15: White Privilege

2024-07-25

The disagreement over the concept of white privilege is at the center of many of our political and cultural struggles at the moment. On the Left, white privilege is a bedrock principle, a foundational assumption that motivates much of the discourse around race in America. On the Right, the concept is primarily an object of derision. It’s dismissed, mocked and held up as the sign of the Left’s moral confusion and obsession with identity politics.To work through this problem, we’ve brought together a Black conservative philosopher and a whit...

The disagreement over the concept of white privilege is at the center of many of our political and cultural struggles at the moment.

On the Left, white privilege is a bedrock principle, a foundational assumption that motivates much of the discourse around race in America. On the Right, the concept is primarily an object of derision. It’s dismissed, mocked and held up as the sign of the Left’s moral confusion and obsession with identity politics.

To work through this problem, we’ve brought together a Black conservative philosopher and a white anti-racist activist.

Jason D. Hill is a professor of philosophy and the author of five books, including most recently What Do White Americans Owe Black People: Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and has been a professional writer and author for more than thirty years.

Garrett Bucks is the founder of The Barnraisers Project, which is committed to organizing majority-white communities for racial and social justice. He is also the author of the popular Substack newsletter The White Pages, and recently released a memoir called The Right Kind of White.

The Questions

Does white privilege exist?
How does it interact with other forms of privilege, like class class and gender?
Is it a useful concept politically and culturally?

Show Notes

3:09 - Defining white privilege
6:22 - White working class critique
12:44 - Black excellence
15:04 - American individualism vs. communitarianism
16:41 - Black immigrant experiences
19:15 - On Robin DiAngelo
22:58 - Left and Right class critiques of racial privilege
25:11 - Intersectionality
28:19 - White saviors
33:02 - White guilt
36:34 - Steelmanning

Further Reading

Jason Hill’s letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates

Critique of Robin DiAngelo

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh

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