Black teen wins "white privilege" essay contest

AP.org; Anna Akana; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

WARNING: Sass and explicit language, casually delivered by a bad role model!

 

Essay winner Chet Ellis, 15 (AP)

A black teenager who wrote about the "unavoidable" racial issues he faces growing up in an affluent, predominantly white Connecticut town has won an essay contest on the topic of white privilege.

Chet Ellis, a 15-year-old sophomore at Staples High School in Westport, described a discussion on getting into college one day during track practice. He wrote that a white friend said he would have no problem because he's black.

• PHOTO: provided by Trey Ellis whose son, Chet Ellis, poses on April 4, 2017, in Westport, CN. Ellis wrote about his experience growing up in an affluent, predominantly white town. He was named the winner Monday night of the town's essay contest on the topic of white privilege (Tommy Fabian/Courtesy of Trey Ellis via AP)

No one has any privilege.

"I was stunned," he wrote, "and mumbled something instead of firing back, 'Your parents are third-generation Princeton and your father runs a hedge fund and yet you think my ride is free?'"

The annual essay contest, put on by the town's diversity council and the Westport Library, aims to prompt discussion of multicultural issues in the shoreline community, which is 93 percent white.

This year's topic stirred some controversy by encouraging high schoolers to describe how they have been touched by white privilege, a term used mainly by liberals that refers to unseen advantages conferred to whites, and not racial minorities. Ellis was awarded the $1,000 top prize at a ceremony Monday night. More

How to debunk "myth" of white privilege
I. Rony, Wisdom Quarterly (OPINION)

First make sure you misunderstand the term, taking quite literally to mean whatever you mean by it. It's common sense, after all, not a term with an objective definition: white privilege. Reduce it to your wrong definition then attack it as demonstrably not true. "I don't have a yacht, I didn't get everything handed to me, I experience hardships too, etcetera. B*tch, moan, and whine about it in a snarky YouTube video or StormFront forum so your fellow whites can agree.

We're all equal. No one has it any harder.

Then go on FOX News, or some fringe right wing media site, maybe even join an organization of fellow whites and place informative flyers for fellow whites on the porches of neighborhood homes in Orange County. Maybe even have a meeting of fellow whites to further discuss the issue, your plight, and how much you like what Trump has promised but isn't coming through on.

After all, everybody's equal now, and no one was born with any advantage or disadvantage -- and if they were, it's their own fault!

Bill O'Reilly was right

We live in a meritocracy where you're just judged by the content of your character and willingness to work hard (because everybody gets jobs equally and no one has any inherent advantage due to race or looks) and not the color of your skin, your surname, or any other extraneous factor. Get over it if there is racism or implicit bias (unconscious prejudice) in the world and just move on. The police aren't on anyone's side and do not show favoritism ever. We elected Obama, so that proves we're post-racial.