Plantation owners in 17th century Barbados had a problem. They purchased white indentured servants and black slaves. At that time, there was little difference: life expectancy was so short that most indentured servants never saw freedom. The decision to buy servants or slaves was often dictated by price.
Black and white alike, the oppressed teamed up to rebel. Their oppressors concocted a strategy. Divide and rule: pit the two groups against each other by emphasizing race, and giving more privileges to the whites. For the first time, they crafted race laws that stripped black slaves of rights. And they deliberately starved them. "Tush, they can shift," they said: feed the blacks too little and they will steal from the whites. The strategy worked so well that it was imported to South Carolina, then to other English colonies in what was to become the United States.
White privilege was created not to benefit white people in general, but to benefit the masters. It was created to oppress black and white workers and slaves. The point was not privileges themselves: it was the message they sent that made one group feel superior, the other inferior, so that they would not work together. This strategy survived slavery, into the Jim Crow era when W. E. B. Du Bois called it a "psychological wage" that kept wages down for white workers and maintained racial antagonism to benefit elites.
We used to talk about prejudice and disadvantage: the implication was that disadvantages should be eliminated, raising everyone up. To call out privilege is to imply that it should be eliminated, lowering everyone down. Talk of white privilege is what it has always been: a strategy for domination that sets people against each other on the basis of skin colour to prevent them from resisting domination by elites.
See The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, by Peter Linebaugh and Markus Rediker. See also Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880, by W. E. B. Du Bois.
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Good evening. This is
Radio Free Beszel.
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I am Alphonse. Tonight:
privilege. There is
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a lot of emphasis today
about thinking about
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white privilege and other
forms of privilege.
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I want to go back and talk
about where white
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privilege began, where
it was invented,
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because white privilege is
actually something that
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was invented in the Americas
for the Americas,
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in Barbados in the 17th
century. Barbados
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was settled early in the
century by a number
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of free settlers and
10 white indentured
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servants. According to
some stories these
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indentured servants
had been abducted,
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which means effectively
they were slaves.
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Barbados was used to grow
sugarcane, making a lot
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of money for the people who
owned the land there,
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and gradually it was bought
up by a few large
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landowners, most of whom
were absentee living in
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England and having their estates
managed remotely.
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And they bought labor from
traders who came to
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the island. These traders
sold black African
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slaves and they sold white
indentured servants.
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And the landowners had
a fear. Their fear was
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that the white servants
and the black slaves
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would cooperate together
against the elites of
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the island and so they needed
a solution for this.
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One solution was the invention
of the slave
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code. Barbados had the
first slave code in
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the English-speaking
territories. In 1661 it
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encoded the differences
between the rights
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of white people and black
slaves. And the rights
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of black slaves were nil.
It explicitly says
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that someone can kill or
mutilate a black slave
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and it is no crime. There
is not even a fine.
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This code in 1696
was the basis for
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the slave code in
South Carolina.
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It is the basis for the
codes of chattel
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slavery across the
American South.
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This new distinction
based on race
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wasn't just embedded
in the slave code.
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The masters found another
way to make
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sure that the slaves
and the servants
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wouldn't work together.
And they
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called this "tush,
they can shift."
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What they did is they underfed
the black slaves
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on purpose, knowing that
not having enough food
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the black slaves would be
forced to steal what
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they did not have from
the poor whites. And
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then the two groups would
hate each other. Even
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sometimes the whites might
kill the black slaves
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so they would hate and
fear each other and
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they would never rise up
against the masters.
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This divide and conquer
strategy lasted for
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centuries. It lasted into
the Jim Crow era.
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The black historian W.E.B
du Bois explains
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that the black labor
and the white labor
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in the South during the
Jim Crow era never
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got together to rise up,
although one might
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expected that they would
have since both were
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put at the bottom of the
social totem pole.
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But he says part of the reason
this doesn't happen
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is that although both groups
were economically
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poorly off, the whites
were compensated
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with what he calls a
psychological wage.
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In other words, instead
of paying them
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more, the white land owners
would substitute
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other psychological benefits
- things like public
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deference for whites that
was not offered to
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blacks, the admission to
whites only spaces,
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better schools, jobs among
the police and more
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lenient treatment in court.
In fact white people
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could do just about anything
to black people
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and expect no legal
reprisals. Court
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system was only to
protect whites.
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The news, he says, also
would flatter the
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poor whites in comparison
to the blacks.
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And so these two groups
grew to hate and
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fear each other, each
realizing that the
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landowners could substitute
one labor for
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the other and so they hated
each other more.
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In other words, throughout
American history the
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idea of privilege for white
people was invented
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and perpetuated and propagated
and emphasized in
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order to keep poor blacks
and poor whites from
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working together in their
common interests.
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Now i want to talk about
the word privilege.
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The word privilege traditionally
refers not to the
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color of one's skin. That's
a recent development,
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traditionally for centuries
the word has primarily
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referred to wealth someone
who is privileged is
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someone who was born with
money with status social
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connections and education.
What has happened
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with talk of things like
white privilege is that
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the word privilege has pivoted
from talking about
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the elites to talking about
non-elites. You'll
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notice the people who talk
most about privilege
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are educated. They're better
off, they're members
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of the professional class.
And the people who are
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most tarred with accusations
of white privilege
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tend to be members of
the working class.
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There is another implication
of privilege which is
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that it's something extra,
something that someone
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is given that sets them apart
from others - that
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it is unequal, often unfair,
often unearned or
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undeserved, and if you look
at what is described
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often as white privilege
it is things like fair
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and equal treatment in courts
and education and
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institutions, the expectation
that one will be
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taken seriously and be
treated with respect.
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These are things that everybody
should have.
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Everyone should be respected,
everyone should
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be treated fairly by by our
institutions: but by
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calling these things privilege,
we are implying
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that in fact these are things
a few people have
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and in fact something
that can and perhaps
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should be taken away.
Rather than raising
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everybody up the implication
of the term privilege
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is that instead we should
lower everybody down.
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So the question I have is
if privilege - if white
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privilege - for so long (and
this applies to male
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privilege and any other
privilege you take you
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choose to talk about) if
privilege for so long
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has been used to divide
and rule by the elites
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who actually have privilege,
then why is it
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that all of a sudden now
talking about privilege,
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emphasizing privilege, seeking
it out in others or
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in oneself is expected to
do the opposite. This is
7:06
Alphonse for Radio Free Beszel,
www.www.beszel.ca.
7:14
Good night.