White Privilege at Fort Gordon
When I went to Desert Storm in 1991, my immediate subordinates, the four squad leaders in my platoon, were all Black. My immediate supervisor, the platoon leader, was Black. Of course, you all know that I’m a pale white guy. There was no discussion of race in the platoon. We had no need to discuss the subject because we all knew that our success depended on working together and protecting each other from forces outside the platoon. We played, fought and worked together as a team of equals. We didn’t have time for such superficial bullshit as our differences in our skin colors. Not only did we all come back in one piece from Iraq, we went on a few months later to win the “Best Infantry Squad in US Army-Europe” competition.
I said all of that to establish my practical creds in this discussion of “white privilege” in the Army. Apparently, some renegade Equal Opportunity instructor ran off the rails in Fort Gordon, Georgia and turned a briefing about “equal” opportunity into a lecture on “White Privilege” whatever the F*** that is. Here’s the slide;
From The Daily Caller;
The slide, titled, “the luxury of obliviousness,” states, “[R]ace privilege gives whites little reason to pay a lot of attention to African Americans or to how white privilege affects them.” It adds, quoting, “To be white in American [sic] means not having to think about it.”
The quote appears to be from James Baldwin, as referenced in sociologist Allan G. Johnson’s book, “Privilege, Power, and Difference.” The popular book teaches readers how to examine the implications of their privilege.
Cpt. Lindsay Roman, a spokesperson for the Army, told USA Today the presentation material was not authorized and not part of the standard presentation. The Equal Opportunity instructor, instead, chose to incorporate the topic of white privilege into the presentation.
Actually, “the luxury of obliviousness” is what the little dork who thought it was a good idea to add this slide to his/her presentation enjoys. The only problems I’ve ever seen that involved race happened right after one of these ill-considered attempts at “education” was attempted. The Army can drop these controversial briefings and depend on unit leaders to deal with these issues. Good race relations is a leadership issue so teach unit leaders how to deal with problems, don’t bring in these intellectual midgets to lecture the troops directly.
It’s like those idiot sexual harassment counselors who are committing those acts themselves – it all makes the situation worse, sometimes even creates situations where none existed. Get back to training for war and scrap this ancillary social engineering bullshit.
Category: Army News
“White privilege” is the rallying cry of all the liberal, moronic ne’er do wells with way too much fucking time on their hands…
He/she/it needs to go paint some rocks around the Company HQ…
It’s also a nice way of putting liberal spin back on someone who asks the honest question of where racism is prevalent in our society.
Mind you, I’m not so naive to think it doesn’t exist, but 1–members of ALL races are guilty of it, 2–it’s certainly nowhere near the systemic issue some would have us believe.
What about the “privilege” of being in a position from which to dictate what people are forced to put up with? Isn’t something called “responsibility” required?
It’s called the “privilege of class”. And the Libtard dork who was lecturing/propagandizing should have stepped down and turned the “class” over to an E1 private.
Oh for fuck’s SAKE.
So now Tumblrinas are working in the EO office?
Puh-leeeze. We already have too many pointless bullshit briefings without this garbage water. Christ.
Tumblerinas? TRIGGERED!
triggered is my trigger word!
TRIGGERING INTENSIFIES!
“They” (that would be the bigots who will do anything to protect their power base of dependent whoevers) don’t have sense enough to come in out of the rain and will not be content until they destroy the US military, perhaps the most egalitarian group of fine folks ever assembled.
This is inappropriate in the military, Jonn’s assessment is correct on race relations in the infantry.
A discussion of the benefits of being white in civilian society might be appropriate for a college course, but it doesn’t correlate directly to the military experience. Assumptions are made in civilian society every day about a great many things besides race that have no corresponding component in the military.
The military does not necessarily reflect our society because the kind of person who is able to serve honorably for any 6 year or longer period is the kind of person who doesn’t evaluate on race but on performance. Performance bias is the separator for the military, are you a go or a no go at this station? Simple, elegant and color blind for the most part.
