Josh Duggar and White Privilege


If you use social media, then you’ve heard that Josh Duggar of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting fame sexually molested five young girls as a teenager; rumors are swirling that four of his victims are his sisters. Regardless of his position at the Family Research Council and pious reality show, stories like these should sicken and sadden any human with an inkling of a soul. My heart aches for his victims and I can only hope that they receive the help they need.

Not everyone has a soul though, I guess.

When dead black children make headlines the masses scurry to dig up their past (often petty) mistakes like shoplifting or getting in trouble at school. How many times have Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown been called thugs? For daring to be black and exist, white America has attempted to tarnish their names, even in death. In America, your blackness is your crime. There is no forgiveness.

But when a white Christian commits unspeakable horrors there is room for sympathy and support. The Duggar family has stood firm beside Josh, calling his past abuses “teenager mistakes.” A teenage mistake is sneaking out of the house to go to a party. Sexual abuse is a crime.

But Josh Duggar is a straight, white, Christian male — and sympathy knows no bounds for his kind:

“Flaws.”
“Don’t judge.”
It’s the media’s fault.

The outpouring of support was astonishing at first; but then I remembered white privilege. White privilege is being a sexual abuser and finding more support than a 12-year-old shot by police while playing in a park.