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Jimmy Kimmel Addresses His Own White Privilege On ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

Peter White
·3 min read

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Jimmy Kimmel has revealed how he opened up to his own white privilege in a sensitive monologue on his ABC late night-talk show.

The host addressed the issue as protests continue for an eighth day following the killing of George Floyd.

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“I know that a lot of white people bristle when they hear the word privilege, as in white privilege, because there are millions of white people – who did not grow up with money or a good education or a solid family background or maybe even a family at all. So, when they hear the word privilege, they go ‘what privilege? I grew up with nothing. I work hard. I earned what I have. Nobody gave me anything’. You hear the phrase white privilege – and it’s easy to get defensive. The first time I heard it, I did,” he said.

“To me, white privilege was what Donald Trump had – a wealthy father and a silver spoon in his mouth. It wasn’t what I grew up with. So, I rejected it because I didn’t understand what white privilege meant. But I think I do now. I think I at least understand some of it and here’s what I think it is. People who are white – we don’t have to deal with negative assumptions being made about us – based on the color of our skin. It rarely happens. If ever. Whereas black people experience that every day,” he added.

He highlighted a recent video that showed a group flagging down the police after a store was being looted and instead of stopping the looters, they handcuffed the people who flagged them down. “Imagine how frustrating it must be to get handcuffed or frisked or pulled over just because you’re black,” he said. “I don’t know about you, but that would make me furious.”

“Now imagine what it must be like to be brutalized. And killed. And scared that those things might happen. What happened to George Floyd was on video. How often does this happen without a camera recording the whole thing? Sounds to me like it happens all the time. We just don’t see it unless it gets posted online. And then we’re shocked and black people are like ‘why are you shocked? We’ve been telling you this has been happening over and over again’. So, if you’re wondering why people are angry and why they can’t just march nicely in the street holding up their signs in a single file line, maybe that’s why,” he added.

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