White Privilege & Fleeing USA

Earlier this year there were articles going around my facebook timeline claiming, 'If Donald Trump gets elected, I'm moving to Canada'. Recently a new article is coming out saying the same thing, but for Ireland. Written by Suzy Strutner, Associate Lifestyle Editor for the Huffington Post, this article gives you a step by step guide on how to successfully flee America if Donald trump is elected in to presidency. 

Suzy Strutner, says she adores underdone cookies, and the way Costa Rican sloths wiggle while their fur's being shaved. She's the author of articles such as 'People are losing their minds over America's first Hello Kitty Cafe.' and '10 kitchen gadgets go through the most hilarious testing ever.' While I'm sure suzy has posted this article as a quirky guide to show her stance on Trump's policies, and while I'm almost certain this isn't something many white people think about, I think it's so extremely important to understand their...wait for it...you know it's coming! Yes everyone, the word is white privilege.  

Strutner has probably decided the kind of writer she wants to be and this is the kind of work she wants to put out there, and that's completely fine. However when articles like this come out, and a considerable amount of people across white nations start sharing this article and others of it's kind, what message do we send to people of colour who have tried to flee their country for the exact same reasoning? It says, 'you are not worthy of the same treatment as I am, and I will not stand to be treated unfairly by my government so I shall flee to, or invade with my comrades, another country where I will be treated better. If you dare do it, you're an illegal immigrant and will be treated as such.'

So what's an illegal immigrant? You're an illegal immigrant if your're not white, coming to another country. So wait a minute, what's an expat? You're given this term if you're a white person coming to another country. This is their social and political meaning, so why are their dictionary definitions the same and why do we give white people a superior label for doing the same thing people of colour are doing, if not for a reason that does not grant the need to leave their country?

If people like Strutner want to leave the US because a president turned out to be annoying and racist and come to Australia (where our politicians are also annoying and racist), she would be welcomed with open arms, we'd slap her on the back with the title of an expat and hand her a VB. If you're a person of colour fleeing your country, literally fleeing warfare, rape, murder, kidnapping and sex trafficking, then you will be pushed into a detention centre where it's legal for us to rape you, have the label 'illegal immigrant' nailed on to every fibre of your being and be put back in to where white people say you belong in the hierarchy they built.

In an article titled '5 things I wish I knew before becoming an expat in Australia' by Brooke Schoenman, she complains about how expensive we are, how Christmas just didn't feel like Christmas for her, how taxes are tricky and how she just had too much of a 'culture shock'. Brooke's experience as a white person coming to Australia from the US is a perfect example of how well you're treated as a white person, and just how ungrateful white people are when given such amazing opportunities to you know...not be raped and killed for asking for basic human rights.

Brooke Schoenman 

I know there are some angry white people reading this saying 'but they should just come here legally if they want to be treated like us? You know what? You go, white people! You shine your white privilege to the gods, the ones you're allowed to worship if you so choose because you have freedom of religion. So let's say a person of colour fleeing all those great things like warfare, sex trafficking and rape is lucky enough to have been able to afford to come here 'legally'. What's their label and treatment? Let's remember that expat is used for white people and people from western cultures (so like yeah, mainly white people). They are now called an immigrant. With this new label of immigrant, boasting new and improved undertones of racial stereotypes, you can look forward to less than human treatment in our country. You can now enjoy white bogans yielding a VB, shirtless and entitled, yelling unspeakable remarks at you if you dare walk the street. You're also welcome to apply for jobs, but make sure you change your name for a better chance (if you can even afford it), we can't have white Australians having to exercise their brain and learn non Christian names! It's too complicated, we'd prefer to hire Johnno, Stacie or Mick. If you have an accent? Well forget about it, we already have too many white Australians complaining about you lot taking our jobs (even if you're more qualified than Patrick in accounting) so we just can't have an accent here, only the best english speaking immigrants can work in telemarketing (where we can hear your improved english and not see a face that isn't white). If you look like what Damien believes is a muslim (because Damien just can't grasp that Islam is a religion and not a race) he'll exercise his right to freedom of speech (because Damien thinks it's in our constitution) and tell you to 'go back to where you came from' or to 'take ya turban off' (because Damien thinks all headscarves, any form of cloth on the head is a turban). Not only are people like Damien executing their right to speak as a white person, but white successful and powerful people in media will attack you, your religion, your skin colour and your basic human rights by telling our entire nation that you should be put in a concentration camp, be refused the right to flee warfare and all the other things you see on television, print media and political campaigns. If this is too much for your eyes, I'll add some dot points:

• Among recorded incidents,  a woman was threatened with having her hijab torn from her head and set alight, a cup of coffee was thrown through the car window of a woman driving in a hijab, and a pig's head and cross were thrown into the grounds of a Brisbane mosque.
• A mother in western Sydney was spat on and had the pram carrying her baby kicked, according to the list of incidents compiled by the western Sydney-based Muslim Legal Network and the recently launched Islamophobia Register
• A list of verbal attacks includes a Muslim mother in Melbourne who was warned to remove her child from playing with group of non-Muslim children at a play park.
• Mosque vandalised: 'Brainless' Brisbane vandals left evidence behind.
• A 33-year-old South Korean student had his little finger chopped off and left arm broken in a brutal attack by a group of teenagers in Melbourne in late September.
• Another 33-year-old South Korean man was assaulted in Sydney by a group of four or five people in October.

Actually you know what? This could go for days, and it's wildly accessible to any white person reading this article.

My articles may not change the world, but I hope it changes the way my readers think about their privilege. I hope that if you decide to make articles like the two above go viral 'for the lols' you understand the message you send to people of colour fleeing something real. I hope you keep this in mind the next time you vote, the next time you make an important decision, the next time you have to opportunity to hire someone, the next time you witness micro-agressions toward the lucky ones who made it to our country, and the next time you hear a privileged white person who can't quite grasp that what they're saying is absolute nonsense. I hope you hear this and make the right decision. I hope you're angry and I hope you channel your anger into something that might make difference to even one person's decisions.