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White Privilege Doctrine Is Still White Privilege Doctrine [1]

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Date: 2025-04-18

Welcome to the new non-believers.

I hadn’t thought of it that way before—but now I can’t unsee it: white privilege doctrine is white privilege doctrine is white privilege doctrine. It doesn’t matter how it’s dressed up—whether in the pews of churches or the halls of academia—when a belief system becomes compulsory, unchallengeable, and used to determine your moral worth, it becomes doctrine. And increasingly, that’s what’s happening in progressive spaces under the banner of “privilege.”

From the Church to the Campus

For many former religious believers, the journey to atheism or agnosticism didn’t come from a lack of morality—it came from being told to accept dogma without question. We were told to believe in original sin, eternal judgment, divine hierarchy. And when we asked questions, we were shamed.

That script feels eerily familiar now in some modern institutions. Dissent from “anti-racist” orthodoxy is labeled fragility. Nuance is interpreted as denial. Questioning the moral framework is seen as betrayal.

And increasingly, people are walking away—not just from religion, but from any doctrine that demands uncritical belief.

Doctrine Dressed in Progress

The term white privilege was popularized in Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 essay “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, which sparked valuable conversations around systemic advantage.

But in more recent cultural dynamics, the concept has often shifted from being descriptive to prescriptive—used not just to explain disparities, but to determine moral character. Whiteness becomes original sin. Virtue becomes assigned by race. Denial equals guilt.

That’s not anti-racism. That’s orthodoxy.

Religious Power and Racial Control

Historically, religious doctrine has been used to uphold white supremacy, not challenge it. The Doctrine of Discovery (1493) authorized Christian colonization of non-Christian lands, laying legal and moral groundwork for centuries of oppression.

In the U.S., Christianity was frequently used to justify slavery. Historian Mark Noll has detailed how clergy used scripture to defend the Confederacy in The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.

The lesson is clear: belief systems—when unexamined—can become tools of power. Even those that start out as movements for justice.

The Backlash Is Growing

Recent lawsuits challenging mandatory privilege-based trainings in workplaces and schools reflect more than legal tensions—they mark a deeper cultural shift. These challenges don’t deny the existence of racism. They reject a moral system that conflates identity with guilt.

As Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff argue, coercive moral systems don’t create unity—they generate resistance. When people are told not to think, they start to think harder.

And many who once questioned religious dogma are now questioning this new secular dogma, too.

A Call for Thoughtful Activism

This isn’t a call to abandon justice. It’s a call to reclaim it.

Before demanding others believe what you believe, ask if your beliefs allow for redemption, complexity, and dissent. If they don’t—if they require silence and obedience—they’re not justice. They’re control.

To the growing number of people questioning these ideologies: welcome. Welcome to the world of principled doubt, humanist ethics, and reasoned dialogue. You're not wrong. You're not alone. And you're not obligated to believe in anything that punishes your thinking.

Yes—white privilege doctrine is white privilege doctrine is white privilege doctrine.

And more people are waking up.

Welcome, new atheists. Not just of gods—but of dogmas, too.

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