Introduction to Dysfunction
What is and has always been apparent is the privilege with which native-born Americans of European descent trudge through the world; marking the land with streaks of ignorance as freely as a pooch piddles on fire hydrants. In this circumstance, the privileged will even threaten to tear apart the very foundation from whence said privilege was originally charted if they believe it is at risk of being lessened.
As the Trumpists cry in protest of change, as the very undemocratic and erratic conspiratorial dialectic they breathe crashes into the pearly gates of their sacred disillusionment otherwise known as American exceptionalism, Black and Brown people are once again tasked with being the voice of remembrance and reason.
Indeed, one could point out instances of white privilege in cultural settings every day for a year and that tally would still fail to show the true measure of this purposefully obtuse mainstream psychological phenomenon.
READ MORE: Jerry West Talks White Privilege & Black Bravery In Sam Smith’s Book
Written by white male slave owners, the Constitution of the United States was never intended for women, who are never mentioned, nor Black people, who are only mentioned as being 3/5th of a man for the purpose of state voter population counts prior to the 14th Amendment.
Despite that, the very air of privilege, and racism, continued to circulate within the mindset of a population that largely believed it was GOD’s providence that granted them such a large and fertile land, and not the slaughtering and bamboozling of tens of millions of Native Americans who had lived here for thousands of years before Plymouth Rock.
Trumpism Be Damned, But Not Totally to Blame
With the election of Donald J. Trump on a platform of demagoguery, false equivalencies and fear of the future, Trump is still being blamed by the left and right for the rising instances of outright bigotry in America.
At least, that’s what the mainstream likes to tell itself. On CNN, “America has never been this divided.”
On MSNBC, “This isn’t who we are!” On FOX News, “Trump is destroying the Republican party.” But what they’re neglecting to mention is, not unlike K.D. Lang’s “Constant Craving”, American voracious, self-destructive white privilege has always been.
However, we don’t need any physics-defying time dilation device to witness it. All we need to do is look for it. And lemme tell ya, this stuff is so egregious as to be hysterically funny, if not for the grave consequences it possesses for myself and others who look like me.
A country music star caught on video using the “N-word” had his contract suspended by his record label and radio stations across the nation dropped him from rotation. BMI dispatched gospel artist BeBe Winans on a mission to “educate” the offender, whose name I’ve purposefully omitted.
Today it is being reported that sales of this country music singer’s most recent album sales have surged after the incident.
Indeed, this is who they are.
Media Silence on the Racist Elephant in the Room
On January 24th, former Seattle Seahawks offensive lineman Chad Wheeler, a white man standing 6 ft 7 inches tall and weighing 310 pounds, assaulted his Black girlfriend, Alleah Taylor, who stands 5 ft 9 in and weighs 145 pounds, for not bowing to him.
According to Taylor, Wheeler grabbed her throat, threw her on a bed, and choked her. Taylor said she blacked out twice before the attack was over. She recalled that after she woke up, Wheeler said, “Wow, you’re still alive.”
The photos of her bruised and battered face were heartbreaking. ESPN and other cable sports networks’ refusal to go full throttle to get him out of the league, as they did with Ray Rice, for example, was noticeable. The so-called Worldwide Leader in Sports didn’t touch it until later amid cries from social media urging them to do so went unheeded for days.
The NFL Network barely covered it at all sans a mention by Nate Burleson. And even he had to do so by making a hard left turn in the closing minutes of a segment on Good Morning Football on January 27.
On today’s “Good Morning Football,” @nateburleson went off script and mentioned the disturbing Chad Wheeler arrest. He confirmed to me that his co-hosts and producers didn’t know he was going to bring it up and that took guts: TRAINA THOUGHTS https://t.co/GpVICg6K1S
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) January 27, 2021
If You’re White, It’s Alright! If You’re Black, Get Back!
A great number of miscarriages of justice in the name of white privilege can be gleaned from the Capitol Riot. So many that we only have space to mention but a few. For example, QAnon provocateur Jacob Chansley aka the QAnon Shaman has been charged with interfering with the police, a felony, as well as several misdemeanors, was transferred from a jail in Washington DC to a detention center in Virginia after he went on a hunger strike over the lack of organic foods available to him in DC.
READ MORE: Shame On Us: Unrest In DC Was A Desperate President’s Final Power Play
Meanwhile, a simple Google search reveals that, though the US government removed pork from prison menus under its control in 2015, there are many recent stories in which Muslim prisoners claim guards purposely fed them pork.
Another is the story of Jenny Cudd, an alleged Capitol Riot participant who is being charged with disorderly conduct and entering and unlawfully entering a restricted building. She requested and was granted, permission to go on vacation in Mexico by a judge.
Meanwhile, countless incarcerated individuals of lesser means and darker hues are denied such graces for reasons far more pressing than sunning in a foreign locale.
By contrast, fellow rioter Emmanuel Jackson, a 20-year-old Black man from Capitol Heights, Maryland, is still in jail after being denied bail. Unlike most of his White counterparts.
READ MORE: Is There A Better Way To Say “Told You So” Regarding White Nationalism?
Indeed, the purposefully prejudicial manner of privilege spans all walks of life. Though the criminal justice apparatus is the most easily discernable example of this phenomenon, it happens in almost all walks of American life.
Last week, NFL Hall of Famer turned sports talk show co-host Shannon Sharpe, who appears on FOX’s “The Undisputed” along with Skip Bayless, brought up a salient point regarding the manner in which Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady has never been held accountable for his “friendship” and initial support of demagogue former president Donald J. Trump.
READ MORE: Tom Brady Is Not The GOAT
Sharpe brought up how former President Barack Obama was forced to distance himself from fiery preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright but pointed out how that never happens with White public figures.
Can you imagine LeBron James having to explain himself after a photo op with, for example, Louis Farrakhan? The press would NEVER let it go. NEVER. QB Colin Kaepernick has been blackballed from the National Football League for a peaceful protest against the very real problems of police brutality and institutional racism. Two different standards, two different viewpoints, and two different Americas as far as justice and opinion are concerned.
