# Video: Whites are privileged, and that's unfair **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 22, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928 "2012-06-22T11:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/61 "2012-06-22T21:32:28Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Well, gosh, maybe you should go back to India, where you will certainly not be subjected to such horrible unfairness. We horrible white people should not have forced you to immigrate here, considering what a wonderful life you had back there. It really was mean of us. And here’s the obligatory white person telling a member of a racial minority to get out of the country. This massive sense of entitlement is one of the results of white privilege. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/62 "2012-06-22T21:39:49Z")
I was turned down for a government job about a decade ago, I was qualified but the problem not only the fact that I had a penis. But it was white. Yeah I’m privileged alright.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/63 "2012-06-22T21:56:01Z")
“I’m such a bummer… I shouldn’t be, I’m a lucky guy. I’m healthy, I’m relatively young… I’m white, which thank God for that shit, boy. That is a HUGE leg up, are you kidding me? I love being white, I really do. Seriously, if you aren’t white you’re missing out, because this shit is _really_ good. Let me be clear, I’m not saying that white people are better, I’m saying that _being_ white is clearly better. Who could even argue? If it was an option, I’d re-up every year: “Oh yeah I’ll take white again absolutely, I’ll stick with white, thank you.” This is how great it is to be white: I could get into a time machine and go to any time and it’ll be fucking awesome when I get there! That is exclusively a white privilege. Black people can’t fuck with time machines! A black guy with a time machine is like “Hey, anything before 1980, no thank you, don’t wanna go!” But I can go to ANY time. The year TWO? I don’t even know what was happening then. But I know when I get there it’ll be “Thank you for coming we have a table for you right here, sir.” I can go to any time! In the past. I don’t want to go to the future and find out what happens to white people. Because we’re gonna pay hard for this shit. You can’t just fall from one to two. They’re gonna hold us down and fuck us in the ass and we totally deserve it. But until then, WEEEEEEEE!” Louis CK ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/64 "2012-06-22T22:05:47Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Most whites aren’t privileged; they are in fact treated poorly. It’s just that non-whites are treated _even worse_. Which is one reason why claims of “white privilege” are received poorly; someone who is being ground down and exploited isn’t going to buy it when someone tells them that they are “privileged”, even if they are objectively better off than the person making the accusation. > > And this entire idea reeks of divide-and-conquer; the poor and mistreated _in general_ deserve better treatment, but they aren’t likely to get if if they spend their energy beating on each other. This argument over who’s the worst treated and the idea that only the worst treated deserve sympathy and aid only benefits the rich and powerful who are doing the mistreating. The same logic that leads to the claim that poor whites aren’t supposed to complain because they are “privileged” leads to groups like blacks and Jews and gays and women getting into collective screaming matches over who has been treated worse, and accomplishes nothing except dividing them against each other. Thank you. It’s nice to see that someone gets it. Honestly a bit surprised it’s you, as usually you’re the one who doesn’t understand that how you frame the issue often makes people defensive. I voted that this was a message I disagreed because of exactly what you said: whites are not privileged. And **rachellelogram** ’s post is horrible as she completely missed the point of the person she was responding to. Stop commending her for creating a strawman. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/65 "2012-06-22T22:05:52Z")
I’m white and I think it’s really pretty damned obvious that whites are privileged. I think [this](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/) is a great analogy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/66 "2012-06-22T22:16:04Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Lonesome, > > You understand that she’s not accusing you, right? The fact that there’s unfairness to non-whites doesn’t require that all white people are horrible and unfair. Although responding with “go home then” really doesn’t help you. No, she is. That’s the whole point. There’s no reason to tell white people that they are privileged unless you are telling them that they need to stop being so. That’s the entire problem with this crap. I’m all for supporting minorities. I’m all for affirmative action. But I do that to help other people, not to decrease my privilege. My goal is to make everyone equal, not disparage one group to make another group better. Heck, the idea that affirmative action is giving up privilege is probably the reason there are so many white people that object to it. The focus should be on helping you, not hurting me. