White Privilege Is Real. I Know. I Lost Mine After 9/11.

White Privilege Is Real. I Know. I Lost Mine After 9/11.

LOOKING BACK

Dean Obeidallah

Updated Sep. 12, 2020 4:00AM ET Published Sep. 11, 2020 5:05AM ET 

OPINION

Mark Ralston/Getty

As part of Donald Trump’s “Only White Lives Matter” 2020 campaign theme, his administration announced last Friday it would stop spending federal funds to teach racial sensitivity training to government employees because to Trump such programs are “divisive” and “un-American.” One facet of this new Trump administration policy mandates identifying all programs that teach about “white privilege” and “divert[ing] federal dollars away from these un-American propaganda training sessions.” The irony of Trump denying that white privilege exists is that he’s the poster child for it. 

Here’s the truth: White privilege is real. It provides white people with tangible benefits that for the most part they take for granted. I know, because I used to have white privilege. But being of Arab heritage and Muslim, my white privilege was revoked in the years that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

It’s often been said that “race is a social construct” in America. To that very point, noted African-American historian Nell Irvin Painter explained, “Race is an idea, not a fact.” Well, I’m the living, breathing example of that concept come to life. I was for all practical purposes a white person before 9/11. And as such, I had all the benefits encapsulated by the term white privilege.

But in the years that followed 9/11, I became a minority. At first, I resisted. I wanted to remain white because that was the only world I knew. True, I was of Arab heritage before 9/11 and my father was a Palestinian, Muslim immigrant. But I was raised to be white. In fact, my name Dean exemplifies that.

My father wanted to name me Saladin, after the Muslim warrior who liberated Jerusalem. My mother, though, who was born and raised in America by her immigrant Sicilian parents, had witnessed firsthand her parents’ struggles of trying to fit in when you were seen as an outsider. She fully understood something my immigrant father did not, that my life would be far more challenging being named Saladin. Consequently, she successfully pushed for me to have the very white name of Dean. 

In the years after 9/11, I slowly began to embrace my new status to the point where “White Dean” was gone and in its place now is a proud and unapologetic minority member. That means I have firsthand experience of white privilege that I can share in the hope—naïve, perhaps—that I can reach some of the white people who become instantly defensive about even discussing that term.

“White privilege” is not easy to define. The genesis of the term is attributed to a groundbreaking 1998 essay by the anti-racism expert Dr. Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” McIntosh wrote, “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.” She then sets forth a list of examples of how white privilege manifests, from representations in the media to interactions with law enforcement. 

“Simply put, white privilege means you are defined by you, and you alone, in all aspects of our society.  ”

But here’s my non-academic, personal and, I hope, practical definition of white privilege. It simply means being treated the way all of us in America should be. You’re not defined by the worst of your race or ethnicity. You’re never called on to denounce or apologize for the horrific conduct of extremists in your community. Politicians don’t openly demonize your community to score political points. You’re never profiled by law enforcement for your race, religion or ethnicity. Simply put, white privilege means you are defined by you, and you alone, in all aspects of our society. 

So how have I personally felt the loss of white privilege?  Let me count the ways.   

In post-9/11 America, I and every other American Muslim are called on to denounce any terrorist attack by any Muslim, anywhere on the globe. I can’t tell you how many times I heard from primarily white people after 9/11, “Why don’t we hear Muslims in America denounce terrorism?!”  

That’s why many of us do denounce the extremists, since we are keenly aware that the worst of our community can and will be used to define us. And worse, right-wing politicians will call for and implement policies based on these extreme examples. In contrast, white people don’t feel compelled to denounce the worst among them because they have no fear of being defined by these people or suffering tangible consequences if they don’t. 

Here’s one small example. It was white men who perpetrated the October 2018 terrorist attack against the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11, and the El Paso attack the following August, which left 22 dead, but no mainstream American politicians blamed white culture for those attacks and advocated policies targeting white people. But when, during the 2016 presidential campaign, a Muslim killed 14 people in the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack, Trump responded by calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”  

The benefits of white privilege span our entire society from more subtle examples such as depictions in movies and TV shows as always being the hero to dealing with law enforcement. For example, how many white people, when they get pulled over by the police, actually fear they will not survive that traffic stop? But speak to Black Americans and they will tell you that fear is real. 

