I was recently in an inbox discussion with a white woman who was perplexed by the concept of white privilege, so I thought a quick discussion might be in order. Fortunately, there is always news, examples and real life opportunities to point out some of this madness known as white privilege.
Glancing through the news an obvious example leaped out at me, Richard Sherman and the GOP Congressman Michael Grimm.
You might be unfamiliar with the Michael Grimm story because it has all but been swept under the rug by the media and certainly all the loud, outraged social media users who are so concerned about outburst in their lives. There is no doubt you are familiar with the Richard Sherman story, so let’s start there.
Richard Sherman is the outspoken, confidant, Super Bowl winning cornerback of the Seattle Seahawks. A few weeks ago, he made the big play that wont the NFC Championship game over the 49ers to put his team in the Super Bowl. A microphone was shoved in his face minutes after the big play and passion poured out of his mouth as he was very, very excited about the big moment and the opportunity to play in the Super Bowl.
Social media and traditional media went crazy! They called this man everything but a Christian with THUG being the overreaching term of choice online and in the traditional media.
Read More: Richard Sherman’s Dad Refuses To Live Off Him, Wakes Up At 3:45 AM To Drive A Garbage Truck
A Thug??? Richard Sherman is from Compton, CA. Graduated #2 in his high school class. Graduated from Stanford University with a 3.7 GPA. Stayed in school to get his Masters Degree. Was drafted to the NFL, an All Pro Cornerback, and won the Super Bowl. Has no children out of wedlock. Raised by phenomenal parents who refuse to live off his money. And has a great philanthropic organization he runs to help as much as he can….BUT HE IS A THUG???
On the other hand Michael Grimm is a Congressmen, not a THUG?
After President Obama’s State of the Union address, the republicans perform their typical song and dance retorts. One of them involved was New York Republican Congressmen, Michael Grimm. He was asked the standard questions about the address, but when the reporter changed subjects and tried to inquire about the ongoing investigation into his campaign finance violations, you know things real thugs do like steal money, he got pissed off and said…..
“I will break you in half,” Grimm told Michael Scotto of cable channel NY1 News in the confrontation late on Tuesday. Scotto had asked the New York Republican about a federal investigation into possible finance violations by his campaign.
The question came after Scotto interviewed Grimm on camera about the State of the Union address that President Barack Obama had just delivered to a joint session of Congress.
On Wednesday, Scotto wrote in a post on Twitter that Grimm had phoned him to apologize and said he had overreacted. “I accepted his apology,” the reporter said.
Grimm walked away when asked on camera about the federal probe, but then returned to confront the reporter. In a video posted on the Web, he could be heard telling Scotto, “I’ll break you in half, like a boy.”
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/us-usa-politics-grimm-idUSBREA0S0WM20140129
Not only did Grimm, who has a thuggish name as well, say he would break the reporter in half like a boy, but he also threatened to throw him over the balcony. This is typical bully, thug like behavior, but since the “Congressmen” is white, his antics are not viewed this way in the media.
The sad thing is none of the reactions are surprising to black folks. We know white priviledge exist in every sector of life in Western culture. There isn’t a white person in the country that won’t get the benefit of the doubt over a black person in the legal system, job sector, the police, schools, the average Joe on the street, traditional media and social media as we can tell from this example despite Sherman being a MODEL CITIZEN and ROLE MODEL while GRIMM is proving to be an arrogant piece of shit THUG….but as Paul Mooney says, he has the COMPLEXION for the PROTECTION.
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