Whites not "privileged"

Ancestry only benefits when dealing with same ethnicity

I guess I'm part of a "privileged class."

Or at least, that's what President Clinton's advisors on race are telling me.

According to the report they submitted on September 18th, "We as a nation need to understand that whites tend to benefit, either unknowingly or consciously, from this country's history of white privilege."

Now I think it's perfectly all right to further the cause of minorities, especially since they are underrepresented in positions of authority, buy saying that whites have benefited from a history of white privilege is a bot of an overstatement.

Being a particular race is only advantageous when one is dealing with others in that race. One need only apply for a job in Chinatown or Waikiki to see how true this is.

In Waikiki, being loud, proud, and Texan isn't going to help one bit if you're applying for a position in a Japanese company that caters to Japanese tourists. In cases like this, local Japanese could be said to benefit from a "history of Japanese privilege."

No mater the time or the place, the best candidates for success are the ones that look like the customers and the management.*

In Chinatown, too, employers tend to hire people that look and act like their clientele. Try looking for a job with the Cantonese-speaking shopkeepers. I guarantee, if you're Chinese, even if you speak only English, you'll have an advantage over, say, a Latin-American with similar qualifications.

It's not that these people are promoting a tradition of "Chinese privilege," it's just a fact of life that we have more trust in people that act like us.

And considering the way Clinton's advisors throw around the word, "white," I can't help but wonder if they know what our history of "white privilege" really is.

Considering the way the United States developed, lumping all European nationalities into one category -- "white" -- is as much of a generalization as the term "Asian."

For example, in the early 1800s, being Irish was a disadvantage, even though they were just as Caucasian as the next "British Islander." If you were of English ancestry, that was fine -- you got an apprenticeship with a skilled laborer.

However, if you were Irish, you got to slave away digging the Erie Canal. It took the Irish a few generations of hard work in the public view as boxers and policemen to be accepted as members of mainstream society.

So you see, being white isn't so much an advantage because America "just like white people" -- it's because Caucasian races accepted assimilation in order to be a part of power structure.*

In turn, the other European ethnicities "went with who they could trust," when it was time to hire employees, find husbands for their daughters, and move into a new neighborhood.*

But even if you could show a definite benefit to being white, one could be sure Hawaii's Caucasian population would gladly do without the "white privileges" assumed by Clinton's advisors.

From being beat up in Hilo on "Kill a Haole Day" to a complete lack of race-based scholarships, Hawaii's youths of European descent face a number of disadvantages unknown to those advising Clinton on race relations.

Nowadays, Hawaiian tend to benefit, either unknowingly or consciously, from what may be called "Native Hawaiian privilege."

From minimal tuition at Kamehameha Schools to a tuition waiver at the University of Hawai`i, a good private school education can be attained at only a nominal cost.

Don't get me wrong -- if this is what Native Hawaiians deserve for use of Ceded Lands, so be it.

But don't say I'm the one who's "privileged."