Icon: enlarge
Man in front of the Capitol: Most whites make the world how they like it?
Photo: Michael Reynolds / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Imagine if you could do anything you want without paying attention to others or fear of consequences.
Okay, maybe you would risk a black eye every now and then.
But nothing more.
You would be very courageous about these unlimited possibilities for your own development.
Like a grown-up Pippi Longstocking.
For example, you could walk into a store, help yourself to the assortment and leave again - without paying.
Because you are practically invisible to the shop detective.
But you could also storm a parliament, let documents go with you and wave at the cameras, then get into your car - without a driver's license in your pocket, of course - and drive home comfortably.
If you are white, as many anti-racist analyzes claim, these scenarios are not mind games.
They therefore describe the reality of many people who are not affected by racism.
A majority of whites make the world as they please.
This debate is not that simple - but let's start at the beginning:
The storming of the Capitol in Washington DC a few days ago in the US again a confrontation with
White Privilege
, that white privilege triggered.
There is emotional debate on social and classic media as to whether white people can simply afford more, i.e. whether white people can enjoy a varied extra discount.
The privilege-critical school of thought has a clear answer to this: Yes.
The white Texan Jenny Cudd provided a particularly good illustration of white privileges during the storming of the Capitol building: she streamed a video live on Facebook in which she openly admitted that she and her colleagues opened the door to Nancy Pelosi's office, who Democratic majority leader in the US Congress.
One of Cudd's friends stole the hammer Pelosi used to conduct parliamentary sessions.
Jenny Cudd laughs in the video, sticks out her middle finger, is childishly happy, sees herself in the right and apparently fears no punishment.
At least the incumbent US president is on their side.
Some anti-racist activists interpreted Cudd's statements as follows: As a white person - here in the form of a white woman who has thrown a Trump flag - you have a
carte blanche
, i.e. unlimited power to do what you want .
"White Privilege can structure everyday life and subtly shape societies."
Donald Trump himself is the personification of white privileges: an unqualified, trampling, scandalous old white man who despite everything made it to the highest office in his country.
Dozens of supporters of his theory of white superiority were even proud of their
White Privilege
last Wednesday
and confidently ran their own cell phone cameras when they attempted a coup.
However, white people are often unconscious of this historically evolved and sometimes subtle power.
Not having to worry about your own positioning in society is a privilege in itself.
And it is precisely this accumulation of special rights on the one hand and the structural discrimination of non-white minorities on the other that fuels conflicts and makes equality virtually impossible - in other words, the basis for democracy.
After the storm on the Capitol, users on Twitter and Instagram put two pictures side by side:
One picture shows dozens of National Guard soldiers, heavily armed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial within reach of the Capitol shortly before an announced Black Lives Matter demonstration in June 2020.
The other picture from last Wednesday shows a couple of militant white men climbing a wall to later smash the windows of the parliament building in Washington and wreak havoc in the offices of the MPs.
The message of the comparison: As a white person you are free, no one stands in your way, the state and large parts of the majority society are at your side.
As a non-white person, especially if you are black, all guns and all the harshness of the state monopoly of force are used as a prophylactic against you.
And it is precisely this imbalance that ends fatally for many people affected by racism and at the same time leaves whites alone.
This institutionalized double standard also exists in Germany.
With the pictures from Washington, many people in this country felt reminded of the right-wing extremist mob on the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin at the end of August 2020.
Roaring men with Reich flags marched in front of the entrance of the parliament during a corona demonstration in Berlin.
Individuals read as Muslims, black people or non-whites in general would not even get that far in similar contexts, according to the observation of people who have experienced racist discrimination.
Even if the danger cannot be dismissed out of hand,
White Privilege
takes
effect
: In this country too, white terrorists are often reflexively titled as “confused individual perpetrators”, so only minorities can pose a fundamental threat to peaceful coexistence.
Skin color is not the only determining characteristic
But the examples don't have to be so drastic.
White privilege
can inconspicuously structure everyday life and subtly shape societies: white people have been and are systematically preferred in court - beyond the USA, for example.
Several studies show that white people are given more faith in Western justice systems, they are punished more mildly, and more often than others are merely warned for violations - if they end up in court at all.
Because the upstream prosecution by the security authorities is also structured in such a way that it gives preference to white people.
Police officers check "North African-looking men" umpteen times before they consider a white woman in their "routine checks".
Many police authorities have been conditioned to do this.
White women - whether they are aware of it or not - can exploit this loophole.
The shop detective is trained to follow the black customer between the rows of shelves while the white customer goes shopping for free.
White privileges add up to the systematic preference given to the white majority of the population.
That doesn't mean whites enjoy absolute immunity.
But it does mean that white people, if they like it or not, benefit from these conditions.
At second glance, this thesis is countered by the fact that a few days after the attempted coup some of the Trump mob felt the consequences: several
White Supremacists
identified by name
were dismissed by their employers, while others are now threatened with an FBI investigation.
Isn't it then an exaggeration to portray them as omnipotent subjects?
Well, the storm on the Capitol was announced and no one stopped the men.
And then: These social and criminal sanctions could also be
read
as a direct result of the
White Privilege
criticism.
The public and minorities in the USA - and increasingly also in Germany - no longer stand idly by when white people abuse their privileges to break laws, endanger others and celebrate themselves in the process.
Skin color is not the only decisive characteristic, however.
Nor is it per se the reason why a person is preferred or disadvantaged.
White Privilege
is not a law of nature, it is a historically grown, man-made social construct.
It adds up with other aspects to form framework conditions in which individual individuals and groups act or are restricted in their actions.
Excessive masculinity, for example, also plays an important role in riots like those that took place in front of the parliaments in Washington or Berlin.
Anarchist anti-fascists, the majority of whom could also be white, would probably be received quite differently by the security authorities if they were announced.
There are many political factors that have to be taken into account in such decisive events as in unspectacular everyday life.
White Privilege
is and will remain a powerful factor that has ruled the world stably for centuries.
Icon: The mirror