Civilian society on the other hand is full of racist jerkoffs pretending to be decent folks. They reveal themselves regularly at a barbecue, or a neighborhood meeting regarding subsidized housing or zoning changes…they also reveal themselves in civilian power structures where they believe they are above reproach. The recent email exchanges in Ferguson’s court and police system are a pretty clear indicator of how civilian diversity works….
Perhaps more civilians should be compelled to mandatory, pervasive power point programs run by monotonous buffoons convinced of their own self important necessity to advancing human understanding at the expense of logic and reason….at least then it would be directed at the people who actually need to hear it.
VOV, actually, the most racist and mysoginistic asshole it was ever my displeasure to meet when I served was African-American. And God help you if you ever mentioned it, either to him or the command.
On the issue of race, American society at large lags the military. No need to go out of the way to celebrate diversity, it just is a fact of life.
On my ship when I first checked onboard, the CO and XO were white, my Department head was Hispanic, Division officer black and my Chief was Irish. No fuss was made, just the men you worked for and with.
The first EO training event that I went to in my last command had a list of several hate groups in the local area, all provided by the SPLC web site. Someone pointed out to the instructor that the SPLC isn’t exactly known for their unbiased opinions of what exactly makes an organization a hate group.
Honestly, every EO office that I’ve seen has been primarily monochromatic, and the soldiers in the positions have very little front line experience. As such, their perspectives tend to be a little limited. I’m sure that whomever was responsible for the training that day felt that it fully filled a need based on their perception of reality.
Give this bitch an ARCOM. Bitches LOVE ARCOMs.
– First Sgt. Katrina Moerk
May I offer an on the spot correction. First of all a First Sgt with the integrity of Moerk would never use the words ‘bitch’ or ‘bitches’.
I am starting to pace the house a bit because of your comment and you are dangerously close to getting the ‘red button’.
I will assume you will adjust your attitude accordingly before I am force to jump the entire chain of command. Dont make me jump.
cc SOD
Jammit, ARCOM.
ChipNASA is an overblown male chauvinist pig. We all know that. /s/ So stuffit.
Glad Jonn wrote about this before I did, because my blog entry would contain a lot more invective. A lot. Two years ago, I was required to take EO training as part of my supervisory duties at DOD. The sniveling shitbag who led this 1 1/2 hours of my life I will never get back told us – I shit you not – that all of us were racist, whether we knew/acknowledged it or not. All of us white folks, that is. This coming from a white guy with obvious white guilt issues, who relayed a story of how he never thought he was racist, until someone on his ship (he was former Navy, apparently) proved to him that he was. Those of you who know me personally know how much will power it took for me not to throat punch that asshole and walk out of that training with my middle finger up in the air! My career won out… I wonder now if I shouldn’t have done it anyway. Are there racists out there? Sure. Are there bigots who would discriminate against you due to your skin color, religion, national origin, etc.? Sure. Are they all white? Not on your fucking life! White privilege? Try being beaten up by both teachers and students for being born a Jew in the former USSR. And not just beaten, but deprived of food, not allowed to use the bathroom, and forced to sit in a wooden chair for hours, while the other kids in your kindergarten class laid down in comfy sleeping bags for a nap. Yeah, I’m white, but I’ve also been there, and done that. White privilege? Try being a student from the former USSR in an American school, trying to learn English during the Cold War, when everyone hated you, because of where you came from. Try being ridiculed, because your clothes came from someone else’s trash, as did the furniture in your roach-infested flat. Try being ridiculed because your parents couldn’t afford to buy you ice pops during the summer, so you sucked on ice cubes while… Read more »
Try being ridiculed because your parents couldn’t afford to buy you ice pops during the summer
For us it was the delightful variation of organ meat sandwiches that my German-American parents packed in our lunches.
