Emma+Z’s+2017+OpEd+Article

White People are Dumb and Think they're Oppressed

 * Disclaimer- these people don't believe in white oppression, they're cool

Poor white people, it’s 2017, America is supposedly full of the fight for equality, yet whites are more oppressed than ever! Upon hearing this, most people (I hope) would laugh and assume that it’s a joke because obviously white people are NOT oppressed in in any way in America. However, many Americans would full heartedly agree with this statement and go on to rant about how [|__“black privilege”__] is on the rise. Recently I’ve seen numerous news articles about how whites today do not believe in white privilege and argue that blacks, not whites, have the advantage in today’s society.

CNN did a series titled [|__“The Moment I realized I was Black”__] in which individuals told tragic stories about how other kids wouldn’t get into the same pool as them or their friends’ parents wouldn’t let them come to their houses. Of course, CNN couldn’t leave white people out of the fun, so the series “The First Time I Discovered I was White” was created, where people talked about not knowing what race to bubble on a standardized test and other painstaking realization moments. One man talked about a show he was creating, “the Whiteness Project” where he interviews white people about the impact of race on their lives. One young white man talked about how he felt it was hard being white and “ wondered why black people still get hung up on ‘the slave thing’”. I think this person needs to come to our APUSH class because if he fully understood the magnitude of the fact that an entire race was enslaved, I doubt he would say such an ignorant thing.

Another issue that ignorant whites get irrationally upset over is the fact that black people call whites “crackers”, but they can’t use the n-word. Just the other day I saw people having an argument in the comment section of an Instagram post over this topic. Those who are angered by this situation need to listen to John Mulaney’s “ [|__The Worse Word”__] where he discusses how, while working at a TV network, his boss told him the word midget was just as bad as the n-word. Yet as he points out, if there’s two words considered bad, and you won’t even say one out loud, then clearly that is the worse word. Plus, the word cracker comes from white slave owners whipping their slaves, so it’s not as if black people are insulting whites without cause. The very concept of the white race has racist origins as it was invented in a way, not inherited, and it “was also used to reinforce the notion of a superior white race -- and to justify slavery”. So yeah, black people definitely have a reason to feel bitter towards whites. I’m not saying we should all go around hating each other, but white people need to be understanding of the past and how it continues to shape the conditions of the present.


White people somehow find a way to see “black privilege” in everything. Why can a black comedian joke about racism, but a white man can’t? What those people need to understand is that people can only really joke about things they’ve experienced. Maybe a black comedian can joke about racism, but if they’re straight and start joking about homosexuality, then they can come across as offensive. There are simply certain subjects that aren’t okay to joke about, and if you happen to fall into the group of people that can’t talk about racism, that doesn’t mean you’re oppressed, there are millions of other things you can talk about.

Ultimately, the concept of “black privilege" is a [|__“‘prolonged whine’ from people who resent being challenged about their whi]t [|e privilege”.__] Thinking about how 52% of white people feel discriminated against makes me feel dumbfounded. I’m white and I don’t even understand white people. The lack of awareness in America honestly frightens me, I just hope that people educate themselves about the world around them and that the younger generations will grow into understanding adults that promote equality in our world.