Yeah, that’s right… thought I might throw in the wolf kill and capital punishment, too, but I think there’s a word limit….

So, as I like to, let’s start with a definition:

White Privilege: White privilege (or white skin privilege) is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in Western countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.

The first time (at least, the most meaningful time) I really thought about this was after reading Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 article, “Unpacking the Invisible Backpack”. To put it one way, most of us can see and understand racism, even if it doesn’t happen to us, but it’s a little harder to get our heads around privilege, especially if we don’t think we have any.

With these thoughts in the back of my mind, I came across two links this week that made me reflect on my attitudes.

The first was this: Black Olives Matter.  If you don’t get the reference (and I give you more credit than that, dear reader, but just in case…) it’s a riff on the “#blacklivesmatter” movement. Me, personally, I think it’s in poor taste. But should you find this story with comments attached, you will read the gamut from shouts of racism and calling for boycotts and beheadings to derisive laughter and the smirkingly offered “Y’all just need to lighten up” (I won’t even point out the base irony in the latter sentiment, in an article on White privilege). Here is the point– it seems to me that, at least in this case, people any other colour than black have no right to play the racism/so not racism cards. Like I say, I thought it was in poor taste, I certainly wouldn’t buy a TShirt with the slogan, and I would probably choose another restaurant. I am allowed to call “Bad Form!”, and, I could give my reasoning as “I think it’s a racist sentiment” (although, to be honest, I don’t think this quite qualifies as racist). Beyond that, it’s not my call. Likewise, it’s not my call to to say it is not racist. I can speak with authority on matters that pertain to white, blonde, blue-eyed woman of a certain age and mass, but that’s all I can speak to.  White privilege grants a belief in imaginary all-knowing, all-judging power.  That was Thing 1.  Thing 2 is much less political, but more fun.

So, I read this article: Whining because my corset is too tight.  Actually, it’s not about corsets, it’s about this ridiculous couple who live in Washington State and adhere to “a Victorian Lifestyle”.  Now, there is a WHOLE lot of irony here, including the fact that she BLOGS about living as a Victorian Woman (what? They weren’t even allowed to vote, let alone use not-even-invented social media) but the gist of the story is this:  Dressed in their Victorian Garb (including Bustle, Bonnet and Watch chain), they arrived at world famous Butchart Gardens and found they were not permitted inside. The site has a very clear “No Costume” policy listed on their website. They were refunded their pre-purchased tickets, even offered some form of cover-alls to wear (weird, I grant you, but policy is policy, and at least the gardens offered SOME solution).  In any event, they took their waist-coated and petti-coated selves away, and wrote a paragraphs-long tirade about the horror of it all. How the employees should have been THRILLED to have them as guests, and how hard they worked to pay for that trip (her husband works FIVE DAYS A WEEK, upwards of EIGHT HOURS A DAY….imagine).  So, I poked around her website a bit, saw where she can be hired out by the hour to speak in classrooms, tea shops and for gatherings of all sorts, and she will wear her Victorian costume daily clothing and bring Victorian artifacts everyday items.  I also saw a plea on her website (her Victorian Website….) shilling for donations, as it’s not cheap to run a Victorian Household, you know… and images and articles are also available to download…. for a fee…. Well, you get my point, I am sure, gentle reader, the whole thing is just obnoxious, but here is my point…. the writer (she’s no Jane Austen, incidentally) has welcomed SOME comments on their tragic plight (the one where they were politely declined admittance because they didn’t meet the dress code policy and were given a refund– THAT plight) and dozens of expression of support and outrage poured in. Calls for a boycott and a STRONGLY WORDED legal letter, and appalled disgust that a business have the audacity to not welcome this couple with the open arms they DESERVED, dammit, they were IN VICTORIAN DRESS, after all.  On and on the comments went, vowing support and welcoming the two to all manner of other venues that the comment writers were PRETTY SURE would be welcoming.  As an aside, I wrote 3 comments in total, none were approved for publication (shocking) and the third one reflected that her not publishing my comments was akin to not being allowed to visit her garden. I think I also said people like her are going to be the ones to blame if Trump gets elected.  I’m pretty sure I had a good reason for saying that, but the comment is, I guess, lost forever.

But here, finally, is my point. These people, and their supportive audience very quickly called on things like “religious freedom”, and “the 1st amendment (free speech)” (oh those yanks love their amendments, don’t they!?) and “Victorian clothes would have raised the whole tone of the place!” arguments, and one deluded sap even had the audacity to suggest that the right to wear Victorian Dress is one of the things Martin Luther King Jr fought for (well, I’m paraphrasing, but he did invoke the work of MLK and connected it to their lifestyle-of-choice). The ultimate WTF moment, though, for me was one of the commenters went on to say that had he been there, in that situation, he would completed his protest by pretending to REACH INTO HIS WOOL JACKET FOR HIS GUN. (There’s one of those amendments again!)  Now, granted, I don’t know the ethnicity of this, or any of the commenters, but because it was all in defense of this milky-white couple (Victorians eschewed any exposure to the sun), I’m playing the white privilege card (because I can), and expressing my own outrage at the spectacular display of fundamental lack of respect for the mores of a society and the rights of a business.

The reasoning kept coming back to the same fact: “But they went to all this trouble to wear really fancy and authentic clothes and they looked, well, frankly, better than anyone else who would have been in the gardens that day”.

Self-entitled, much?

Delightfully foul, though, is this article I found about this same couple, not even about the Butchart Catastrophe, just the author’s response to their Lifestyle choice.  Mean spirited, yes, but terribly funny.  The comments, too…. A Pox on Fake Victorians.