All those nice white suburban WASP kids eating the apple honey ham would just about puke when I opened up a nice kidney or blood sausage sandwich covered in some brown mustard with some nice red beets in a separate container instead of applesauce…although we were occasionally fortunate enough to get some pickle and pimento loaf if it was on sale….that was indeed a treat to behold.
When I joined the Army and ended up in Ft Benning my roommate was black kid named Sharome who introduced me to BBQ ribs and pulled pork and chickens…I thought I had died and gone to heaven…I had no idea food could taste like that!!
The only thing we could afford was chicken. LOL I actually didn’t bring anything for lunch, IIRC. Couldn’t really afford it. Had some cereal for breakfast, and then just came home and noshed on whatever was there. The girl who had been assigned to be my “buddy” in class and who spoke Russian gave me some leftover M&Ms every so often. And when I did bring lunch, it was a plain PB&J sandwich.
Mmmmm…blutwurst and mustard; what a delicious lunch. I’m not being sarcastic; blutwurst and spicy mustard go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Now I’m hungry for a blutwurst, hot mustard, and cheese sub with extra garlic and some sauerkraut on the side. Wash it down with a nice tall lemonade.
I hope you realize how lucky you are to have had such a lunch.
To each his own. Tried some once; that was more than enough.
IMO, blutwurst passes the famous Paul Hogan “Dundee test” (“Oh, you can live off it – but it tastes like sh!t.”) It falls into the same category as chitlins and brains; voluntarily consuming any of them would just about require me to be literally starving.
Nicki, sometimes you should just follow your instincts.
Flipping the bird at that obnoxious, self-important troll accusing everyone of what he hated in himself is extremely appropriate.
Sometimes, it simply does not pay to hold your tongue.
I seriously thought about it, Ex-PH2. As it was, he saw the look on my face and was clearly disconcerted. But it was a class that was required for my job. Luckily, I’m no longer an employee of that particular agency, and my current agency is much more sane.
In 1973, the Navy sent me down to RTC Orlando. Now, I hated Orlando then (still do) because construction was going on everywhere and not only was there grit and dirt in everything, there were alligators the size of Volkswagens hiding in the bullrushes around the lake on the base.
It did not put me in a better state of mind to be told that I had to take a race relations course.
I dutifully went to the class and saw that one of the instructors was someone who had been at the EM club the night before making gross jokes about women. I waited for the right moment, something about ‘any questions’, and lit into him about what a male chauvinist pig he was and how prejudiced he was against women. (FYI, chauvinist was the watchword of the 1970s.)
That was fun. He couldn’t get out of it because some of the other guys in the room had been at the EM club the night before class, too. I found the certificate for that class a couple months ago, and cracked up laughing.
My sister is Jewish. My niece’s two girls are Hispanic. I live in a mostly Latino neighborhood. Some of my neighbors are black. I like it here. It’s nice and quiet. I’d just love to go to one of those classes and give the instructor ‘what for’.
As a young sailor, and later AMH2 (Aviation Structural Mechanic ‘Hydraulics’ 2nd Class Petty Officer) in the finest Navy in the world, the fact that I was white never prevented me from having to do Onload/Offload working parties, or any other working party for that matter as I was deployed.
It never once was a factor when I worked for some Filipino Chief while mess cranking in S-2 Division.
As previously mentioned in another post comment AMCS Gibson was one of my mentors, he didn’t care that I was white, and I didn’t care he was black. Senior Chief wore Khaki…and I wore Flight Deck Greens. One of the very best mechanical minds I ever met was AMSC Kelsick, later went on to be LDO…that fact that he was black never once played a role in his promotions, or even a lack of promotion…it was his performance and capabilities as a technical expert and leader of men.
Hispanic, Black, White, Asian, Native, and Islander…I served with them all We worked as a team to accomplish our mission, which was to provide the platform our pilots used to put bombs on target. We worked hard and played hard TOGETHER.
The only real division of class in the USN is the division between Khaki and Non-Khaki. The officers have Officer’s Country and Wardrooms, the Chiefs have the Goat Locker. They, the Khaki, have the preferred parking back at the beach.
