White privilege is an idea that might sound like it had traction if you were looking for excuses. The privilege we had was something other than the color of our skin. All of the advantages that are associated with white privilege are now freely available to anyone who is willing to work for them. There are a lot of factors that go into the recipe for privilege but they are the kind of forces that are freely available.
It can’t be whiteness because that is not true historically. At different times in history you have had people of different ethnic types as being advanced and dominant. Look at what were called the Cradles of Civilization. None of them would be classified as white today. At one point China was the most advanced and powerful nation of the world. At a later date the Muslim empires dominated the known world. What we are looking at today is a historical trend that probably began around 1492. That was the date the Moors were expelled from Spain and Columbus opened up the world to exploration. Europe has not looked back.
European privilege became a real force. Modern inventions such as movable type spread the intellectual wealth. This intellectual wealth was rooted in the past. The heritage that Christianity had in Judaism had the paradox of an almighty sovereign God which was shared with Islam and the ability to argue with God and the encouragement to think that was not. There is a lot of false advertising about the intellectual growth of Europe. The lie is that it was resisted by the Christian faith. In reality,
“The cosmological pioneers of the scientific revolution (Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho, Kepler, Newton, and others) were all devout men.” Ross, p. 22And if you heard that the sailors with Columbus were worried about falling off the edge of the world then you need to find a new source of information. People knew the world was round. They even had a good idea how big it was. What the sailors were worried about was running out of water and getting home again when they did not know the ocean currents or wind patterns.
Ross, Hugh. The Fingerprint of God. Orange, CA: Promises Publishing Company, 1989.
To be continued...
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