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/67 "2012-06-22T22:35:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No, she is. That’s the whole point. There’s no reason to tell white people that they are privileged unless you are telling them that they need to stop being so. That’s the entire problem with this crap. > . This. The problem with telling white people they are priveledged is IMO it sounds like several things. First it makes it sound like they have it easy. I don’t know many white people that I would go that far in describing their lives. Second, it makes it sound like it’s THEIR fault for not having it as hard as black people/whoever. Thirdly, it also sounds like its their fault black people/whoever have it harder than them. Fourthly it makes it sound like all the good stuff they have is just given to them (again, I aint seeing it). And this whole approach just seems to me like a way to piss off any white people who don’t already suffer from the white guilt complex. Tell me as a minority about all the ways you are treated wrongly and I’ll probably be sympatheic and say this or that IS wrong…blah blah blah. Stand there and tell me I’ve got it easy just because I am white and my first inclination is to say “bite me”. ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/68 "2012-06-22T22:50:10Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > The problem with telling white people they are priveledged is IMO it sounds like several things. First it makes it sound like they have it easy. I don’t know many white people that I would go that far in describing their lives. What it actually means is that white people have it easi_er_. If you want to assign your own strawman meaning to the phrase that’s your business but it’s not a valid point. > [@](#): > > Second, it makes it sound like it’s THEIR fault for not having it as hard as black people/whoever. Thirdly, it also sounds like its their fault black people/whoever have it harder than them. No, it doesn’t imply either of those things. It says that white people, not by virtue of anything they’ve done, have systematic advantages including ones they aren’t aware of unless someone who doesn’t have those advantages explains it to them. > [@](#): > > Fourthly it makes it sound like all the good stuff they have is just given to them (again, I aint seeing it). No. It just means that whatever their accomplishments, they would have been more difficult, or their success less assured, had they not had the advantage of being white. You can impute whatever idiosyncratic meanings you like on the word, but making up meanings for words and then getting defensive and angry about the meanings you made up is absurd. > [@](#): > > And this whole approach just seems to me like a way to piss off any white people who don’t already suffer from the white guilt complex. Sure. A lot of members of any majority group will get angry and defensive and try to shout down anyone who points out the ways in which they have things easier. And they’ll make up all sorts of imaginary strawman arguments and often react with outrage. Look at Lonesome Polecat’s posts for an example. That doesn’t mean that no one should say those things, though. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/69 "2012-06-22T22:55:55Z")
> [@mister\_nyx](#): > > Sure. A lot of members of any majority group will get angry and defensive and try to shout down anyone who points out the ways in which they have things easier. And they’ll make up all sorts of imaginary strawman arguments and often react with outrage. Look at Lonesome Polecat’s posts for an example. That doesn’t mean that no one should say those things, though. If its counterproductive to your cause its bad mkay? Of course I am white so I really don’t care about your cause so have at it. ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/70 "2012-06-22T23:17:41Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > If its counterproductive to your cause its bad mkay? Do you actually have ideas for how to address the issue in a way that is productive? Or do you just want to complain and say things like “bite me” to people who correctly point out the existence of systematic racism and its effects on people? [QUOTE=billfish678] Of course I am white so I really don’t care about your cause so have at it. [/QUOTE] Ahh. This clears that up. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/71 "2012-06-22T23:22:36Z")
All right, I’m going to move this over to Great Debates now. I think it suitably reached that level a bit ago. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/72 "2012-06-22T23:24:16Z")
> [@mister\_nyx](#): > > Do you actually have ideas for how to address the issue in a way that is productive? Or do you just want to complain and say things like “bite me” to people who correctly point out the existence of systematic racism and its effects on people?. I pointed out a productive way VS a IMWO a less productive way. But you missed it apparently. Hint, it read something like this: “Tell me as a minority about all the ways you are treated wrongly and I’ll probably be sympatheic and say this or that IS wrong…blah blah blah.” “White people have it good” = bad way. “Black people/minorities have it bad” = good way. The first just trys to make whitey feel guilty. The second way appeals to whitey’s sense of justice. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/73 "2012-06-22T23:35:59Z")
It remains true, even today, that people of the same class but different “races” are **not** equally privileged; this holds true even at the upper-class level, to some extent – and, to the extent that nonwhite upper-class Americans exist. It also remains true that the further you go up the class ladder, the fewer nonwhites there are. From [_The Next American Nation,_](http://www.amazon.com/NEXT-AMERICAN-NATION-Nationalism-Revolution/dp/0684825031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337284794&sr=8-1) by Michael Lind: > [@](#): > > The chief danger confronting the twenty-first century United States is not Balkanization but what might be called Brazilianization. By Brazilianization I mean not the separation of cultures by race, but the separation of races by class. As in Brazil, a common American culture could be indefinitely compatible with a blurry, informal caste system in which most of those at the top of the social hierarchy are white, and most brown and black Americans are on the bottom – _forever._ Behind all the boosterish talk about the wonders of the new American rainbow is the reality of enduring racial division by class, something that multicultural education initiatives and racial preference policies do not begin to address. > > In the absence of sustained popular pressure from below or concern about America’s international status, the white overclass has no incentive to combat Brazilianization in the United States. For one thing, any serious effort to reduce racial separation by class would inevitably mean higher taxes on the affluent – not just the rich, but the politically powerful upper-middle class. What is more, the dominance of the white oligarchy in American politics is strengthened by the emergent dynamics of a polarized society. In a more homogeneous society, the increasing concentration of wealth and power at the top might produce a populist reaction by the majority. But in a society like that of present-day America where a small, homogeneous oligarchy confronts a diverse population that shares a common national culture but remains divided along racial lines, the position of the outnumbered elite can be very secure. This is because the resentments caused by economic decline are likely to be expressed as hostility between the groups at the bottom, rather than as a rebellion against the top. In the Los Angeles riot, black, Hispanic, and white rioters turned on Korean middlemen, rather than march on Beverly Hills. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/74 "2012-06-23T00:01:19Z")
I think a good way to sum up white privilege is: no matter how good or how shitty your life is right now, if your skin were a different color, your life would be _worse_. Let’s use a car analogy: You’re a spectator at a racetrack and notice the lead car is \*way \*ahead of the other cars. The driver is happy, and secure in the knowledge that he’s much more skillful than than the other drivers. He earned his way to first place! But actually, unbeknownst to him, the frame of his car was secretly designed with a rare, strong, super-lightweight metal alloy. The car was designed a couple hundred years ago, and nobody who’s responsible for its lightweight, superior design is still alive today. The alloy lets him accelerate faster than any other car on the track, and it’s the biggest reason why he’s in the lead. He’s a fine driver, sure, but this alloy gave him opportunities that the other cars never had. If he’d crashed into the wall then he’d be out of the race, of course. Nothing about the alloy prevents him from crashing. But the other cars are heavier, and they corner more slowly. It’s much harder for those drivers to do as well as our lead driver. Unless the lead driver makes a huge mistake, he’s not going to lose the race; in fact, that gap will never be closed, it’s only going to get wider. As it turns out, the racetrack owners only recently found out about this alloy. The driver himself doesn’t even know about it, because he’s only ever driven one car his whole life. That’s how it’s always been. But soon, the owners pull him aside and tell him, “Listen. You’re a fine driver, and we appreciate all the work you’ve done to get so many sponsors and first-place trophies. But it turns out you’ve been racing with an unfair weight advantage for a couple hundred years now. We hope you can agree that it’s not a fair race unless all the cars weigh the same amount. Unfortunately, we can’t give everyone the exact same frame as you, since the people who designed it died centuries ago and they didn’t leave the blueprints. But we don’t want to take away your frame, either. You’re used to driving your car like it is, and it wouldn’t be fair to take that away from you. So instead, we’re going to change some parts around on all the other cars. In the end, all the cars will weigh exactly the same. We’re going to check and make sure that this is a fair race for everybody from now on.” At this point, they’ve decided that it doesn’t matter how his car got an unfair advantage. They’re not going to take away any of his old trophies or his existing sponsorships. They just want to make it right, because the only thing that matters is moving forward and being fair from now on. So the other drivers get lighter tires, or a more-efficient engine, or a more-streamlined design (whatever mod is most appropriate, given their car’s current design). But \*\*his car never changes. \*\*If he’s still the lead man after the next few dozen races, then his skill was truly superb all along. But more likely, he will slip in the standings (perhaps a little, perhaps a lot depending on his skill). Because it was never pure skill that got him the lead, it was the alloy. He will start to lose some sponsorship money. Maybe he only gets a trophy once a year now. It’s harder to get laid by hot chicks at tailgate parties; now he has to take a few 9s instead of all 10s (or have sex less often, which is unthinkable! :p). His response at this point defines him as a person: [ul] [li]If he’s a good person, he will humbly acknowledge that \*of course \*the other drivers deserve a fair shot to win. He realizes there is no point in getting angry at the other cars, it’s not their fault his car was lighter. He doesn’t blame himself, because he didn’t know his car was lighter–it was only recently brought to his attention, after all. And there’s no point in getting pissed at the racetrack owners, they just want a fair race for everybody at the track they work so hard to keep profitable. If anybody is to blame, it’s the designers of the car. But they’re all dead, and we can’t ask them why they designed things the way they did back then. Now that he has to actually try to succeed in life, he dedicates himself to doing better. He gets used to living on less money and sleeping with fewer super-hot babes. He doesn’t complain that he’s not always #1 anymore.