There is currently a commercial running that shows dejected, ashamed and saddened parents asking their little children if they know what ‘white privilege’ is.
It goes on to encourage “white parents to talk to their kids about their own ‘white privilege’.
The whole thing smacks of the idea that there is an inherent evil in being a ‘white person’, something children should be ashamed of. Something parents should encourage.
It is a disgusting display of ignorance, akin to those idiots back in 2020 that paraded themselves around, on their knees and in chains to demonstrate that all ‘white people are bad and owe retribution’ because of slavery in the 1800’s and years before.
I will never teach my children to be ashamed of themselves or who they are in any way.
I will never teach my children to be ashamed of the neighborhood they live in simply because someone else is pissed that they don’t live there.
I will never teach my children to be ashamed of the nicer things I was able to give them simply because someone else is pissed that they don’t have them.
No child should ever be taught to be ashamed of their family’s heritage, wealth or health; whether they are fat or thin, gay or straight, short or tall, strong or weak simply because someone else is pissed they are one or the other of those things and want what they are not.
I will forever teach my children to be confident and happy in who they are.
If they are happy, that is all that should matter. That is all that should ever matter to anyone.
I will forever teach my children that everyone deserves a fair shake, no matter who they are.
I don’t give a rat’s ass if someone else is jealous and upset and feels slighted by life because they do not have what I have for the simple reason they have no clue what I endured to get to this point. Not a single piece of it was ever handed to me.
It’s too readily assumed that I have “white privilege” and that can be the only reason for my successes. Now that I think about it, what about my failures? Who do I get to blame for those?
I’ll give you a good example. In my early twenties, I sought out and tested for an apprenticeship program with a global company who has facilities in my city. This type of program included all of the engineering training, all the necessary years of college and permanent, full-time gainful employment with that company. When I called back for the results, I was told that out of the 112 people being tested, I scored in the top three. I thought, “Great news!”
However, I was told, “your testing and application were denied because all of the top three scores who tested are white and we need a different color to advance in this program”.
So it didn’t matter how well I tested and it didn’t matter how well suited I was for the program and the job, someone else had a definite advantage over me, and they got that dream opportunity.
I can tell you, I never once thought they held special privileges over me, despite that company’s flagrant manipulation of affirmative action for its own benefit. Unless it was proven otherwise, I have always viewed failures such as that one as “just how business works”, and consequently, that presence of mind is one of the primary factors of my continued success over the years.
My successes have never included any sort of privilege.
Sure, it saddened me and it SUCKED big time, but I never once felt so sorry for myself that I gave up and began pointing fingers at those that did get in. I reassured myself that was probably not the type of company I would really want to work for anyway – incidentally, I was proven right over the following years, and now I’m more than a little grateful for having been turned away back then.
I changed gears, changed direction and pursued other avenues, and one after the other, each one of those avenues became a new rung on my own ladder, and I climbed it as fast and as far as I could. I never once wished harm to those folks that got the apprenticeship that I had obviously earned and wanted so badly. I put it all behind me so I could go on.
My mantra of the day was, “They got it. I did not. Get over it. Move on.”
And I did.
My children never had a single piece of anything handed to them. As their father, I provided the absolute best that I could for them, as is a father’s duty and responsibility to his children. Often times it entailed a great deal of suffering, but that was a fair trade-off for me so they would not have to suffer any more than this life already demands. I made sure they had a roof over top and a safe home to live in throughout their childhood years. I did whatever I could as their father to ensure their happiness. And I worked for every scrap of it.
Don’t tell me I’m privileged for having done so.
That vile and defaming label does not fit me because it implies that I did nothing except for ‘being white’ to gain any of it. I must call BULLSHIT!
I will never be ashamed of the life I created, I will never forsake the life I live and I absolutely will never forsake the life I provide for my children simply because someone else is pissed that they don’t have my life for their own.
And I certainly will NEVER forsake, or in any way feel ashamed of my culture, heritage and lineage. Never. By the way, I’m Italian, Irish and German with a little Scottish thrown in for good measure – there’s enough bad-and-bloodied history between my bloodlines to end the world today!
Question is…Why would anyone presume to be so bold as to demand that from me which they are not willing to demand of themselves?
They won’t, and they never should…and neither should I just because I’m ‘white’.
Life is not fair for anyone. Get over it. Move on.
No one is owed any special treatment in this life. Get over it. Move on.
No one is responsible for anyone else’s successes or failures. Get over it. Move on.
So many people have it so much better than me and have it so much easier than me, but that doesn’t mean they should somehow be ashamed of it, or of who they are, or of the life they built because I don’t have it. They don’t owe me anything.
Thinking they do would be complete foolishness.
Every person alive should be whoever they can be and do whatever they can do to survive and be happy.
Every person alive has that right.
Not just ‘whites’ and not just ‘blacks’.
Not just Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, Irishmen, Italians, Germans, Russians, or any number of folks from the cultures of the far east.
Fixating on ‘white’ people as the root of all evil does nothing to secure or preserve that inherent human right in everyone.
Every person alive has that right, and THAT is the fight worth fighting!
THAT is the lesson I taught my children from the moment they could understand.
THAT is the lesson I will continue to teach them.
To single out anyone is nothing more than the same vile racism cited as the reason and need for “white parents to teach their children about white privilege”.
It is the same vile racism. It is the same vile racism.
Those that live by that creed harbor an ill-conceived and erroneous sense of payback in the name of people that died a hundred years before those people were even born. They are not fighting for anything other than a sense of vengeance…the idea that ‘now, everyone owes me for what happened back then’. They are clearly not interested in any kind of justice, just a little payback along with a little pay-off.
Justice will take A LOT longer and will require A LOT of work. It will take more than pointing fingers at convenient targets. Seeking payback without any work will not force it to happen. Quite the contrary, it will force a deeper wedge into the stone, and sadly, in a lot of cases, it only strengthens the ill-feelings and unfounded prejudices that already exist.
In other words, it compounds and thickens the unwarranted hatred for others that already exists.
It falls on those finger-pointers to make real change happen and quit with the diatribe against everyone else they believe has it better.
But no one is going to do it for them, and there is no one else to blame for failure, so I’m not holding my breath that it’ll happen anytime soon.
No matter what,
I WILL NEVER TEACH MY CHILDREN ABOUT THE SO-CALLED WHITE-PRIVELGE BECAUSE THOSE ATTITUDES DIRECTED AGAINST THEM ARE NOT THEIR PROBLEMS TO SOLVE.
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