Are white people offended by the term Whitey?

Question

*DISCLAIMER* This is not meant to make people angry, just to get people thinking:

Of course its usually used to express anger, resentment and frustration towrds whites.
Do any of you self-identified white people find it offensive?
Do you feel 'white gulit' for something you never did (perhaps it was your ancestors or just members of your race that committed the 'wrongs).
Do you feel guilty that you're benefiting from white privilige today, by no effort on your part other than being born?
If you do realize that you gain from white privilige, are you doing anything to detach yourself from it? Or do you silently continue reaping the benefits while claiming no such benefit?

http://cwsworkshop.org/resources/WhitePrivilege.html

Answer 1

I don't think it bothers me as much as a black person being called "N" by a white person. I don't feel white guilt. My family came to USA after abolition. I want to help anyone who suffers needless racism. I don't feel like any white guilt is legitimate and in this day in age it should be non-existent. The last question is a philosophical push question to obtain an illegitimate answer.

I equate "N" with me being called MF'er or some hard cuss word. There is no doubt that is is not as bad being called cracker, whitey, white trash, or the equivalent.

I really dislike the false claims of racism as it does a disservice to the legitimate claims.

Look. Name calling is bad. Black who suffer their own guilt from not overachieving (like so many in their race) are doomed to repeat the situation like they have been doing since the Civil War. Read some old articles and history books to see how charlatans and race-baiters have kept a significant number of the Black race in USA pushed down. In this day in age it is almost impossible to not be successful if you have and education and the brains to go with it. I believe the current generation of political shakedown artists to be just as evil as the ones using the same tactics 100+ years ago. It is ashame. We as a Nation must over come this hurdle of color, move on and quit blaming each other for something our ancestors did 200 years ago.

This really is a good question......

Answer 2

White boy, Cracker, Whitey, The Man. None of these offend me. They are just words being used by an individual to get a triggered response. If people would stop showing the anticipated response (even if they are offended), then people would stop using the terms. The United States has many laws, and having the right to not be offended is not found in any of them. When there is a free society people will have opposing views. With those opposing views people will come to dislike other people and then tend to generalize. We break people down by race, gender, religion and occupation. It is just done as part of human nature.

Do I feel guilt for slavery? No. None in the least. It would be like asking a black man if he felt guilty about the Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson murders. Why should he. He wasn't there. It was the action of one man. Slavery was the action of a few thousand men, but it was corrected. It was here and gone long before me.

The third part of white privilege I don't really see. This may have been the case in years passed but I don't see it now. There are just as many poor whites as there are poor minorities. The job opportunities are there. It just takes work, education and some luck to get in on it. When it comes to privilege, the only ones who are reaping those rewards are the extremely rich. I will never be extremely rich and so will never reap those rewards.

Answer 3

I can only speak for myself, but here goes:

1. I take no offense to the term. If people were to use it in a taunting manner, that would be different, but because of the harassment - not the term.

2. No, I do not feel 'white guilt' of any kind. I had ancestors who owned slaves, but that was their moral problem - not mine.

3. I do not feel guilty about this so called 'white privilege' - the fact of the matter is that in this day and age race does not matter nearly so much as income and family situation. I may be lucky, but I am not guilty. Besides, minorities have affirmative action to help them.

4. Again, I do not feel there is a 'white privilege' of which you speak. I do reap plenty of benefit from such things as income level, family situation, the area in which I live, the good schools in said area, and the like. I don't feel that any of this is linked to being white - it's linked to the choices that people make everyday of their lives and what they do with/about their lives. Yes, I'm lucky, but race has nothing to do with it.

Answer 4

I get offeneded if people say to mean something offensive, but not if they are just kidding.
No I don't feel white guilt, because I didn't do those things white people did hundreds of years ago, besides all my white ancestors were against slavery and such things like that, the fought for the Union in the Civil War, None owned slaves, and actually were oppressed themselves as certain European immigrants were ( I have Jewish and Slavik blood).
And also, I do not know what you mean by white privelidge, white people don't get anything unless they are really poor. I have been denyed a couple of things all because I was white; things I could have got at the same income if I was only a minority.

Answer 5

I really don't pay too much attention. I think people who use derogatory names of any kind, like those who use curse words, have very limited intelligence and imagination. So I just consider the source and ignore it.
I do not feel any "white guilt" for anything my ancestors may have done, although mine were mostly poor farmers and did good to support their own families much less own slaves.
And living where I do I see no "white privilege" nor am I accorded any benefit because of my race.
I really don't feel I benefit from being "white" one way or the other. I do think it's time we, as Americans, regardless of color, quit copping out or laying blame. History happened, whether we like it or not, and you can't re-write it just because it's unpleasant or not the way you think it should have been. And while it is important to remember our diversity and ancestry (I am Scottish-Irish-Cherokee-English and German) I don't think we need to go out of our way to establish our own holidays (Kwanza, or whatever that other Christmas thing is) and stuff like that if we want to be considered Americans and afforded all the privileges that goes with it.
All Americans, regardless of race or color, have the same opprtunities, the same benefits - it's where the rubber hits the road that counts: the willingness to work hard, take advantage of opportunities, and not expecting everything to be handed to you or given preferential treatment because you belong to one ethnic group or another. That's the kind of thing that makes me mad.
For example, the case of minority scholarships: we have a predominately black university here, which is an excellent school. But when a white student applied for and was granted a minority scholarship, you should have heard the ruckus.
Oh well, that's my 2 cents. Sorry you asked?

