The Misedukation of the Gringo

Author: Anthony Gallucci

6/11/2011, (Ithaca College 2008)
(Edited by Anthony Gallucci 5/2014)
I am a Black Italian american male. This short paper is to address the misconception that whiteness is
a privilege in the United States. Essentially we are exposing the mis-edukation of the gringo.
When addressing the impact of terminology on the development of social circumstances, culture and
personal lifestyle choices and approaches it is relevant to begin by defining the terms being critiqued.
The terms focused on are whiteness, so called white people/white allies and white privilege.*
The Problem:
There is a common belief, promotion and action perpetuated that the social position held by white
skinned people in the United States of America offers benefits, advantages and/or favor that are
hoarded and occasionally extended to white allies (due to interest convergence**).
Our Suggestion:
We argue that the position, though salient in the disproportionate allocation of resources and material
towards white people, is not a privilege. Simply, it is not a privilege to exploit, oppress, disenfranchise
or minimize another person to acquire more resources, materials and access to them. Essentially, those
behaviors can be defined as GREED. The characteristic (greed) has been misconstrued to seem as
innate to the being of whiteness; and therefore it is identified with and incorporated into lifestyle and
culture of whiteness as a seemingly natural, deserved and an honorable venture for white people/allies
to partake in (i.e. the exploitation of so-called other People).
Therefore, to the person whom embodies whiteness giving it up is a dangerous and unnatural option
that secures their exclusion from the so-called perceived privilege group that comes with
participation and attempted or successful hegemony.
Solution:
We assert that if we call it what it is then we wont be misedukated into thinking that whiteness is
privileged. The impact of this terminology is not limited to the white peoples/allies perception and
behavior resulting from it; to the contrary All people are negatively impacted by the counter
evolutionary approaches to living that are exhibited through adopting whiteness as a guiding ideology,
philosophy, religion and indulgence. Furthermore, white people/white allies are well aware that this
system of inequity exist to mask their inadequacies and to supply unearned advantage and a feeling of
unearned entitlement that encompass the syndrome of white privilege.
We decided relevant to briefly re-imagine the points of privilege as established and highlighted by
Peggy McIntosh in the article Unpacking the Knapsack***, from the perspective of the people
exploited by whiteness.

Daily effects of the construction of so-called white privilege"
I too decided to try to work on myself through identifying some of the daily effects of so-called white
privilege in my life as a Black man. I have replicated those conditions that Ms. McIntosh chose to
illuminate from her experiences as a middle-class white Woman; merely for the sake of accurate re-
articulation/reevaluation of her initial idea.
1. We have been restricted through laws and social constructions from our human right to be in places
that we feel welcomed and present with our so-called race most of the time.
2. A history of segregation, inequitable land distribution, blatant favoritism in the credit and housing
lending market for white people/allies have made it so if we should need to move we cannot rent or
purchase housing in an area, we can afford and in which we would want to live.
3. Because of the fear and inferiority complex of white people/allies we cannot go shopping, driving or
otherwise out in communities and areas where white people/allies patronage alone most of the time,
and be well assured that we will not be subjected to racial profiling, arrest, stalking and/or harassment.
4. Because of whiteness dominated media we can rarely turn on the television or open to the front page
of the newspaper and see positive imagery of our race widely represented.
5. When we are indoctrinated within the U.S. education system/criminal justice system we are told
lies, exaggerations and propaganda about our Black National heritage or about the development of so-
called civilization in our motherland that restricts human development to the limited history of, by
and for white people/allies.
6. If we want to, we can be pretty sure that we will be deemed too Black and too radical to find a
mainstream publisher for this piece on so-called white privilege.
7. When using checks, credit cards or cash, we can be assured that a white person/ally will show their
ignorance by judging my skin complexion as the barometer for their assessment of our appearance of
financial reliability.
8. In the ignorant perception of the white person/ally we are always representatives for our entire race
when we speak or do pretty much anything negative.
9. When we criticize our government and talk about how much we are disappointed with its policies
and behavior we are always black-listed, slandered, misrepresented and labeled as racist, angry and
reactionary by fearful and incompetent white people/allies.
10. We can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having ignorant white
person/white ally people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my
race.


