Tom Brokaw knows and admits it.....

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Every now and then a well known white person admit they have benefited from white skin privilege. It does not happen often but when it does happen, it gives us the opportunity to look at the peers of that person, knowing that they came up around the same time thus it is not far fetched to conclude that they to benefited from white skin privilege.

This past Friday night, NBC ran a special looking back over the career of Tom Brokaw. Tom Brokaw covered almost every major event in the last thirty plus years. Towards the end of his special he spoke about being on the ground after the Watts riots and then back in Los Angeles after the riots in response to the Rodney King verdict. Tom Brokaw stated “In 1966 I really did think we were gonna resolve racism in America in my lifetime, I no longer feel that way” and then he said this;

“When I was a young man, even when I stumbled as I did in the first couple of years of College, there were people that were willing to stand beside me and give me another chance, When I got a job with no real experience there was a boss, who was willing to say we think your going to make to the future, If my skin had been one shade darker, none of that would have happened, it just wouldn’t happened, I am so conscious of that.”

It is truly amazing that so few white men in power in this country attribute their success to white skin privilege but these same white men, try to marginalize the success of Black men and women that have gotten to positions of power because of affirmative action. Even after admitting that his success is due in part to his white skin Tom Brokaw reputations or accomplishments will not be blemished. It is not a secret that white skin privilege is the status quo thus no stigma is attached to those who benefit from it, on the other hand these same individuals has stigmatized those who have risen to power by way of Affirmative Action so much that many of them especially the Negro-Cons would have us believe they were not the beneficiaries or the fruits of Affirmative Action.

Tom Brokaw was born in 1940, which makes him sixty four years old. Take a look at the various CEO’s of Fortune Five Hundred Companies, take a look at the other top News Anchors, and take a look at your own boss who also may qualify as a peer of Brokaw. These are the men in power and these are the beneficiaries of white skin privilege and these are the men leading the fight against Affirmative Action. The irony in it all is suffocating.