Posted on 05/26/2014 11:25:00 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Inevitably, when you talk about white privilege someone will ask the question, “What about poor white people? What privilege do they have?”
In January 1961, John F. Kennedy was inagurated as the nation’s thirty-fifth president. In February 1961, he signed an executive order for a pilot food stamp program, one based on the model previously used during the Great Depression. During his campaign, Kennedy had spent much time in West Virginia, and according to his speechwriter Ted Sorensen, “was appalled by the pitiful conditions he saw, by the children of poverty, by the families living on surplus lard and corn meal, by the waste of human resources…. He called for better housing and better schools and better food distribution…. He held up a skimpy surplus food package and cited real-life cases of distress.” Kennedy saw people in need and used his power as president to address their crisis.
This week, the House Appropriations Committe released a draft of the 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill. In it, $27 million is budgeted for a pilot program aimed at reducing child hunger in rural areas. “Sounds innocuous enough," writes MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff, “except the $27 million program was actually the committee’s substitute for a White House proposal which would have allocated $30 million to child hunger across urban and rural areas.”
Resnikoff goes on to point out that this doesn’t mean children in urban areas will be completely left out of hunger reducing programs, as the “federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on the Summer Food Service Program, which provides meals to low-income children when school is not in session and they don’t have access to free or reduced school lunch,” and that there are specific challenges that face rural areas with regards to food insecurity. However, “the House committee’s proposal is likely to help fewer people of color than the White House proposal. And while rural areas may be unique in terms of the challenges they face, they’re not where most of America’s hungry are concentrated.”
They’re also among the whitest. “The Appalachian region,” which is where this money would go, writes Talking Points Memo’s Sahil Kapur, “is also more white (83.5 percent) than the United States overall (63.7 percent), according to the Appalachian Regional Commission—and much more so than urban areas, which have a disproportionately high share of minorities.”
It’s not that Kennedy or this current House subcommittee ever explicitly said “white hunger is more important than black hunger, white poverty is more important than black poverty.” But the seeming indifference toward black poverty, played out in their actions as elected officials, reflects the privileging of whiteness. It is indecent that any person go hungry, particularly in a country of such abundance. It is indecent to determine that some of those people are more worthy of our investment in their being fed than others. It is indecent to then pretend as if that’s not the case. All these indecencies add up to an injustice. We are a country that practices injustice as a way of life.
Yes, you can be poor and white and still benefit from white supremacy. That’s what privilege is.
Just remember to 'check your privilege!
Only in the twisted, hate filled minds of the Bolsheviks at “The Nation” could Appalachian poor people be described as “privileged”.
Beyond incredible.
PS
You don't need a Weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows in Comrade Resnikoff's diseased Eastern European brain when it comes to 10th generation Scots-Irish Protestants in the Piedmont.
so he’s arguing poor whites receive more government assistance than poor blacks? I don’t think that’s true.
That title is a hoot. Thank God rich people were throwing bottles out of their cars in the 70’s. 15c for a 24oz. 10c for a 16oz.
I became a privileged white millionaire; or sumthin’.
I am getting tired of these asshats and it won’t be friendly.
There wasn’t a lot of money in the area just outside where I grew up. What was just recently the poorest place in Michigan isn’t Detroit, Flint, or Benton Harbor, but my own Roscommon. Roscommon has its issues, especially with the housing crash and tourism hits, but is also a lot safer than these cities. An average person isn’t going to get jumped, robbed, or attacked there for being in “the wrong area”. You have to look for trouble to find it.
No, that's what denial of contraindicative evidence is. This entire White Privilege drive is appallingly racist and it is simply amazing to me how much press it's getting. My answer to "check your privilige" is "check your bigotry."
Mike you spelled your first name wrong...there is no real name of Denzel, so scrap that.
now go out and get a real job that does not require you to sit and bad mouth the people that feed America.
bitching and moaning is not a job, it is a form of destruction of a viable society. Take real pride in yourself and learn how to create something useful.
‘Rich’ is a state of mind. ‘Well off’ works for me.
No more lard and molasses samwiches for me.
Tho they were quite tasty.
Got to go clean the pool.
I left the dirt farm a long time ago
But the dirt never left me.
Sppplassshh!
“Beyond incredible.”
Yes, it really is. Just an amazingly stupid piece.
3 cents for pop bottles when I was growing up. Most days you could just about pick up enough walking the mile or so to the store if you worked both ditches. 3 cents and a popsicle was 7 cents. Taxes were 3 cents and my sis and I knew just where the breaks were for another penny. We’d buy things separately to avoid the round up on the sales tax. Buy one popsicle and no tax, buy two and add a penny. Keep the penny and save it for bubble gum at 2 cents each.
More than 50 years later the sales tax has tripled and the cost of a popsicle is? It went up by inflation but taxes went up by about THREE times the inflation rate and we are getting less for our our taxes that is useful to most of us who work and pay for the services.
Post of the day.
So the next question is: One of Obummer’s slogans was ‘I am a uniter, -not a divide. So how has he succeeded? Seems to me there’s an all out effort to divide the country even further by government and our school systems by creating hate and envy.
My answer is, "Here's what white kids had to do to earn those privileges:
Go to bed on time.
Say your prayers.
Clean your room.
Take care of your belongings.
Do your chores before you play.
Respect your parents and the house rules.
Eat what's put in front of you.
Sit up/stand up straight.
Do your homework.
Get good grades.
Go to Sunday School and church.
Attend confirmation classes and learn your religion.
Obey the Ten Commandments.
Obey all driving laws and get a job to pay for your insurance.
Avoid a bad crowd.
Do not smoke, drink or swear. If you do, do not let any authority figure catch you.
Graduate from high school.
Get a job or go to college; if you go to college, also get a job.
Save money for the future.
Keep your finances simple and clean.
Work hard and respect your boss, even if he/she is a jerk.
Wait to get married before having sex.
If you can't wait, at least don't make babies with someone incapable of marrying you and taking care of a child.
House, feed and love your child.
Discipline your child.
Read to your child.
Pray with your child.
Don't ignore your spouse or your personal grooming because you're now a parent.
Stay married.
Save money for old age.
Take care of your elders.
Expect the above list also of your chlld.
This is the kind of drek that is destroying America.
White Privilege is just another term for race baiters
to use to divide people into “victims” and “oppressors”.
I can see where this is going-
Sometime in the near Future-
MSNBC Interviewer: What do you think about the five children who were placed against a wall and shot last week?
Black Professor: Well, it just goes to show you that white privilege is still rampant in a racist America.
MSNBC Interviewer: Interesting. How so?
Black Professor: Clearly these children’s whiteness gave them the opportunity to be shot instead of hung like black children obviously would have been. The white children got to die quickly as a result of their racism and white privilege.
*******
Is this future scenario offensive?
GOOD!
Because that’s how offensive is that men can publicly suggest that Jews who survived the Holocaust and little Appalachian kids with sores and rotted teeth got off easy and still have damn job the next day!
this whole “white privilege” thing seems a little too coordinated and organized.
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
I don't know where Mr. Smith, the author of the referenced article, went to school. But the states have never delegated to the feds, via the Constitution, the specific power to tax and spend to take care of the poor.
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