In the year 1945, veteran actress Joan Crawford and newcomer Ann Blyth starred in the film “Mildred Pierce”, which is based on a novel of the same name.

In this film noir, Crawford played the eponymous Mildred Pierce, and Blyth played her daughter Veda. The entire film is a murder interrogation from Mildred on the murder of her second husband, Monte Beragon, and her tumultuous relationship with her daughter, Veda.

The film is great and shows the actor’s true talents, but that’s not why I mention it.

The character Mildred spoils Veda, and she tries on multiple times to have a relationship with her daughter. All of Mildred’s attempts are failures, and the constant demands of the ever-greedy – even monstrous – Veda all result in Mildred’s unhappiness.

Some people nowadays seem to have what I call a “Veda Complex.”

All throughout time, people have portrayed this “Veda Complex,” but now, the real word for it has come out… privilege… white privilege.

Some children know the life of having things handed to them and having someone else clean up their mess. Who is the one that answers for whatever trouble they get into, their parents, i.e. Mildred and Bert Pierce.

What is the compulsion to fund the bad habits of a person, let alone try to stand by some of them? I know an acquaintance of mine whose mother funds his college tuition, and his underage drinking as well! How can she go through with it?

With the way things are in America and how people take over neighborhoods in New York City, is there something more to gentrification? Does the idea of white privilege come down to the idea of having a “Veda Complex?”

Racism is one thing, is the idea of white privilege something different? Can we be using the idea of white privilege as something bigger? I couldn’t help but wonder.

How dangerous can white privilege be?

In this game of life, when the system first turns on, we come with a standard set of rules, instructions, and a freedom to be who we are. But then, the rules change to allow advantage to someone different. Then, people that look the same start getting the same advantages, while others are left to struggle a little bit more… that is the idea of white privilege.

White privilege definitely came into play in George Zimmerman’s trial, in the court case involving Trayvon Martin. If you look at the jury of the trial, it was mostly white women, and one woman of color. We all know the verdict from the Zimmerman case… not guilty.

But don’t let that alarm anyone. Not guilty isn’t the same thing as being declared innocent. Not guilty just means that the person wasn’t declared guilty, but is not entirely innocent.

The world is fickle because of who society validates and why society validates them. Sure, we may not praise people for what they look like, but can’t we praise them for who they are? Look at Anna Wintour, for example.

Wintour is one of the greatest and most powerful women in the world. As the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, she informs the public about what they should wear rather than what they will wear. Her power is benevolent, and unending, yet she suffers everyday under the labels of slave driver, mean, cruel, and evil.

This isn’t her at all – and while I’ve never met her – she is something different.

She is just a perfectionist, and wants her magazine to be great so it doesn’t blend into the newsstand with all of the others. Maybe that’s it; perhaps we suffer from being labeled.

Society is always trying to figure people out, and maybe white privilege takes that too far. Perhaps we don’t try to figure others out, but people are willing to take time out to validate someone that looks like them.

Perhaps the whole idea of white privilege goes back to self-segregation and that white people stick together more so than others. It’s so dumb because in the end we are a nationality. Sure, we come from different races and believe in different religions, but why does the color of a person’s skin matter so much?

Maybe it’s the expectation of what the stereotypes of people dictate of them. It’s 2016 and we are no further in the fight against racism and segregation. Living as the stereotype has brought people down and maybe the expectations of people have gone down to.

In life we all expect something, though. Some of us expect everything to be given to us; the world is a yo-yo and those people believe they have it on a string. While for others they expect very little, and can settle on anything, but that’s not good… is it? Finally, there are those who expect the unexpected.

They know that this world may not value them as much, but who cares? If you have the confidence to be who you are in the fiercest way possible, then why should something so basic, elementary, and simple as white privilege stop you? When the path you’re on is blocked, always make a new path for yourself, and always be willing to do whatever it takes to be you.

And in the end, isn’t that the best privilege of all?

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