Teenage Sociologist Questions Does White Privilege exist? (and other things)

'Privilege is driving a smooth road and not even knowing it.'-Ampersand

I realise that my blog has become a hotbed for fierce social activism and far, far flung from the naive, cotton candy-humour that I intended it to be. I acknowledge that this blog has organically reflected the changing times. I do not apologise, to myself or anyone else. 

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So, what's the deal with white privilege? (I suppose many of us in Asia can draw similar parallels with this in our lives). According to sociologist Peggy McIntosh, some ways which white privilege manifests itself is:

• The ability to speak and write from an unchallenged position of authority (see for instance, commenters online);

• The ability to hold onto wealth during economic crisis (black and Latino families lost far more wealth during the home foreclosure crisis than did white families);

• Protection from experiencing the brunt of negative implications of climate change (economically vulnerable and politically unstable populations, mostly people of color in the global south, are disproportionally affected);

• Protection from the lowest wages and most dangerous labor conditions cultivated by the globalization of production;

• Being able to deny that racism exists;

• Believing in and cultivating sympathy from others for “reverse racism;”

• Believing you worked hard for and earned everything you have without receiving any help or advantages;

• Believing that people of color who have achieved success have been given racially motivated advantages;

• The ability to adopt a victim status rather than engaging in critical self-reflectionwhen accused of racism;

• Believing it is acceptable to be “ironically” racist;

• Believing that people need to “get over it” or “move on” when they point out racism; and,The belief that cultural products and practices that come from communities of color are yours for the taking. 

Lana on the set filming Tropico

Take for example the last point: cultural appropriation. This is a particular hate of mine, and  the worst part is its so rampantly visible in pop culture today. Lana Del Ray used to be one of my favourite singers until she posted a music video entitled 'Tropico' on her Youtube channel.

There are so many things wrong with this video but first of all is her convenient adoption of the Latina biker girl culture. She, who was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant , her father a millionaire, who knew nothing but privilege casually claims authenticity for this identity. She calls herself the 'ghetto Nancy Sinatra'. This is wrong because she undermines the struggles of the people of colour who actually lived through the struggles she faked. 

To her, the life of grit and pain and gangsta-uncertainty lasts the length of a Vevo video; to others, it lasts a lifetime. Her impression of being a 'chola' hurts the Latino/a community because it perpetuates harmful stereotypes of the community. It is unfair, that she a white-as-sour cream rich kid, gets to be rewarded and acclaimed, praised for being 'authentic' and 'real' and 'raw' for essentially stealing someone else's culture when people of colour get passed over for jobs and racially profiled for wearing their ethnicity proudly. Even if people of colour assimilate, we are rewarded minimally because if people want to hear 'English' music, they want a nice white face to accompany it; see Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry and surprise, surprise, Lana Del Ray. 

America is supposed to be the land of the free, a country to come and make something for yourself, social mobility was the unspoken catchphrase of the American Dream. Yet, how does this 'free-for-all' culture not exist in mainstream culture? Rich white kids are being rewarded for essentially stealing, (Macklemore is not a rapper!)while struggling minorities have to work extra hard to prove themselves not only to posh executives with shiny teeth but also to their parents, who didn't 'come on a boat', to paraphrase Donald Trump, to see their children fail.

My cousin once put it to me, a Punjabi girl, that a white guy who wore a kurta in her university was celebrated as cool but imagine, she said, if her brown friend had wore it. I could; furtive looks, whispers about being a terrorist, shopkeepers loudly asking you if you understood what you had ordered, the ridicule of 'Why are you so traditional?', the urge of modern British society to assimilate all colour, to pressure and bleach skin until it was white.

I understand Margarita Cansino, why you became Rita Hayworth. But for how long must we deny our ethnic heritage before we are deemed palatable? To quote an article (Excellent critique of Tropico) : "To which I say to Lana Del Rey, Elizabeth Wooldridge Grant, with not a shred of Latina heritage: not you."