White Privilege or Wealth Privilege?
We have tragically become a #hashtag society. We have all but given up in-depth discussion, study, and thought, in favour of strap-lines and sound bites without any real analysis of content or meaning.
Off the back of an assumed worldwide acceptance of the #BlackLivesMatter mantra we had within months the cry #WhitePrivilege. No real thought. No theses. Just “take the knee” and accept the “isn’t this obvious” assumption, backed by threats to “cancel” or even physically harm gainsayers.
In short, agree with “us” or you’re a fascist!
It is deeply ironic that, as we have observed developments in America over the past few years, we have seen that there is no-one more Fascist than an “Anti-Fascist”!
Ever since we were in school we have been accustomed to picking sides and to some extent the hatred that has filled the airwaves is merely a repurposing of age old tribal instincts more usually expressed in supporting Arsenal, Chelsea or Man U, or more pertinently Rangers or Celtic. If you support “them” you’re “scum“!
When you pitch race against race, colour against colour, you have a potent force for evil.
I link here to an “essay” worth a listen as he makes observations on the effects of the immigration of West Indians (The Windrush generation) on the indigenous white “working class” in London – The “Cockneys“, a group he argues that could hardly be described as having “#WhitePrivilege”. “Heresies Episode 2 White Privilege“
But here’s my five eggs …..
First what do we mean by privilege?
Can we agree that it is an inherent aspect of a person that gives them an advantage over others? For instance, traditionally an education at Eton and Oxford would denote and donate “privilege”. Being born a “Royal” would grant “privilege”. But I’d suggest that being born a Rothschild would equally bestow privilege – privilege in the choice of home, education, healthcare, food, in short quality of life.
Today, you don’t have to look far to find privileged Black people. The Williams sisters, Lewis Hamilton, Barak and Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Candace Owens, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Priti Patel, not to mention of course innumerable athletes, celebrities, musicians, singers, entertainers, film stars and sportsmen. Okay, I hear you say, they, or their parents, have had to struggle to gain their position, fame and wealth, nevertheless they now have PRIVILEGE – Wealth Privilege.
How did Europeans come to gain a virtual monopoly on wealth privilege?
Firstly it certainly wasn’t because they were white!
All human life began in the middle-east (atheist evolutionists may argue Africa, but that only strengthens my hypothesis here). We are all one race descended from Adam, the genetic tree splitting into 3 after the flood! Some people moved to colder climes. Presumably over time they adapted physically, including developing paler skin, losing melanin. Others moved south, developing darker skins, gaining melanin.
We are all one race descended from Adam
My hypothesis goes as follows.
Living in the middle east and much of Africa back then, the rains came, the sun shone, it was warm. Plants grew, animals thrived. Fire was for cooking, although nights could be cold. Clothes were more about keeping cool than staying warm.
Living in the cold north, too much rain came, animals thrived but crops got destroyed by wind and rain. Houses needed to be maye sturdy enough to keep out the hail and the snow. Collecting firewood was a constant task. Making clothes and blankets to keep warm was vital. Huddled round the fire at night plans were made to make life easier and the quickest buck would come from raiding others, plundering their goods and capturing slaves. A few episodes of “The Vikings” can be quite enlightening.
That’s not to say that the desire to conquer seems almost innate in mankind and drove the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, all in turn, to flex their empirical muscles.
There had to be something that drove the European nations to build ships and go conquer foreign lands. The desire for precious metals, especially gold and silver, spices, precious stones, and other resources, not least cotton, sent them far and wide.
Why was that it wasn’t an Arab or African nation that first industrialised?
Why would Europe, especially Britain, lead the world in creating machinery, harnessing other than “man power”, build factories and mass produce goods? It seems to come down to need, greed and opportunity. Oh, and coal! Yes, seriously. Necessity as they say is the mother of invention. Here’s a crash course and rather fun! or if that’s way too frantic for you, this is gentler (my preference). Cheap fuel, high wages, desire to increase productivity, reduce costs, upward economic spiral.
Textile production required cotton, not known as a local crop in Lancashire!
I have to add at this point that, despite the assumption that it was black people who were oppressed back in the 18th and 19th centuries, all workers were treated appallingly back then, especially children and women. Children in fact were virtual slaves. Remember that Dickens wrote about the conditions of life for working class white people in British cities after slavery had been outlawed throughout the British Empire. Children were still crawling under machines and up chimneys.
See also White Privilege and the English Working Class
In case you want to look at why middle eastern countries other than Israel have not really developed industrially.
Here’s a very honest Arab suggesting reasons why Arab nations are not “Westernised”. He possibly overstates his position.