[/li][li]If he’s a whiny, self-entitled person, he will deny that he ever had an advantage in the first place. He might go on TV and proclaim that the racetrack owners are out to get him. That alloy doesn’t exist, they made it up as an excuse to give the other cars unfair advantages. Their lighter-weight parts and more efficient engines are why they’re beating him now, not their skill.[/li][/ul]Nobody is taking anything away from our driver. He had an unfair advantage for centuries that was camouflaged so well, nobody ever even noticed it was there. And for all that time, the drivers of slower cars have had to exert herculean efforts just to end up in the top 10. A lot of the more downtrodden cars that end up in the middle of the pack had to try harder to \*just barely \*get by than the lead man \*ever \*had to try to attain his obscene levels of success. Now that the playing field is level, some of the slower cars are likely going to pass our driver. But no matter how uncomfortable that makes our driver, we owed it to the slower drivers to remove the barriers that were holding them back. And sure, some of the slower cars will still fail, even after we’ve given them faster parts. Some of those drivers will attempt to cheat the system by making their cars even lighter than our driver’s car. That’s part of the automotive condition. 😉 Regardless, the failure or poor qualities of some slower drivers can’t be used as an excuse to deny a faster parts to \*all \*of the slower cars. They didn’t ask to be born heavy and slow any more than our driver asked to be born light and speedy. It just happened that way, and we can’t change it. But now that we can see the lead driver was lighter and speedier than he should have been all along, we have a moral obligation to bring the others up to speed. Within a few hundred more years, all the cars will be placing based entirely on their efforts. And that’s the way it should be. TL;DR version: [http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk34/feministing/concise.jpg](http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk34/feministing/concise.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/75 "2012-06-23T00:08:37Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I think **Acsenray** has summed it up: the point seems to be that white people do have a tendency to see each other first as individuals and non-whites first as members of a group. In social psychology it’s called Outgroup Homogeneity Bias. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/76 "2012-06-23T00:32:54Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > The problem with telling white people they are priveledged is IMO it sounds like several things. First it makes it sound like they have it easy. I don’t know many white people that I would go that far in describing their lives. Second, it makes it sound like it’s THEIR fault for not having it as hard as black people/whoever. Thirdly, it also sounds like its their fault black people/whoever have it harder than them. Fourthly it makes it sound like all the good stuff they have is just given to them (again, I aint seeing it). > > And this whole approach just seems to me like a way to piss off any white people who don’t already suffer from the white guilt complex. [I can understand](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15194930&postcount=18) why you might feel this way, but most of that seems like stuff that you and others are reading into these kinds of messages rather than something that’s being communicated by the speaker. To make explicit all sorts of caveats: white people don’t have it easy just because they’re white, AND almost all of us work very hard for what we have just like everyone else, AND no individual white person (even if he’s an Archie Bunker-type bigot) is personally culpable for any hardships faced by minorities in this country, AND America’s racism problem is by no means uniquely bad within the world community, AND the U.S.A. is a wonderful place to live with countless great features (both tangible and intangible). _That said_, all things being equal, it’s harder to be non-white in America than it is to be white, and that’s a problem that bears addressing. Making people aware that there’s still a lot of casual, informal racism — and nudging them to maybe not put up with said when they run across it in the future, or to be vigilant in avoiding it in themselves – is one way to address it. No one is attacking you, I swear. (Or, it’s rare, anyway: there are plenty of asshats in every walk of life.) Furthermore, I gather that almost everyone here who’s ticked off by this PSA is strongly opposed to affirmative action. Obviously, you’d prefer to see the problem of racism dealt with from within civil society rather than through government. Well, this is what that looks like. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Most whites aren’t privileged; they are in fact treated poorly. It’s just that non-whites are treated _even worse_. Which is one reason why claims of “white privilege” are received poorly; someone who is being ground down and exploited isn’t going to buy it when someone tells them that they are “privileged”, even if they are objectively better off than the person making the accusation. > > And this entire idea reeks of divide-and-conquer; the poor and mistreated _in general_ deserve better treatment, but they aren’t likely to get if if they spend their energy beating on each other. This argument over who’s the worst treated and the idea that only the worst treated deserve sympathy and aid only benefits the rich and powerful who are doing the mistreating. The same logic that leads to the claim that poor whites aren’t supposed to complain because they are “privileged” leads to groups like blacks and Jews and gays and women getting into collective screaming matches over who has been treated worse, and accomplishes nothing