{"id":17489,"date":"2013-04-20T14:04:28","date_gmt":"2013-04-20T18:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=17489"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:22:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:22:32","slug":"terrorism-and-privilege-understanding-the-power-of-whiteness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/04\/terrorism-and-privilege-understanding-the-power-of-whiteness\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"white-privilege\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Tim Wise<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As the nation weeps for the victims of the horrific bombing in Boston yesterday, one searches for lessons amid the carnage, and finds few. That violence is unacceptable stands out as one, sure. That hatred \u2014 for humanity, for life, or whatever else might have animated the bomber or bombers \u2014 is never the source of constructive human action seems like a reasonably close second.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I dare say there is more; a much less obvious and far more uncomfortable lesson, which many are loathe to learn, but which an event such as this makes readily apparent, and which we must acknowledge, no matter how painful.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a lesson about race, about whiteness, and specifically, about white privilege.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know you don\u2019t want to hear it. But I don\u2019t much care. So here goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in white folks generally being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI.<\/span><\/p>\n

White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for whites to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening, or threatened with deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

White privilege is knowing that if the bomber turns out to be white, he or she will be viewed as an exception to an otherwise non-white rule, an aberration, an anomaly, and that he or she will be able to join the ranks of pantheon of white people who engage in (or have plotted) politically motivated violence meant to terrorize \u2014 and specifically to kill \u2014 but whose actions result in the assumption of absolutelynothing<\/em>\u00a0about white people generally, or white Christians in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among these:<\/span>\u00a0Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Ted Kaczynski<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Eric Rudolph<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Joe Stack<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0George Metesky<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Byron De La Beckwith<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton and Herman Frank Cash and Robert Chambliss<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0James von Brunn<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Lawrence Michael Lombardi<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Robert Mathews<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0David Lane<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Chevie Kehoe<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Michael F. Griffin<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Paul Hill<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0John Salvi<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Justin Carl Moose<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Bruce and Joshua Turnidge<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0James Kopp<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Luke Helder<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0James David Adkisson<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Scott Roeder<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Shelley Shannon<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Dennis Mahon<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Wade Michael Page<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Jeffery Harbin<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Byron Williams<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Charles Ray Polk and Willie Ray Lampley and Cecilia Lampley and John Dare Baird and Joseph Martin Bailie<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Ray Hamblin and Robert Edward Starr III and William James McCranie Jr. and John Pitner and Charles Barbee and Robert Berry and Jay Merrell<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Brendon Blasz and Carl Jay Waskom Jr. and Shawn and Catherine Adams and Edward Taylor Jr. and Todd Vanbiber and William Robert Goehler and James Cleaver and Jack Dowell and Bradley Playford Glover<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Ken Carter and Randy Graham and Bradford Metcalf<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Chris Scott Gilliam and Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder and Buford Furrow and Benjamin Smith and Donald Rudolph and Kevin Ray Patterson and Charles Dennis Kiles and Donald Beauregard and Troy Diver<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Mark Wayne McCool<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Leo Felton and Erica Chase and Clayton Lee Wagner<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Michael Edward Smith and David Burgert and Robert Barefoot Jr.<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Sean Gillespie and Ivan Duane Braden and\u00a0<\/span><\/a>Kevin Harpham<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0William Krar and Judith Bruey and Edward Feltus<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Raymond Kirk Dillard and Adam Lynn Cunningham and Bonnell Hughes and Randall Garrett Cole and James Ray McElroy<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Michael Gorbey<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Frederick Thomas<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Paul Ross Evans<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Matt Goldsby and Jimmy Simmons and Kathy Simmons and Kaye Wiggins<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0David McMenemy<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Bobby Joe Rogers<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Francis Grady<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Cody Seth Crawford<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Ralph Lang<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Demetrius Van Crocker<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Floyd Raymond Looker<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y\u00a0<\/span>Derek Mathew Shrout<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0y<\/span>\u00a0Randolph Linn<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Ya know, just to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n

And white privilege is being able to know nothing about the crimes committed by most of the terrorists listed above \u2014 indeed, never to have so much as heard most of their names \u2014 let alone to make assumptions about the role that their racial or ethnic identity may have played in their crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

White privilege is knowing that if the Boston bomber turns out to be white, we \u00a0will not be asked to denounce him or her, so as to prove our own loyalties to the common national good. It is knowing that the next time a cop sees one of us standing on the sidewalk cheering on runners in a marathon, that cop will say exactly\u00a0nothing<\/em>\u00a0to us as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

White privilege is knowing that if you are a white student from Nebraska \u2014 as opposed to, say, a student from Saudi Arabia \u2014 that no one, and I mean\u00a0no one<\/em>\u00a0would think it important to detain and question you in the wake of a bombing such as the one at the Boston Marathon.<\/span><\/p>\n

And white privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don\u2019t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won\u2019t bomb Belfast. And if he\u2019s an Italian American Catholic we won\u2019t bomb the Vatican.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, white privilege is the thing that allows you (if you\u2019re white) \u2014 and me \u2014 to view tragic events like this as merely horrific, and from the perspective of pure and innocent victims, rather than having to wonder, and to look over one\u2019s shoulder, and to ask even if only in hushed tones, whether those we pass on the street might think that somehow we were involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the source of our unearned innocence and the cause of others\u2019 unjustified oppression.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is all. And it matters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tim Wise As the nation weeps for the victims of the horrific bombing in Boston yesterday, one searches for lessons amid the carnage, and..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,16,166,18,43,84,92,46,97],"tags":[357,350,347],"class_list":["post-17489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-editorials","category-government","category-history","category-media-culture","category-statements","category-theory","category-tvfilm","category-us-news","tag-racism","tag-united-states-history","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/white-privilege.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39551,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489\/revisions\/39551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}