Are We Suffering from White Male Arrogance

or 

White Privilege

or Both

It always come to a point where someone does something and there is fallout and the public gets exhausted by the revelations and just when you think you haven’t been surprised by it all, another episode comes forth and there is moral indignation and outrage until the next chapter begins just as that one is closing. Such is the case of our latest chapters of what has been going on for quite a few centuries, well, two things really.

One is white privilege and the other is white male arrogance. Both of these traits came along in this country with the Europeans started to invade the Native Americans’ lands and claiming the land and everything it held for their own private use. If the Native Americans wouldn’t accept their offer, just call out the U.S. Calvary and take the land. If the Native Americans were up for negotiating, just give them some useless trinkets and call it a fair deal. If the Native Americans don’t want to leave their lands just so the white settlers can have a place to homestead, just force them to march for hundreds of miles to a so called Indian reservation where famine and disease has taken hold. If the U.S. government signs treaties with a nation for better relationship and cooperation, then why did they break so many treaties with the Nation of Native American Indians without any penalty? Why was the U.S. government being sued by Native Americans for $3.3 billion dollars on 100 lawsuits that started over a century ago? In a nutshell, arrogance and privilege. History is replete with such tales of arrogance and privileges from the ruling majority and it still runs rampant in these 21^st century rights of passage. The rise and fall of the Roman Caesars, the U.S. Revolutionary War with the British, Britain's role and conflict with India, the early European wars with just about everyone during the medieval era, Holy wars, Vietnam war, Gulf War, U.S. Civil War, all are steep with a form of arrogance and privilege.

I have been pondering this topic for a while now and it seems like a good time to take a look at two incidents that highlights the topic of arrogance and privilege. And I would also like for you to weigh in with your thoughts on the subject because trying to understand this and the rationale behind it has become quite a puzzle.

The first case is that of one Alex Kompothecras. Now to be fair, I’ve never hear of him before because he is suppose to be some reality star novice on some MTV show called Siesta Key.. I stopped watching MTV years ago for a variety of reasons and this show is nowhere on my radar. It appears that Mr. Kompothecras went on a little fishing expedition in federal waters and while he was out there, he caught a hammerhead shark. On the surface, that looks like an above the board fishing story but there is more to this. You see, Mr. Kompothecras pulled out a pistol and shot the hammerhead while it was still on the hook. And he filmed it, genius. As you see him pull the shark closer, he calmly pulls out the pistol and pumps a few rounds into the animal as blood pours out of the animal. Not very sportsman like by the ensuing outrage that followed. I do not know what possessed this man to pull out a gun and shoot the animal but by examining the footage, it appears that for him that he is not suffering from any consequences of his actions as it appears to be far and removed from his thinking.

The second case is that of John Alex Fields, Jr. Mr. Fields rose to infamy over the past August weekend by running over a group of protesters rallying against hate and bigotry from a white supremacy group. Mr. Fields was a supporter of the white supremacy group and he plowed his car into the group killing one to date and injuring nearly three dozen victims. As you watch the footage from several cellphone cameras in a variety of angles, there was no attempt to apply the brakes, there was no sense of compassion sympathy for the victims as he backed up rolling over some more victims s he fled the scene.

In both of these cases there is a common thread of either white male privilege or white male arrogance or both. There should be no surprise in their actions for it’s been pervasive for quite some time. It’s been discounted sometimes as boys being boys. If you are a person of a particular status, you’re given the benefit of doubt if there is either sexual misconduct or financial malfeasance is the contributing factor. But why do we give the white male this power of arrogance and privilege?

We elected a president because he was arrogant and privilege. We watched as Bernie Madoff ruined his son’s lives, ruined the lives of many who invested into his ponzi schemes as he washed away billions of investors dollars down a vortex of faltering promises. We watched as 18 Penn State frat boys tried to cover up the death of one of their 19 year old pledge as he suffocated on his own vomit from alcohol poisoning. And while there is the moral outrage from a beleaguered public, what more can be done?

It’s not a crime to be arrogant or privilege. We do sometimes celebrate it. Celebrities get a pass for being arrogant and cocky. Musicians are bigger stars for being arrogant. Sports figures get a pass for being arrogant and privilege. Muhammad Ali showed a bit of arrogance while he was the reigning heavyweight champion but he lived in an era where black men weren’t suppose to be prideful or boastful about anything. He may have appeared to be arrogant but that was a facade as he battled the racism that plagued him for a majority of his life including his incarceration for being a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war. Ali’s arrogance was a false arrogance unlike the pure arrogance of one Donald J. Trump.

Here is a man who broke every rule in the book when it came to running for the highest office in the land. Everything he did defied any conventional norm. He made statements that were controversial in nature. Audio recordings of him uttering the phrase “grab them by the pussy” and one would think that this would be the nail in the coffin of his presidential bid but low and behold, they chose him, the arrogant, privilege, petulant, ill tempered man over the arrogant, privilege, petulant, untrustworthy woman.

Being arrogant and privilege could manifest itself into a literal word of words as President Trump escalate the rhetoric of words brought on with North Korea’s dictator and despot, Kim Jong Un as they keep measuring themselves as to who has the biggest nuclear missile. And as we can see, it’s not solely an exclusive white male phenomenon. Un is perhaps the most modern of aggressive, petulant, obnoxious, strident, privilege and arrogant person in the 21^st century to date so far. During certain wars, the male arrogance and petulant and privilege characterization had no bounds. Japanese leaders were full of arrogance and aggression and privilege during World War II after they attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

 Adolf Hitler and the Germans who followed him were full of arrogance and aggression and privilege. Hitlers principals are still in practice by those who follow his twisted doctrine of white superiority. Hitler has never gone away. He is like a scourge of cancer that infects the living tissue as the soul turns fully black with hate. Hitler’s aura is like some Hollywood horror sequel that can never be killed. Just when you think it’s gone away, it comes back with a vengeance.

I cannot speak on behalf of every black person in this country and I will not. I have had my fair share of acts of racism enacted on me and it becomes a part of who you are. You learn quickly on how to bury those feelings and tamp them down and you also learn that only a few white people feels this way of contempt and hate and loathing just because you exist. But it is those few that leave these indelible marks that scar those moments in life that you will never forget. And you somehow find within yourself to forgive them up to a certain point. The anger is still within you and the feeling is something you will never forget but there is a capacity to move forward and not let that incident define who you are. That is the forgiving part. Not every white person is the so called “blue-eyed” devil.

Looking back on the past few years with the number of incidents that involves cops killing young black men, I wonder if that privilege and arrogance was a factor that wasn’t taken into consideration? Some of the cops may have been conditioned through years of passive indoctrination that they were unknowingly taught to be privilege and arrogant. It’s just a theory. Maybe some social engineering student may want to do a thesis on the subject and uncover some fascinating detail about privilege and arrogance? It’s not just a white thing, it’s an everybody’s thing, only it’s male white people who are winning the race as they lead in the medal count with more gold.