A common rebuttal I’ve heard to the idea of white privilege is, “If white people are so ‘privileged,’ how come we don’t say Asian people are privileged?”
“After all,” they say, “many Asian American’s are wealthier and experience less police brutality than even us white folks.”
Their idea seems to be something like if we don’t say Asian American’s have “Asian privilege,” we shouldn’t say anyone has “white privilege.
I have a very simply response to this, but first, let’s back up and clarify something important.
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People tend to bring up the Asian American experience as a way of saying, “See, anyone who just puts their mind to it and works hard can make it big in America.” Their perspective seems to be that wealth defines privilege and since Asian American’s are able to get wealthy and have a good relationship with the law, black people should be able to get wealthy and have a good relationship with the law as well.
Bringing up Asian Americans as a way of disproving white privilege is a classic form of deflection.
Those who do so have narrowly defined the issue (white privilege) in such a way that allows them to map it onto others (Asian Americans) so they can single-handedly swipe away any notion that they benefit from white privilege.
When we talk about white privilege, we are not talking just about wealth. Sure, wealth is an easy data point to look at how privilege affects various demographic groups, but it is not the sole definition of privilege, and it isn’t the definition of white privilege.
White privilege has to do with not needing to deal with racism.
I am not going to attempt to explain the Asian American experience in this article. There is far more to it than I know. For a fuller understanding of the Asian American experience, check out Erika Lee’s, The Making of Asian America.
At the risk of overly simplifying anyone’s experience, however, I am going to share some observations.
- Asian Americans typically personally chose to come to America.
- They were likely able to come because they were of a wealthier socio-economic status in their country of origin.
- African people in America today typically come from families who originally came to America because they were captured and enslaved.
- Asian peoples that come to America might be more wealthy than most in their country of origin. They likely would have had the means and connections to either defend themselves or flee if white men had attempted to capture and enslave them.
- In other words, you cannot use one migrant story to define another. They are not all the same.
- Even so, early immigration of Asian peoples came from contracted workers wanted for their cheap labor. Sort of like the Hispanic experience today.
- Not all Asian people are wealthy. You see the wealthier ones because they were able to come to America.
- Even if a non-white person is wealthy that doesn’t mean they don’t deal with racism.
- Not needing to deal with racism is white privilege.
- Racism is about power dynamics—certain people using their power to oppress others.
- While there are certainly wealthy black people in America today, they still likely come from families who were abused by white men overpowering them and bringing them to America.
- At least two things set the Asian American experience apart from the African American experience: (1) their original economic statuses were likely different, and (2) their level of personal freedom in choosing to come to America differs.
- In spite of the differences in their experiences, Asian Americans still deal with a tremendous amount of racism—especially in the last year and a half of COVID-19.
- Simply using them as an illustration to disprove white privilege, without checking with them to see if they feel racism, is an example of prejudice.
- American society was constructed by white men. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, it tends to favor white men just like a house filled with able-bodied humans tends to favor able-bodied humans, making it difficult for people with physical limitations to move with ease when visiting.
- Acknowledging one’s privilege doesn’t have to make one feel guilt—unless they have intentionally sought to uphold the structures that give them privilege.
- Then, if such a person is a Christian, they should allow such feelings of guilt to lead them into Scripture and accept the possibility that repentance may be in order.
- Acknowledging one’s privilege should give one a sense of responsibility. Not a sense of heroism, as if they are the saviors for those who don’t have white privilege. Rather, just as an able-bodied person ought to use their mobility to help and empower someone who deals with physical limitations, so a person who experiences privilege in society can use their cultural power to advocate for, amplify, and be an ally with those who don’t.
- Get proximate to people who do not share your ethnic background.
- Listen to their stories.
- Learn from their stories. This requires us to believe them without forcing them to prove their stories at ever corner.
- Acknowledge the brokenness of our human systems and our human relationships.
- Lament that this brokenness exists.
- Become an ally with those of other ethnic backgrounds than ourselves; not to be their hero, but to be their brother or sister.
We asked pastors how to learn about racism as a church without causing unnecessary division. We put their responses into a free guide called, How to Talk about Racial Issues as a Church without Destroying It in the Process. Click here to access your own copy.
Feel free to share your responses to this article in the comments below. Please be respectful to each other as you do. Grace and peace.
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