Why do all white males get judged for privilege?

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Sorry I'm so late to the fray. The short answer is: because they have privilege by default, without having to earn any of it. You immediately qualify your question as relating to poor countries in Eastern Europe, but that is a completely different discussion since your titular query was "Why do all white males get judged for privilege?"

I have just been reading Weapons of Math Destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy & it devotes quite a lot of itself to explaining this. Put simply: The world is run, by & large, by white men. So it follows that the vast majority of bias in the Western hemisphere, whether conscious or unconscious, falls favorably toward white men.

If you would like to know more about unconscious bias, few have put more effort into documenting it as Google. Here's the presentation Google gives employees on how to spot unconscious bias at work (care of Business Insider).

As for conscious bias, one needs look no farther than any civil rights movement.

Of course, in other parts of the world (Asia, for example) where white men are not the cultural leaders, this will be different but it is difficult to find many major cultures that are anything other than patriarchal. Those that are have historically been either marginalized or persecuted into extinction, particularly by what is arguably the most prolific patriarchy of all time: Catholicism (see: heresy, inquisition, crusades, etc). The last major non-patriarchal culture I can think of were the Cathars (the etymological source of the word "catharsis") of southern Europe, who were systematically exterminated during the Albigensian Crusade.

Patriarchy has been asserted, & often forced, on cultures historically. Knowing this I can completely understand why many people resent white male privilege. Taking it a step farther, this privilege also extends specifically to neurotypicals, since it is fundamentally a form of discrimination & thereby implicitly ableist as well. Even if one is a white male, the full extent of "white male privilege" still isn't felt if one has a disability.

Knowing these things, can you see why people excluded from this privilege might resent it?

"All" doesn't appear to make sense.

Go to a male homeless shelter, you'll see a row of white guys ("bums") lined up outside.

Seems ridiculous to argue that they have some inherent "unearned favorable bias".

People don't have favorable opinions of "bums".

Let's see if I got this:

Discriminating against certain people because of their race is racist.

Giving certain people preferential treatment over other people based on their race is racist.

Suggesting that people who want to discriminate based on race are racist is not racist, but the person making the allegation is.


I'm sorry, what?