Defining ‘White Privilege’
Admittedly, “white privilege” is a very sensitive social and political topic. I would offer that such white privilege is discernible going back to the great Ice Ages.
During the Ice Ages, water was locked into the great glaciers. Sea levels were lower and land passages opened up across regions like the Bering Strait. Around North Africa and the Mideast was a continuous belt of cold, dry, uninhabitable desert.
These geographic features divided humanity into separate pockets. The southern regions of Africa were likewise very cold and arid with very harsh living conditions. Anthropologists estimate that the populace of Africa fell to less than 1,000 souls, clustered along the southeast coast across from Madagascar.
The great challenge for the Ice Age African was the same as today’s Bushman — fresh water. We see the Kalahari Bushman (woman) struggling to obtain water by sucking from the earth with a reed then draining the water along a bent of grass into a gourd. The government of Botswana is under significant pressure to provide fresh water to their populace.
Cannibalism in Africa was a practice observed in Africa by early European explorers. Again, living was harsh.
As we examine other regions of the planet during the late Pleistocene, the living conditions across the Northern Hemisphere were much better ( privileged). Glacial melt water filled lakes and rivers. Vegetation and large fauna were plentiful.
Even India and China, with great deserts / arid regions, but they also had melt water flowing from the high Himalayas. Witness the great festivals and worship of such fresh water rivers. Japan had high mountains like Mt. Fuji providing melt water.
Life was so good in these regions that it gave time for producing artwork on the cave walls and early pictogram communications. In addition to heavy fur garments, the sinews of large animals provided thread for stitching and strings for bows. The atlatl (throwing stick) was superseded by the bow and arrow.
The bow and arrow was the huge technology development that enabled killing with accuracy at a greater distance than before — for hunting or to defend against more powerful opponents. The Neanderthal had short range thrusting spears but no bow and arrow that we know. The Neanderthal came out in second place to limber , long armed Homo Sapiens armed with bow and arrow.
The Sami people were the ancestors to today’s Laplanders and Finns. The DNA record shows that the Sami were separated from the European populace during the Ice Ages. They lived as did the primitive Inuits, isolated in the salt water Arctic regions above the glaciers. The Univ. of Texas Austin has found uncanny commonalities in the spiritual practices of the Sami people and the Sioux tribes of North America. There are photos of the Sami / Laplanders dwelling in animal hide “tipis” much as the Sioux.
The Finnish language has no apparent linkage to other Indo-European languages.
The Laplanders, Finns and most Scandinavian people have a diet rich in fats and dairy products (Havarti cheese) with no ill effect. No doubt the steady consumption of seal and blubber endowed the descendants of the Sami with protection for their fatty diet. The group with the greatest vulnerability to the fatty Western diet is arguably those of African descent.
All of these factors provided an “advantaged” existence for those people of the Northern Hemisphere — European, Slavic, Oriental, and Indian. Fresh water is the common thread.
Beyond cave artwork, pictogram communications, the bow and arrow; multiple technologies ensued. The luxury to closely observe the wings of birds enabled Da Vinci to create his sketches of winged machines for man to fly.
Having clean water and a diet of high calorie meats allowed the time to develop useful technologies. The privileges afforded to Europeans, Asians, and North Americans cannot be denied.
It’s all in the history books.
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