White privilege, it's fucking magic.

Inspired somewhat by Intent, it's fucking magic. http://genderbitch.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/intent-its-fucking-magic/

Warnings for mention of suicide.

Along with Intent, White privilege has seemingly to some folks become a new element, so powerful that it reaches out and does things like change media to be magically inclusive of all non-racial minorities if the minority person watching it happens to be white.

White privilege according to some people makes it so "Oh if you're white, you get to watch TV without being humiliated" rather than simply getting to watch TV without being racially oppressed by it. White privilege is apparently so powerful that we're just imagining the existence of things like "comedy" shows based on the idea that disabled people are fakes or acceptable targets for hilarity, that people still think slur terms for disabled people are acceptable.

White privilege it seems means to some folks that "comedians" who think it's okay to say things like "wouldn't it be funny if she was raped right now" about presumed female audience members who disagree with them magically are replaced by static for white presumed female people. Still have "comedy" shows where the "funny" is how "gross" Trans people are for not being Cis? Not any more, white privilege turns them into nature shows for any white trans person watching TV. Have a media that is 99.9% non-disabled, written by 100% of non-disabled people? That's okay, white privilege will stop it from being uninclusive for white disabled folks. Still have a media where Trans and disabled people are played by people who are neither in ways that stereotype people negatively? No worries, white privilege will magically make it so it can't possible hurt white trans or white disabled people.  Still have a media that routinely treats female characters as only there to motivate and reward the straight white male lead? That's okay, White privilege will fog up the TV screen so white presumed women don't have to see or be affected by that awful sexist shit.

Got White privilege and a disability? That's okay, the awful disabilist things that a non-disabled person of color said to you is magically transformed into being perfectly acceptable, because white privilege is a magical barrier against horizontal oppression. Have white privilege? Congratulations, you now float along in a magical barrier against any and all oppressive acts.

Found that a building has steps and no elevator? That's okay, the power of white privilege will magically make a ramp and elevator appear just for you. Been hounded by a disabilist person of color into suicide? That's okay, white privilege will magically resurrect you. That's how goddamn magical it is.

Sarcasm aside, seriously, White privilege does not prevent minority white people from being subject to oppression. It's existence does not mean PoC are magically unable to be oppressive in areas they have privilege. A non-disabled PoC can still be disabilist to a white disabled person, just like the latter can still be racist to the former.

Having white privilege doesn't mean I don't get to feel erased by comments claiming that I can turn on my TV without worrying about humiliating and otherising media depictions. Nobody is going to mock my race in the media, or if they are? It's not likely to hurt me, but the media is still rife with isms that do affect me. When people claim that white privilege means I don't have to worry about being oppressed by the media, they are saying that things like disabilism and sexism in the media somehow don't affect me, that I am not really oppressed. That is erasive.

I'm getting really tired of being gaslighted by some PoC who don't share my oppressions arguing that some oppression denying shit they said wasn't really oppression denying because I have white privilege. I am tired of the fact that the PoC movement treats talking about your oppression making you incapable of being horizontally oppressive so long as you're a PoC. Seriously, privileged people using oppressive slurs that affect someone else when talking about their oppression isn't and shouldn't be acceptable simply because the person using them is a PoC and the person oppressed by said slurs who objects has white privilege. White privilege's mere existence doesn't grant a license to non-disabled people of color to use "retard" and other disability based slurs as an insult when talking about racism.

I'm especially tired of the fact that in a very real sense some privileged people of color act in ways they complain about when privileged white feminists do it to them. For example some PoC insist that minorities criticising them for oppressive acts becomes 'bullying' and 'abuse' if the minority complaining about oppressive behaviour is also white. Quite frankly from my perspective, in terms of attitudes and behaviour towards people with less privilege than them? There isn't any difference between some very privileged PoC advocates and some very privileged White women advocates. Both of them are very very shitty towards disabled/trans/bisexual/impoverished folks who happen to be white. The especially infuriating thing is how many PoC who pull this shit can identify it when white feminists do it to them but not when they're doing it to others.

So, yes, white privilege is beneficial, but it doesn't erase people's other existences as an oppressed person. Just like being a cis man doesn't stop men of color from being affected by racism.