Boston and White Privilege

On the heels of discussing how Boston reveals what we think about America exceptionalism, it also highlights the benefits of white privilege.

Tim Wise has, as always, a pretty awesome breakdown of how the two are related, but the simple and short version is that white privilege means if the person(s) who bombed the marathon is/are white, white people need fear no retaliatory attacks, have no need to go out of their way to condemn something they were in no way involved with, white students traveling around or in and out of our nation will not have to worry about being terror suspects, etc.

But because this is the internet and things only count if they're delivered in list form, here's a handy top 10 I've been saving the link to for a long time. Here's Juan Cole's Top 10 Differences Between White Terrorists and Others:

1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.” 2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.