And you know what, nothing is stopping that young E-1 from someday putting that Khaki on, either through a commission or getting frocked to Chief, except his or herself and the choices they make.
For these people to somehow infiltrate the military institution is sickening, there is no place for racial divisiveness in the ranks. The only thing this sort of ‘White Privilege’ slide does is cause just that.
Every time I hear the “You won’t get it because you’re white” crap, I just say, “How is that not racist?”
No matter how they spin their answer, they will end up admitting, either directly or indirectly, that it is, and they know it.
Damn! I grew up very poor in the fifties. I had to pick cotton in the fields alongside of black people and other poor whites trying to make ends meet. My daddy worked in construction as a carpenter, but had to supplement his income by picking cotton too. I never knew I was so privileged to be white!
In the Navy we experienced “white privilege” all the time.
Each April we shift from winter blues to summer whites through October.
So the “white privilege” thingee seems to exist in the Navy.
When I think of color in the !Armed Forces, the first thing that comes to mind is the color of our uniforms that we have been given the privilege to wear.
OUT!
I was a peace time Marine (’79 – ’85).
The only classes I ever had to attend dealt with such things as improvised munitions for such purposes as destruction of enemy armor and/or cracking open enemy fortifications. The proper uses and abuses of factory made explosive munitions for the same purposes. Care and cleaning of the M60 pig. How not to get mass killed in ambushes, etc and so on.
Not a single solitary episode of EO or other PC bullshit.
I always realized I was a lucky dog for not having to actually earn my paycheck. I didn’t realize how lucky I’d been in not having to sit and suck the PC pipe.
I feel lots of pity for them whats got to put up with that idiocy.
MC, not sure I’d characterize wearing whites as a privilege.
Hated the thought of wearing them. Dirt magnets!
Yep. I reckon is was privileged during my active duty career. I was priviledged to work as an NBC NCO in a Chemical Company, multiple Field Artilery Battalions, ADA Battalions, Avation Battalions, and a Cavalry Squadron, with a little “side work” for a couple of Armor and Infantry units. It wasn’t until the end of my career, at Ft. Hood while assigned to a Transportation Battalion, that I saw a color other than green. It started when we got a black Battalion Commander. Certain “groups” of Soldiers and NCOs started talking how they finally got “one of their own” in charge and how “they” were going to get things changed. That was followed by my black female 1SG calling me into her office in an attempt to convince me to change an NCOER that I had written on one of her “favorites”. Her favorite was late to work 3 out of 5 days a week, non-deployable, could barely wear a hat becasue of her hair-do, and was just a sorry NCO. I had a stack of counseling statements an inch high. My comment “SGT XXXX works well under direct supervision” didn’t go over so well. I didn’t change it. Later, I had an IG Officer show up at my shop and confiscate a hand-carved plaque I had been awarded when I left 2/14 FA in Germany. It seems that someone thought I was in the Klan because the plaque was of the Unit DUI of the 14th FA Regiment (see link below for the DUI). http://www.14faregiment.org Over the course of two weeks, I had to explain to my BN Commander, Group Commander and later an IG Full Bird where I got the plaque, what it meant, my I was displaying it and all sorts of other shit. The kicker was the Latin words on the crest. Those words must have been some racist saying – “Ex Hoc Signo Victoria” – translated “In This Sign, Victory”. I brought in an old unit crest to show – didn’t work. I pointed out the fact that 1/14 FA was assigned to Ft. Hood… Read more »
White privilege? Yeah, it exists. I know my male, heterosexual, white privilege got me the back of the line for my college program (2 year waiting list), but if I were a woman or other minority, I could have started the next semester. I was, also, “privileged” to not be able to apply for several scholarships based on the fact that I was a whiteboy and the corporations that were providing them wanted to make sure my “privileged” status was put in check. After I waited my 2 years and then worked my ass off and graduated, I was, again, reminded of my whiteboy “privileged” status when the director of the next round of schooling told me, in front of several women, that I had another 2 year waiting list, but they could start the next semester. Of course it was a federally run program, so they wanted to make sure my “white privilege” was held in check. This was in the early 90’s and nothing has changed in that regard.
