less privileged. I'm using my $5,000 in savings to go to Cuba in October. My goal is to work with the Ministry of Public Health and learn about their health care system. I also want to learn sustainable agriculture to help develope food systems for rural regions. But ultimately, dismissing my argument by trying to prove that I'm a hypocrate is missing the point. The refusal of even conscious people with privilege to live according to their values proves that power and privilege are entrenched within our system. Even if I'm a hypocrate, I still contend that my privilege is illegitimate and that the system that gives me these privileges needs to be dismantled. If I fail to live by my values I hope to suffer from losing my sense of right and wrong.

[Joshua Deutsch]

Thanks Trey and Tulip for your comments. Peace,
Josh

[QuadYawn]

What?!, no "thanks" to me and Jack?!?

[Doobie]

Nice! Give the $5K to Castro!

[Jack Jones]

"Even if I'm a hypocrate, I still contend that my privilege is illegitimate and that the system that gives me these privileges needs to be dismantled. If I fail to live by my values I hope to suffer from losing my sense of right and wrong."

How gutless is that Josh? You've proven my point with your last paragraph. You've admitted that you're a hypocrite while at the same time admitting implicitely you have no plans to do the hard things that might mitigate that hypocrisy. As far as you're concerned, someone else, not you, should make the sacrifices required to bring about your world vision. Put another way, you're concerned for the plight of the poor to the extent that your own comfort and security aren't put at risk. I've never met a limousine liberal who isn't a walking repudiation of their own belief system. I still haven't. Did we really have to go through all this rigamorole just for you to admit that you're a hypocrite? That was my point from the beginning.

And no, I'm not alluding to any stereotype involving guilt transference. I'm refering to the very real phenomenon of suffocating and oppressive guilt which is an integral part of Jewish culture and which is probably the foundation of your belief system. I might come back for that discussion.

[Jack Jones]

And by all means enjoy your Cuban excursion. I know you'll make good use of that five grand helping those less fortunate. Give FC my regards.

[Joshua Deutsch]

Yawn: You seem to be suggesting that most racial disparities are simply attributable to family breakdown. This ignores the effects of segregation in the public education system, housing, job and wage discrimination, divestment from ghettos and communities of color, lack of access to capital and social supports, historical restrictions on ownership preventing the accumulation of capital, and targeting by the criminal justice system. Family breakdown occurs amongst all races. But even controlling for family breakdown, there is still a huge disparity in income and health outcomes between Blacks and Whites. Single white females on average have double the income of single black females. Moreover, studies that compare single parent families to "families having significant discord" find that the decision to get divorced is not so detrimental. There is little doubt that family breakdown doesn't occur in a vacuum. It is related to other social problems that disproportionately affect African Americans. If more money was invested in schools, housing, and education in Black communities, it would help alleviate poverty and help families stay together.

[Joshua Deutsch]

Jack you completely miss the point. I actually do plan to dedicate my life to the alleviation of health disparities. I will spend a lot of my life trying to prevent micronutrient deficiencies in Africa and Southeast Asia. I've doing my best to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow me to change the world for the better. But I don't expect everyone to make the same sacrifices to the extent that I do. As I mentioned, I think the most practical step is for people to live cooperatively and help the people around them. Unfortunately, given the segregation in our society, wealthy people don't live around poorer people who need help. So concerned wealthy people must make an effort to befriend and stay in touch with less fortunate members in our community and strive to spread their privileges and resources as widely as possible. Ultimately, your point seems to be that you don't really care about the people around you, and that you want to hold on to all of your privilege. Consequently, you try to discredit anyone that argues that you cannot live righteously while neglecting the injustice that explains the disparities we see in the world today.

[scott]

How gutless are you, Jack? Joshua is working hard to get his personal life to match his political analysis and he's doing a great job of it so far. No one is perfect, but at least Joshua’s head is in the right place. Meanwhile, you snipe at him while wasting your own life on some asinine primate-wannabe nonsense. Doing nothing while throwing stones is a safe and comfortable existence, no?

I think Jennifer was right when she pointed out the hostility here could be a result of guilt. You feel threatened by what Joshua has to say, so your visceral reaction is to attack him and make him prove himself in ridiculous ways. Then you point to any perceived flaw, no matter how minute, and proclaim that as evidence of the fallacy of his argument. All it really proves is that you have no legs to stand on. You should stick to playing with monkeys, supposing they don’t bore of you too quickly.

[Jack Jones]

Josh, I didn't miss any points at all. You've made your position very clear. You plan to devote the rest of your life to the alleviation of human suffering...as long as you can maintain some sort of safety network. Josh, in the end your the one who admitted to being a hypocrite, then made excuses for your hypocrosy. That's the difference between you and I. I do what I can to help those less fortunate. Some days I do a little, other days more. I don't make judgements about those who, for whatever reason, choose to do less. As I mentioned earlier, unlike you, I don't come from a background of wealth and privelige. I suppose in the end I resent being preached to by people who have never known a moment of insecurity or privation. I don't think I'm alone in that. In holding you to such a high standard I was simply illustrating that ultimately you're no different from those you presume to judge In all honesty, I wish you the best in whatever you put your hand to. I know you'll do what you can, some days you'll do a little, other days more. But I won't make judgements about you in either case.

And Scott, what exactly have you got against monkeys? Are you some sort of monkey racist? At monkeymaids.com we've been training unwanted monkeys to do simple household chores since 1986. As a result, many monkeys destined for the glue factory have been placed in loving homes. Can you make that claim? I didn't think so.

[Harold Bloom]

This angry white kid is a jewkike ratpig, i've seen arabs & jews whiter looking them him. FUCK YOU KIKE!