White Privilege hurts...White people?

“Race is a social construction. There is only one race, the human race. But, race has historically been something negotiated by the courts, has legal standing, and has impacted people's life chances across the color line” (Chauncey DeVega, 2013).

According to the above statement, one’s race is no longer a concept only associated with your national heritage, or the different colour of your skin. One’s race has the ability to determine your way of life, or the way you shall be perceived by others.

In an article about the Boston Marathon bombing, Chauncey DeVega explores the idea of how ‘Whiteness’ or the White racial frame in particular, is a property [that] can be inherited, and has both monetary and symbolic value under the law”. 

From the author’s perspective ‘Whiteness’ is often synonymous with being American: “The United States Supreme Court summed up this logic in the Thind case (1932) where a South Asian man, a former U.S. Army soldier, was denied citizenship because he was not judged to be "white" by the "common sense" standards of the average white person”. In this instance, one had to embody the physical characteristics of a ‘typical White American’ in order to be accepted as an American citizen. In this way, American citizenship was also correlated with having the benefits of inheriting the White race and nationality through birthright. 

Although one may argue that this might be just an old-fashioned way of thinking, we must also ask ourselves whether or not this mentality is in fact ingrained into American culture today. The article states, “The two suspects in the Boston Bombing are white Chechens. While many in the mass public – white conservatives and racial reactionaries especially – will try to suggest they are not really "white" because they are Muslim, Chechens are considered white under the law in the United States, and through the pseudo scientific common sense norms of race”. Comedian Paul Mooney comments, “Whiteness is the complexion for the protection in the United States; Whiteness will keep white folks safe”. These statements suggest that there is a certain benefit of ‘protection’ received by all White people, whether or not they are consciously aware of it, or will accept it. As reflected by Gillborn (2008), ‘Whiteness’ does not assume that all white people are racist, but it does assume that all white people gain something by being white: “All white-identified people are implicated in these relations but they are not all active in identical ways and they do not all draw similar benefits – but they do all benefit whether they like it or not”. 

Essentially, being White protected you from being looked upon as guilty or as someone to be blamed. You were innocent if you were White. The idea that a White individual could conduct a terrorist attack was especially unthought-of or impossible. This is accentuated when a man interviewed about the Boston Marathon Bombing told the reporter (about one of the suspects), "I thought he was White, you know, a regular American." Here, the word ‘regular’ invokes the connotation that you had to be white to be considered ‘regular’ or normal, or even as an American. Furthermore, it suggests that when you are ‘white’, you were of a sound mind, had morals, or had the common sense to understand the difference between right and wrong. 

Ultimately, Whiteness and “white” people are associated with idea of being ‘normal’, while others who do not fit the description are termed ‘other people’, are ‘raced’ and are somewhat ‘different’. Through the example of the Boston Marathon Bombing, the author however, presents a twist to this frame of mind. The White racial frame can no longer be justified to form barriers of protection: “White Chechens suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokar Tsarnaev were also White; Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokar Tsarnaev were also “regular" Americans. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokar Tsarnaev decided to kill other "regular Americans" who also happened to be White”. 

References:

DeVega, C. (2013) 'The Boton Marathon Bombing shows us how White Privilege huts White people...Again', viewed 15 September 2013, 

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/chaunceydevega/boston-marathon-bombing-shows-us-how-white-privilege-hurts-white

Gillborn, D. (2008). Racism and education: Coincidence or conspiracy? New York and London: Routledge.