I’d feel very privileged if I had a bear with me.
Reddy Mercury, I told you that if you can appreciate the benefits conferred by your identity, then you are as enlightened as you need to be. Need I remind you that you had asked “What the solution is?” The solution to any kind of privilege is awareness of that privilege. Denial of privilege only entrenches the privilege.
In response to my post, you had a choice to say “OK, sweet. I wish other people would understand white privilege too. It’s not that hard to understand. Can’t we all just get along?”
Instead, we’re subjected to yet another long-winded defensive whine from you, like someone has accused you personally of holding black people down.
If you don’t understand why such defensiveness is unhelpful to this discussion, I really don’t know what else I can say to you.
As everyone keeps telling you, no. You do not need to feel ashamed about your race. Nobody hates you. Step one might be to not react with such bizarre hysteria whenever someone points out that your race gives you an advantage over people who suffer through systematic racism, and try to figure out what you can do to minimize the negative effects of this. It’s pretty damn hard to stop racism if you can’t tell that it’s happening. Also, maybe look up “white fragility”, because you seem to have a pretty damn bad case of it.
This is stupid.
The point is the reality of white privilege is not an attack on white people. It is recognizing that white people are favored over other races. Sorry if it was not clear that I didn’t mean literally no white person has ever been attacked in the history of time.
Privilege is a matter of circumstance. One reason poor whites have so much racial resentment these days is that their “privilege” is worth practically nothing in a job market that is trying to diversify, but not at the expense of well educated, affluent whites. It’s apparently up to poor whites to pay for the sins of the past and present, not their betters.
Polling has shown, over time and pretty damn consistently, that fewer and fewer white people have feelings of racial resentment. Those feelings are still pretty significant but lesser than in past decades. It seems highly unlikely to me that any remaining racial resentment is somehow different in character than the negative feelings towards non-white people of the past. Those old racists are still alive, and still teaching their children; that’s what drives negative feelings about race, not economic circumstances.
[Tropic Thunder]
What do you mean, “you people”?
[/TT]
But is it a white bear? Because polar bears are some nasty fuckers.
I do think people tend to get hung up on the language issue and the idea of “negative privilege”. If you’re being fed a shit sandwich it doesn’t feel like much of a privilege, but you’re still a lot better off than the people getting second or third helpings.
I can find the former probably, or close. Not the latter.
And I appreciate your involvement in this thread.
Polling is useless as a measure of anything controversial. (Any) smarter person just won’t tell the truth.
Do you know of a better way to measure public opinion on such controversial topics? You might be right, but it still could demonstrate trends – if polls say 20% express racist feelings now, and 40% expressed racist feelings in an older poll, then that might be an indication that racist feelings have decreased over time, even if the absolute numbers aren’t very accurate.
Ill go along with that.
Are you familiar with a little country called South Africa?
Vote for progressive candidates. Campaign and volunteer for the same. Put in sweat equity to make up for your unearned privileges - volunteer with NGOs that work at redressing the imbalances in society. Don’t let silent racism pass unremarked in society. You know, actually do something.
I agree with you on polling, but I stand by my statement that in the 21st century, white privilege does not apply to poor whites and in fact in some ways they are disadvantaged compared to poor minorities in many ways, especially the job market. Especially men. Colleges aren’t looking to recruit coal miner’s sons anymore either.
White privilege applies at about $30K and up, to be sure, and it’s true privilege, because everything bad we ever did, we don’t have to pay for. Our poorer cousins pay the price for our guilt.
Any cites on how poor whites are at a disadvantage to minorities of the same economic class?
Without evidence, I don’t buy this.
White high school drop-outs just as likely to get jobs as black college students
White high school drop-out are wealthier than black and Hispanic college graduates
Employers prefer white felons over blacks with no criminal record
The evidence is clear that black people are keeping the poor whites down. When will the oppression end?
One of my favorite essays is White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy Mcintosh (a white woman). If nothing else, go down to the numbered list. When I first read it, I was stunned by how many things I take for granted as a white person.
Small sample:
And that is one of the central problems of the Alt-Right/pseudo-Libertarian crowd. They HATE anything that would help minorities overcome any of those things, because they insist that we are all equal right now and if we just stopped talking about race or doing anything different about it, everything would resolve itself.
But our own history shows that doesn’t work.