So, I would be really interested in knowing where the “white privilege” really is, because I haven’t seen it. In fact; being a heterosexual whiteboy makes me one of the most discriminated against people in this entire country.
Back in the day…(1980s) I was denied acceptance to the in-state university because (some verbiage to this effect)”we have yet to fulfill the quotas set for us by such-and-such regulatory body for in-state students and once those are met, you will be considered at that time.”
Yeah, white males need not apply until we slot everyone ELSE.
Same thing also happened in my reserve unit…”Oh them Man is trying to keep us down!!” even though the Chief of our Unit was black and we had black officers AND about 2/3rds of the unit was black but there were ALWAYS some folks that had excuses and yes, they were shiftless lazy screw ups. (many different colors) Yeah eventually they all were dismissed, denied reenlistment, left of their own accord or retired…(Oh high speed E-5 + 20 years, YEAH BABY!!) 🙄
I have seen this before, just not so much in the Infantry.
I used to see it in Cs and CSS. When someone failed or fucked off, it was because their superiors or the winners were white.
Most of my platoon(s) were Hispanic and I will tell you what, they did not put up with this shit.
I had three buddies in the Marines. One black, one Puerto Rican, one Mexican. My section Gunny was Phillipino. My LT was a white guy from Texas. I’m a white guy from Minnesota. We all worked together every day, and got along well because we had a job to do. There were some racial tensions on Camp Pendleton at the time. Just prior to my arrival there had been a stabbing that had resulted from a couple of dark green and light green Marines getting into a shit fit over a misunderstanding about membership in the KKK. But the best of us knew that we needed to be better than that, and we were. We didn’t need special classes, or lectures to set us straight.
The book mentioned is assigned reading in one of my current classes. In fact, it’s very popular assigned reading in teaching programs around the country. I’m all for awareness of differences in culture when trying to work with other people, but I believe the military actually has a BETTER grip on this than most civilians; they deal with cultures around the world with and without translators!
But it does typically (in colleges) seem to come with a heaping helping of guilt for anyone who dared to come out with lighter skin or a y chromosome or both. I’ve had a teacher yell at a guy for interrupting me when I was trying to help him because he wasn’t being mindful etc (whereas I was just being patient because if he wants to be a jerk, he’s only shooting himself in the foot – HE’s the one who was failing calculus, not me!).
If our feelings are all so sensitive that we can’t handle someone else’s PRESUMED prosperity, well, then.
I never saw as much racism in the Navy as I see now when these asinine, poorly-thought-out presentations crop up.
All they do is make things worse.
As long as I can remember I have heard the phrase(s) to the effect of, “YOU…will never understand what it is to be black, you can’t, don’t try, it’s just a black thing”. If I dispute that due my own experiences of many of the issues others posted above, I most probably will be called a racist.
However, if I were to say, “YOU…will never understand what it is to be white, you can’t, don’t try, it’s just a white thing”. I will ABSOLUTELY be called a racist, a bigot and many others things.
So, what’s so bad about being a “racist” or a “bigot”?
I think we’ve been lied to for all these years, and I wonder why?
I consider racial prejudice to be a survival instinct that we are born with for our own protection.
As we see from the current news reports, racial differences go far beyond just mere skin color.
Aside from being morally wrong and against the principles of most of the major religions, racism and bigotry run counter to the fundamental precepts upon which the nation was founded, not to mention the corps values of military.
I consider racial prejudice a sign of ignorance and one of the most destructive forces of our society.
I’ll be glad when my “privilege ” kicks in. I’m getting tired of scrapping by. If I am living a privileged life, I would really hate to see how the downtrodden have it.
