STUDY GUIDE Who Has Privilege? privilege obsessing racist KEY TERMS: character bust your hump gratitude Detail Focus: Complete this section during the Main Summary Focus: Complete this video. section after the video. 1. What is the real white privilege in America? 1. What is the difference between the perception of ‘privilege’ that race hustlers are selling versus the actual reality of privilege? 2. What does privilege really mean? 2. How should Americans view the idea of privilege in the U.S.? 3. What would fix all of the privilege nonsense? PRAGERU.COM 1 Discussion & Review Questions 1. Towards the beginning of the video, Mr. Corolla explains that, “If I told you a story about a kid who grew up poor, product of divorce, did a lot of dumpster diving, sister ran away at age 14, welfare and food stamps- If I told you that kid was black, you’d go, well, yeah, that’s because of systemic racism. But if I told you that kid was me, you’d go, whaaaaat? What are we doing? What happened to your privilege?” Why do you think that so many people believe that racism is the cause of poverty and privilege? Explain. 2. Mr. Corolla later asks, “Why do we want anyone worrying about someone else’s privilege? Who cares? This is America. You make your own breaks. Anyway, isn’t the goal to not judge a person by the color of their skin, but the content of their character?” How would you answer Mr. Corolla’s questions? Do you think that the Left, by being so obsessed with race, is being antithetical to Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement? Why or why not? 3. Later in the video, Mr. Corolla points out that, “Privilege means you have it better than most, not that you have it better than some. How about tall people? Tall people have an advantage over short people. Thin people have an advantage over fat people. Attractive people, you’re welcome, have an advantage over the homely. There are always going to be people lower than you on the totem pole, no matter what color your skin is.” Do you agree with Mr. Corolla’s characterization of privilege? Why or why not? Why do you think that some people are so obsessed with how they compare to others? Do you think, in terms of self-worth and value, that people should compare themselves to others? Why or why not? 4. Towards the end of the video, Mr. Corolla contends that, “The great news is, that if you’re willing to bust your hump, there’s no better country to do it in. So maybe we should stop obsessing on skin color or gender or sexual proclivities and get on with the hump busting.” What do you think Mr. Corolla means by the phrase ‘hump busting?’ Explain. Why do you think that the Left, in general, tends to obsess about superficialities such as race and gender? Explain. 5. At the end of the video, Mr. Corolla concludes that, “You know what would fix all this nonsense, a little gratitude. You got up this morning, you put your shoes on, your fridge was full, you hugged your kids, you said goodbye to your wife, you said hello to your girlfriend. Gratitude for living in the best country in the world at the best time to live in the best country in the world. Whatever your skin color is, there’s no better country than the United States to call your home.” Do you agree with Mr. Corolla that gratitude can help one put one’s own condition into a proper perspective? How else might gratitude play a part in easing racial tensions? Explain. PRAGERU.COM Who Has Privilege? 2 Extend the Learning: Case Study MLK INSTRUCTIONS: Read the article “Why conservatives call MLK their hero,” then answer the questions that follow. 1. What parts of Dr. King’s message are being characterized by some as fundamentally Conservative? Who is Peter Schramm, and what is his view on Dr. King? Who is Taylor Branch, and what is his view on what Conservatives are claiming about Dr. King? Who was one of the first leaders to invoke Dr. King’s message in support of conservative ideas? Who is Carolyn. G. Raney, and what does she argue? Who is Alveda King, and what is her view about Dr. King’s ideology? Who is Joel Schwartz, and what is his take on Dr. King? What was Operation Breadbasket? Who is Joseph Lowery, and what is his perspective on Dr. King’s views and on blacks helping themselves? Who is Clayborne Carson, and what does he say about privilege? 2. What do you think Dr. King’s views about privilege would be if he were still alive? Do you think that Dr. King’s views on privilege would be based on race? Why or why not? 3. Why do you think that some people tend to think and categorize based on monolithic extremes (all blacks are oppressed, all whites are privileged, etc...)? Explain. PRAGERU.COM Who Has Privilege? 3 https://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/19/us/mlk-conservative/index.html Why conservatives call MLK their hero By John Blake, CNN Updated 0424 GMT (1224 HKT) January 20, 2013 A growing number of conservatives say MLK was a conservative. Many cite five words from King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was called a communist, an outside agitator and a drum major for righteousness. But now a growing number of people are calling King something else: A conservative icon. As the nation celebrates King's national holiday Monday, a new battle has erupted over his legacy. Some conservatives are saying it's time for them to reclaim the legacy of King, whose message of self-help, patriotism and a colorblind America, they say, was "fundamentally conservative." But those who marched with King and studied his work say that notion is absurd. The political class that once opposed King, they argue, is now trying to distort his message. King's most famous words are the crux of the disagreement. "He was against all policies based on race," says Peter Schramm, a conservative historian. "The basis of his attack on segregation was 'judge us by the content of our character, not by the color of our skin.' That's a profound moral argument." PRAGERU.COM Who Has Privilege? 4 Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a trilogy on King, says some conservatives are invoking a phantom version of King to avoid dealing with contemporary racial issues. "They want to claim they understand Dr. King better than Dr. King did," says Branch, author of "Parting the Waters." A quick look at King's books and speeches, Branch and others argue, reveals that his message was not conservative but radical. The man who started calling King a conservative Even when King was alive, his opponents distorted his words, Branch says. They would publicly agree with some of his message while undercutting the parts they didn't like. "Most people who were uncomfortable with his message did not take it head-on and say Dr. King was wrong because his message was so powerful, and near the heart of patriotism. They would say, 'I agree with you except you shouldn't break the law,' or 'you shouldn't mix church and state' or 'stop corrupting the lives of youth,' " says Branch, who just released "The King Years," a book that looks at 18 pivotal events in the civil rights movement. One of the first leaders to invoke King's message in support of conservative ideas was Ronald Reagan, according to Stephen Prothero, who spotlights that moment in his book "The American Bible," which examines the most famous speeches and texts in American history. In June of 1985, Reagan cited King's "content of our character" line from the "I Have a Dream" speech to argue in a speech opposing affirmative action that King's vision of a colorblind society would not include racial hiring quotas. Reagan, who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, said in a radio address on civil rights: "The truth is, quotas deny jobs to many who would have gotten them otherwise but who weren't born a specified race or sex. That's discrimination pure and simple and is exactly what the civil rights laws were designed to stop." Ronald Reagan was one of the first conservatives to invoke the words of MLK to support conservative policies. Prothero says King's "I Have a Dream" speech has since been invoked by conservative leaders such as William Bennett and Rush Limbaugh to argue that affirmative action equals reverse discrimination. PRAGERU.COM Who Has Privilege? 5 King a defender of traditional values? The arguments for King's conservative legacy, however, have acquired deeper layers over the years. In a 2006 essay entitled "Martin Luther King's Conservative Legacy," Carolyn. G. Raney argues that King's message was "fundamentally conservative" on other levels. In that essay, published by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, she writes: "King's primary aim was not to change laws, but to change people, to make neighbors of enemies and a nation out of divided races. King led with love, not racial hatred." Raney says King's message was conservative because he believed in a fixed moral law. She quotes from King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in which King says a just law was "a man- made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God." "Conservatives tend to be more deeply religious, to hold to fundamental truths appealing to higher principles and appealing to the founding of America," Raney says in an interview.