Conclusion:
Simply put, white people/white allies are making choices to cheat. We have made a choice not to cheat
now and forever into the futureWe know that someday all people will make the right choice for the
sustainability and peace for ALL people on the planetThere should be a self-reflection on the part of
white people/allies if they feel uncomfortable with the topic. It should be a personal, psychological,
emotional, and social reflection that could inspire positive anti-exploitative behavioral changes. White
people/allies need to seriously rethink this structure before things get even worse.
^The construction of the sensation of privilege is not limited to being reflected through race; to the contrary, the conception of so-called privilege is
inevitably intertwined into the US national approach to gender, age, disability status, class, and sexual orientation.
{One example is that of male chauvinism being actively yet falsely perceived as a privilege. Most males have had this patriarchal thought process from
unearned entitlement to so-called privilege. As two males we can perpetuate chauvinism without thinking about it as an unearned entitlement; the
process would not only make us feel a sensation of privilege (immunity) but also secure our hypocrisy. Women in the US living under the shroud of
negative male-initiated suppositions of male superiority are often seen as promiscuous, lazy, incapable, under-educatable, dependant and additional simple
male based conclusions.}
{In addition people who are a part of the LGBT community still have to fear some sort of persecution whether it be physical or verbal for expressing their
love for the same sex or someone who chooses to live life as a different gender.}
We need to stand up against the dispossession of ourselves and all of our dispossessed people. Outside of our personal bubbles of repression we can play
the role of honorary servants to support additional self-empowerment, revolution and other movements that support the establishment of autonomy.
*Suggested Terms:
Whiteness: The socio-economic and psychological promotion, practice, theology and ideology of
white (European/Western Culture) as the dominant group with perceived deserved access to benefit
off of any structure engulfed in it
white Person/"white ally: An oppressive person with interest in and willing to participate and/or
embody whiteness as their guiding ideology, practice, promotion, theology and social organizing tool
(note: black or brown people can support whiteness)every THING and Person that utilizes racial
construction or socio-ethnic-political hierarchy in an effort to oppress non-European People of the
world(i.e George W. Bush II & Barack Obama)
Privilege: a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor: prerogative; especially: such a right or
immunity attached specifically to a position or an office. (Websters Dictionary)
Origin of the word privilege: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin privilegium law for or against a private
person, from privus private + leg-, lex law
Unearned entitlement: An unearned entitlement is the reality that white people/allies acquire their
position of advantage/resources through their ability to exploit other people. White people/white allies
however cling to a false perception of hard work to justify their exploitation over others and re-imagine
it as deserved social advantage/resources. Under this supposition of false accomplishment white
people/allies believe that they are entitled to keep perpetuating the exploitation of non-white people.
Unearned Advantage: An unearned advantage exists as a result of a majority whiteness dominated
society legitimizing the belief of unearned entitlement. When this happens white people/allies
believe that any resources/advantages received is a deserved benefit over someone else (i.e. black/
brown people) and continue oppress people to gain, acquire, secure and hoard unearned advantage/
resources.
**Interest-Convergence: http://pscfiles.tamu.edu/links/div-com/bell-interest%20convergence.pdf
(Derrick A. Bell, ]r.)
Honorary Servants: A person who takes the social risk of empowering a dispossessed person or group
of people. In addition the honorary servant listens to and takes direction from the dispossessed group
they are serving with no imposition whatsoever. A crucial component to being an honorary servant is to
internalize the expressions from dispossessed people and implement the suggestions into personal
behavioral adjustment that serves to exonerate the servant from being oppressive and also replaces
oppressive behavior with the support, humility and empathy required to inspire trustworthiness and
trust that begets solidarity. (The term Honorary Servant was first proposed by Chango B.)
***Peggy McIntosh is associate director of the Wellesley Collage Center for Research on Women.
"White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through
Work in Women's Studies" (1988), by Peggy McIntosh.