except dividing them against each other. Heh. I know this looks like **Der Trihs** is saying that people shouldn’t get bogged down in race distinctions, but what he’s \*actually \*saying is: “I have zero interest in abstract problems with amorphous or nonexistent villains, so I’m going to recast this issue as follows: _Rich people are evil. Eat them._” (Obviously I’m drawing on previous experience here. I agree that it’s typically poor form to drag things from past encounters into unrelated threads, so on that front I apologize up front.) Anyway, more constructively: linking racial animosity to affluence in this way seems tenuous. Income inequality is a problem, and racism is a problem, but _fixing one does not fix the other_. There’s some overlap, of course, and plausibly even some vicious-cycle behavior: racism helps to keep minorities poor, which keeps them socially and geographically separated from whites, which increases alienation and racism, etc. – but arguing that one problem is predominantly caused by the other, or is merely a mask for the other, is way too simplistically pat, and Marxist, and _unsupported by evidence_. Unless you literally believe in a “divide & conquer” scheme perpetrated by the rich, economic inequality is a red herring in this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/77 "2012-06-23T00:47:19Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > [I can understand](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15194930&postcount=18) why you might feel this way, but most of that seems like stuff that you and others are reading into these kinds of messages rather than something that’s being communicated by the speaker. > > . And I’m telling you (the general you, not so much the you you if you know what I mean) if THATS the way a good fraction of white people read that message its a bad message and it needs to be delivered in a different way. Now maybe it’s only me that “white people are priveledged” rubs the wrong way. But I doubt it. I am sure I could come up with all sorts of technically and logically sound advice for minorities. Certain ways would be listened to intently. Other ways, but still the same advice would result in city wide riots if the local mayor said em. BTW the rest of your post was good. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/78 "2012-06-23T00:55:34Z")
What occurs to me – and DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME, I’M NOT SAYING DRAWING AN EQUIVALENCE TO RACE – is this is kind of like saying “Attractive people are ‘privileged,’ and that’s unfair,” or “people who can speak or write well are ‘privileged,’ and that’s unfair.” I don’t think anyone would dispute the first part of each statement, but to uphold the second parts might be highly questionable, except in some academic sense. If you’re doing lousy in your life right now, think about how much worse it’d be for you if you were ugly. Uh . . . yeah? Again, that’s not drawing an equivalence between being of another race and being ugly. But it is saying that human nature works in certain ways, where people – in any country – are at least slightly more accepting of others who are attractive, who are articulate, and are part of their “in-group.” If you’re in a majority white country, yeah, you have a slight advantage on the last count if you happen to be white. But you’ve also got a slight advantage if you happen to be born good looking or smart. Are you going to go around beating yourself up for being either of those two as well? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/79 "2012-06-23T01:14:14Z")
White and agree, but I don’t generally feel it’s up to me to push for equality. I’d vote for what I wouldn’t picket to achieve. I disagree with the US current foreign policy concerning the Middle East but don’t feel the need to apologize to every Arabic person I meet. ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928/80 "2012-06-23T01:22:06Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > Heh. I know this looks like **Der Trihs** is saying that people shouldn’t get bogged down in race distinctions, but what he’s \*actually \*saying is: “I have zero interest in abstract problems with amorphous or nonexistent villains, so I’m going to recast this issue as follows: _Rich people are evil. Eat them._” That’s a bit of an overgenerous interpretation of what he’s doing, since he’s clearly trying to distract from and derail a discussion of racial disparities. It’s unfortunately common for people to try to stop discussions of racial issues that way. [QUOTE=billfish678] And I’m telling you (the general you, not so much the you you if you know what I mean) if THATS the way a good fraction of white people read that message its a bad message and it needs to be delivered in a different way. Now maybe it’s only me that “white people are priveledged” rubs the wrong way. But I doubt it. I am sure I could come up with all sorts of technically and logically sound advice for minorities. Certain ways would be listened to intently. Other ways, but still the same advice would result in city wide riots if the local mayor said em. BTW the rest of your post was good. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure I believe that there’s any way of framing this message that wouldn’t similarly result in lots and lots of white people growing defensive and outraged and self-righteously complaining about how badly they are being treated. [QUOTE=Sitnam] I disagree with the US current foreign policy concerning the Middle East but don’t feel the need to apologize to every Arabic person I meet. [/QUOTE] Who, specifically, asked you to apologize to every single person you meet of any particular group? What was the context? Because I have to say I find it somewhat hard to believe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-whites-are-privileged-and-thats-unfair/625928.md?page=5)