Answer 6

I believe that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Being called "whitey" must be the nicest thing a stranger can say to you if this is what they call you. I don't think names made in reference a person's color are appropriate. A more mannered person would say "Sir", "Ma'am", or even "lady" or "dude" for the more casual.

I don't feel any guilt for what others have done in the past. I was not there and times have changed.

I don't feel that I benefit from being white because I have still been poor most of my life. You have to work for what you get no matter who you are.

I realized that past generations in my family have felt white privilege and are very resentful of anything that slightly resembles reverse discrimination.
If I am silently reaping the benefits of being white, I am ignorant to the situation. Maybe ignorance is bliss?

Answer 7

i am 3/4 white and i'm slightly offended by it though i don't feel anymore guilt about being white then i do about being american, californian, intelligent, or anything else i have been blessed with. that said, i do appreciate what i have and would never take it for granted - i am aware that this is all luck and i did nothing to earn any of these things, however, i have done a lot with what i have. i was born to an extremely poor family with seven children. we nearly became homeless on several occasions and sometimes went without food because my parents refused to take wellfare - though i'm not sure why since they have been paying into it their whole lives. we didn’t have a tv, or toys or christmas gifts, my shoes were often held together by duct tape. we lived in a town that had the highest crime rate in the nation with more gangs then oakland, compton or south central and while most of the other kids I knew joined gangs or otherwise ended up drug addicts and alcoholics I spent time studying and figuring a way to create a better life for myself. my parents couldn’t support me so I started working when I was 11 i saved money and put myself through college by working 3 jobs during high school to save money, and getting straight a's and several scholarships. my life is was a product of discipline and hard work, not my race or where I lived… so do I feel guilt about being white? of course not. many of the black, asian, white and latin people in my neighborhood had it much better then we did – and many of them choose a different path. besides, my american indian relatives had it worse - here in the u.s. - then any other race and my Iranian relatives aren’t faring so well now either.

the bottom line is, racism needs to stop. I don’t care what color you are, we need to move forward and just be kind to one another. there is no place for racism in our society.

Answer 8

Well to answer your question.. I am white... proud to be white and it does not bother me that any one would call me whitey... I am not privileged.. I do not benefit from being white.. in fact many of my black friends are doing a lot better financially then I am... I have never had it easy.. and my family members have lost jobs to fill spaces for black people... I do believe however.. that ... in the past black people were not treated well and lost a lot in the process.. I also feel that in the past at some point and time all races including white people have been victims of slavery and other racial or ethically motivated divisions in society.. How sad that we as people would do that to each other??? I don't get it and never will.. but what I do think at this point... it all needs to stop.. on all sides... Racism is a infectious disease and should not be allowed.. cut it out at the source.. no matter who it is from.. and believe me it comes from everyone these days.... It should not be tolerated or allowed to creep its ugly head up in a decent society... I urge every person of every race to talk good things about each other..you know.. what your mothers taught you as a child. if you don't have anything good to say.. then don't say anything at all... That should be the worlds motto..... :)

Answer 9

I am white, and I like the term "whitey"--use it myself all the time. This may not be noble or proper, but there is a certain something about white men that amuses me, and so oftentimes "whitey" seems appropriate to use.

I don't have any white guilt. My ancestors--if they were slaveholders--are not my problem. My problem is who I am and what I do today--not what others who came before me were and did. People in my immediate family exhibit racism, and that is their problem, and it is unfortunate--but what I can do to fix the problem is not be racist. That is the power I have--over myself only--not over others long dead or others currently living. I can tell them that I think they're ignorant jackasses, and I often do, but this doesn't change their attitudes. Only certain experiences or else God can change their attitudes.

I am cognizant of the fact that being white brings certain "advantages" that people of other races in the U.S. don't enjoy. I don't take that as an opportunity to self-flagellate, though. All I do--and I'm repeating myself here--is keep my own side of the street clean, not prejudge people based on what they look like or who their ancestors were or weren't, and so forth. Any hand-wringing and gut-wrenching that whitey does in response to the inequality currently at work in this nation is fruitless and self-centered. "Oh, those poor people," is what it amounts to. I don't think any other human being is "those poor people." I see others as having certain other difficulties, and that's that. A lot of people haven't suffered the difficulties that I have--which have nothing to do with race--and I don't go around hoping everyone who hasn't had my experiences will feel all guilty and will look upon me with pity. Looking at someone with pity is ultimately self-serving and arrogant. In the vast majority of cases, anyway.

The only useful thing is compassion--and what compassion is, essentially, is looking at other human beings with a clear eye, unclouded by arrogant or inferiority-complex thoughts and emotions. At the end of the day, I would hope that everyone likes to be looked at as a person first and foremost -- and not as a set of social problems.

Because the fact is that social problems will never be eradicated unless individuals take responsibility for eradicating crappy beliefs and feelings from their own minds, hearts, and souls. No social movement is going to bring about this change. Revolution comes from within.

Answer 10

no, but i prefer the term cracker.

no, I don't feel the "white guilt". Slavery ended almost 150 years ago; I would never do it and don't treat people differently because of color.

I don't think I have white privilige, although I do accept that in some cases it does exist. I am struggling to make it just like most other people. Through perseverance and hard work I have made it to where I am today, not through any special treatment because I am white.