Honestly, no real issues with being in a majority or minority – tend to have a “f*ck ’em if they can’t take a joke” attitude (which probably explains my lack of fiscal success today.) However: when living in El Paso I tried volunteering to be a bone marrow donor – and was told by the blood bank who administered it that I couldn’t because I was white. The program was funded by a grant from the Navy which was interested in promoting Hispanic donors – so I was, by virtue of solid UK/Irish/Germanic background, ineligible. Did I lose anything? No – but in the ten years between when I wanted to sign up and when I was finally able to in Houston – what potential matches could have been lost? Who may have died for lack of a donor? Tell THEM that it was all “white privilege.”
I know at first glance this seems truly idiotic, but the reality is it makes some sense – whereas things like blood have pretty broad categories, matching marrow is considerably harder and ethnicity does play a pretty major role.
Various organizations, apparently including the Navy, are trying to recruit minority donors because they are severely under-represented in the marrow registries. Consequently, the chances of a life-saving match being found are much lower, often impossibly low, for non-whites.
Now, if money weren’t a factor, by all means, add whomever. The more lives saved the better. But it costs approximately $100 per person to have them added to the registry, so with finite resources it is reasonable to target higher-risk demographics. That isn’t a matter of race, it’s a matter of risk assessment and economics.
With all that being said, thank you for persevering and signing up eventually.
@David:
CONGRATULATIONS on your volunteering to undergo a painful procedure in an attempt to save someone else’s life!
Even though you were turned down, in my book, that makes you a true hero.
I also volunteered for the National Registry to donate bone marrow, and like you, I was never called upon to do so.
I look at it this way – – – ,
Jesus Christ endured unimaginable pain and gave up His life in order to save the souls of all men.
So, if I truly am a follower of Jesus Christ, shouldn’t I be willing to endure a little pain in order to save one life?
By the way, my name is also David.
I was adopted, so that’s why my name is John.
But, when I was born, my name was David.
This just in…people are shitty to each other and have been since the dawn of time. If you are different then the other guy, chances are pretty good he/she/it will be shitty to you. Why? Usually simply because you are different…
White privilege helped me get my Specialist promotion in Germany. The other PFC just failed a piss test and was waiting for his article-15. But it was stile white privilege. The Battalion soldier board I won may have helped a little also.
Don’t even get me started here! I sat through all those BS “race relations” classes in the 70s… Most of us (white, black, hispanic, Asian etc.) walked away from them thinking WTF?
Stop the social experiments – the standards are the standards regardless of race or any other federally recognized “protected classes.”
REMEMBER: The only priviledge is RHIP…
NCOs and officers to the back of the chow hall line — “Joes” and “Josephines” eat first!
I sat on two 0-5 and one 0-6 board as a recorder. What a joke. White privilege? What a fucking joke.
Board proceedings are not to be disclosed, so I won’t. But don’t lose any sleep over the possibility that “white privilege” was invoked. As if.
Felt and experienced the “White Privilege” all the the when I was playing army. My rucksack was always lighter, and when I exited the airplane on a jump it was always during the day and Hollywood at 1500′ AGL while everyone else was at night C/E at 800′ AGL. Never had to shine my jump boots. Never had to break starch and pay for the dry cleaning. Never had to wait in line in the chow hall…just showed up and cut in front. The PT score was adjusted along with marksmanship scores were adjusted as well, because of my “whiteness.” Don’t even bring up the swim test. We whities were issued water wings.
I can go on and on…
Glad someone is finally pointing out the major discrepancies in the army because of white privilege.
I’m a deaf guy ……this is so funny because I can’t even believe that you hearing people out there would even think that way. I didn’t know that’s was peer pressure out there. . I just don’t hear them
Black guy are trying to fuck whites girls like they are piece of meat. They are try to insult us. We create this nation and Now they are walking all over us?
Get you act together and tell the liberals and blacks to fuck off. No one will control my life and tell me how I should think.