I did not know all of this.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege, by Tim Wise at Red Room.

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."

However, I did know that Alaska is next to Russia. Alaska is also next to Canada, but I haven't heard any media commentators or Vice Presidential candidates point that out. It's called geography, people.
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Why I am passively boycotting the 2008 Summer Olympics:

I'm too lazy to look up and link to supporting articles. You'll have to wax that pony yourself.

1. The Chinese government continues to violate the rights of humans, both inside and outside of their own country.

2. I don't need to see another "news" article portraying Michael Phelps as the Great White American Hero. I have so much to say about identifying the word "sports" with men, even though women play sports too. But to focus, my main gripe is that as far as I know, Michael Phelps isn't trying to raise a family on his own on a minimum-wage salary. He isn't taking care of his sick parents while trying to put himself through college. He is not teaching in the abysmal US public school system. He swims fast. He won some medals. He's not saving babies. Neither are most deified athletes. Let's move on.

[Ed. note, 8/24/2008.] Also, what Tobes said: This is why... and CNN examines sexism in the Olympics.

3. The Chinese government is funding the genocide in Darfur. Yet my August "news" stories have been covering Russia's invasion of Georgia. I'm not sure how many people have died because of the Russia/Georgia conflict. However, I am pretty sure that hundreds of thousands of people continue to be killed, mutilated and raped in Darfur. One conflict in Europe gets daily news coverage, while one of the many conflicts in Africa that is funded by China gets almost no mainstream media coverage whatsoever. I wonder why that is . . .

4. The United States government has an embargo against Cuba because Cuba is a communist country. But playing sports in the communist country of China, with its deadly smog, is okay. Also, torturing prisoners on Cuban soil at Guantanamo Bay is okay. But taking a direct flight from Miami to Havana? Not okay.

Comments are welcome!

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