Maybe white privilege should be renamed as something more truly descriptive such as “Minority Disadvantage.” But let’s be 100 percent clear: there’s a benefit to being part of the white majority in America—despite Trump’s efforts to ignore it. And I can tell you firsthand that if Trump ever lost his white privilege, he would be tweeting non-stop about how unfair life is to him. I know what you’re thinking, he does that now and he’s a rich, white man born into wealth and is serving as President of the United States. That, too, is another example of Trump’s white privilege on display. 

Oregon Sheriff’s Officer Suspended for Spreading Rumors About Antifa Arsonists

DEPUTY DISINFO

Blake Montgomery

Reporter

Deborah Bloom

Updated Sep. 13, 2020 3:16AM ET Published Sep. 12, 2020 6:20PM ET 

A sheriff’s deputy in Clackamas County, Oregon, was suspended Saturday after video showed him propagating baseless rumors that anti-fascist activists had started the wildfires now devastating the state. 

Video shows the deputy—an unidentified bald man calling himself Mark—saying, “Antifa motherf--kers are out causing hell, and there’s a lot of lives at stake and there’s a lot of people’s property at stake because these guys got some vendetta.” He also warns of “antifa or other crazy left-wing people” attacking firefighters.

The sheriff's officer was also heard in a different video posted by freelance journalist Melissa Lewis counseling residents of Eagle Creek, five miles north of Estacada, on how to avoid legal trouble when defending their homes from antifa. “You have to prove it was seriously physical injury or death,” the officer can be heard saying. “Now, you throw a fucking knife in their hand after you shoot them, that’s on you,” he said, to the sound of laughter. “I wouldn’t let this shit happen in my neighborhood either, but be smart about it.”

Craig Roberts, the Clackamas County Sheriff, said in a statement to Oregon Public Broadcasting, “As soon as I was made aware of this incident, I moved swiftly to place this deputy on leave while we investigate. The Sheriff’s Office mission is to provide calm and safety especially during unprecedented times such as these. I expect nothing less of our deputies, and apologize to all in our community.”

The nearby Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department issued a similar warning over reports of groups of armed citizens illegally establishing checkpoints and detaining passersby. The department did not respond to a request for comment on whether the illegal stops were related to conspiracy theories concerning antifa.

“While we understand their intent is to keep the community safe, it is never legal to block a public roadway or force other citizens to stop. This type of action increases the risk of injury to everyone at one of these roadblocks,” the announcement read.

As cars were evacuating the cities of Molalla and Estacada on Thursday, armed men could be seen walking north along a state road winding along Cascada slope, where massive fires were burning just miles away. The same day, three journalists reported being confronted by armed men while reporting on the wildfires.

In Molalla, as residents could be seen packing up their vehicles to evacuate, one man who lived in the neighborhood and was not planning to evacuate told The Daily Beast he’d seen a video showing members of antifa pouring gasoline into a Molalla resident's backyard. When asked to show the video, the man declined and would not give his name. “There's people out there fucking up our homes, and now it’s on us,” he said, retreating back into his house.

Even Facebook responded to hoax claims about the wildfires having political origins. In a statement on Saturday, the social media giant’s policy communications director, Andy Stone, said, “We are removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups. This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public.”

Rumors of anti-fascist arsonists have no basis in available fact, and law enforcement agencies have had to work overtime dispelling the conspiracy theories, which add chaos to a situation already rife with uncertainty and draw law enforcement resources away from assisting residents in need. A million acres have burned in the Oregon wildfires this fire season, the most on record. The blazes have consumed entire towns and killed more than a dozen people, with dozens more reported missing. One man, described by police as a “local transient,” has been charged with arson in connection to one fire. Local authorities say the 41-year-old has no known connection to anti-fascist activists. 

Earlier this week as smoke enshrouded cities along the West Coast in darkness, Governor Kate Brown warned, “We expect to see a great deal of loss, both in structures and in human lives. This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history.”