I’d like to take the Oprah side of that argument, and I’d love to hear what the argument in favor of being white and homeless is!
Would you be black if it meant you could be prosperous?
Probably, but there are a lot of white Americans who would rather be homeless. That’s the argument.
It’s weird that you think this.
That there are people with such ingrained racist mindsets that they’d rather die or live an indigent life than be what they hate? I’m sure that’s the case. I’m reasonably sure that the number of such people would not be insignificant. Even if, say, they were given a year to choose. “On January 1, 2016, you will either be yourself and permanently indigent, or comfortably wealthy but be second-generation African ancestry. Choose… wisely.” They won’t; they will choose prejudicedly. Probably because Jeebus will reward their earthly sacrifice.
Do you guys have any cites for this thinking? Any evidence that this is the case?
Or do you just really feel strongly on the matter?
I don’t think such an absurd hypothetical is possible to get data on, but you guys seem to have awfully strong opinions it so I figured I’d ask.
What you and many others have done is to inoculate yourself against some very important truths by focusing on a silly argument about a particular word.
Exactly. It was a word chosen in an academic context. If it was intended for widespread use they probably would have chosen a more intuitive phrase like “experience bias”. Aggressive use of “check your privilege”, to the extent that it happens, is a frustrated response to people who refuse to recognise that their own experience blinds them to the realities of life for other people. Probably the very word “privilege” contributes to this refusal.
I think the misunderstanding is evident when people ask for a “baseline” or suggest that “poor white straight people aren’t privileged”. It isn’t about some level of advantage that you’ve been given, it’s about particular experiences you’ve never had, to the point where you’re unaware that such experiences exist.
Aw, bless your heart.
Honestly, it sounds like “racism” is something you read about in your high school history book.
Let me recast it. You don’t think there are people who would die - fer reals, or socially, or economically - rather than vote for Obama? Or any Democratic candidate? That kind of political partisan piffle isn’t a patch on real, ingrained, generational racism.
You do understand that there are people who so thoroughly hate and despise another race or culture that they would rather be dead than that?
Are you, in all seriousness, asking me if I, personally, had a choice between being reincarnated as a white homeless guy, or Oprah Winfrey, which I would choose? As in, do you think there is actually a chance that I would pick the former?
I mean, if only for the opportunity to go back in time and not make Drs. Phil or Oz famous, I would pick Oprah.
People get to choose who they’d like to listen to. That’s their privilege. <---- See what I did there?
When I was a kid I used to hear folks complain about people acting dumb in assorted ways or how they didn’t make optimal choices. And I would think, that’s okay with me. The world needs ditch diggers too, and those are the people that I will exploit and profit from. Now this was the thinking of a child, but in reality it’s not that far off.
The so called ‘underprivileged’ want other people to ‘shut up and listen’ and there are very important truths to be told! What people who use this tactic have done is to ensure their message is ineffective. That part is self inflicted.
ISIS?
Seriously, I get that racism exists. I get that some tiny fringe hate black people even more than they like themselves, or whatever it is you guys are saying.
But in the US, today, this is a tiny minority. BrainGlutton got this started by saying “a lot”. He even put it in bold. I disagree.
What do you think the number is? I’d say it’s less than 1%, even though it’s silly to debate such a thing since no one in any poll would ever take the question seriously.
I’m sure a lot of white men would love to trade places with a highly successful black athlete (someone as successful as Kobe Bryant, Emmitt Smith, etc.)
Since I haven’t heard the privileged card used, I don’t know if people claim that middle of the road schools are privileged or not.
Now, the solution to this would be to bring the bottom schools up to the “privileged” status or close to it. However the pushback we get, sometimes from people posting here, is that 1) it is too expensive 2) if I can do it everyone can (ignoring that they are sitting in the privileged category) and 3) we have examples of someone in the bottom ranks acing their SATs, so everyone should.
I haven’t heard anyone misuse the term, but I’m sure people do. People misuse every term.
The term is atrocious. “Experience bias” is a lot better, in that it’s neutral and doesn’t imply anything in the way that “privilege” does.
Saying that a poor white straight man has an experience bias that shapes his worldview, and that he may not be aware of things that others experience who aren’t that combination of poor, white, straight or male, isn’t unreasonable.
But using the word “privilege” to describe that is. It implies that this guy has some sort of advantage, relative to others, which may not be the case.
It’s all relative. To imply that say… my son has any sort of “privilege” over say… Blue Ivy Carter or North West is absurd, even though he’s white and they’re black. He may grow up with a totally different mindset as a result of being white, but that’s not necessarily privilege.
That’s true.
And something I have never understood - if my background as a straight white male means I won’t understand the experience of a black lesbian, doesn’t that imply the black lesbian can’t understand what it must be like to be a straight white male? If she can empathize, so can I.
Regards,
Shodan
The problem, Shodan, is that her experience is good. Yours is bad.
Thus, she has no need to understand yours. But you do need to understand hers, and empathize with it.
Because slavery.
Well… no. There are really 2 solutions- either bring ALL the other schools up to the “privileged” level, which IS usually unreasonable due to resource constraints, or more realistically, bring as many of the the atrocious schools up to the baseline as possible, and then acknowledge that some people having more resources or advantages is not fundamentally a problem, and also acknowledge that not getting every child or every kid up to the baseline is not automatically a failure, unless there’s no progress whatsoever.
Yes, some people are just jerks and it is not worth discussing things with them. They will make everything into a fight, and the only thing to do in such cases is win the fight.
Experience bias is a true but useless concept. Every single one of us has experience bias. Privilege implies experience or position that others would like to have. Whether a person has an advantage depends a bit on how other people see his position.
I don’t know about your son but my kids were definitely privileged compared to lots of people- and not privileged compared to others. One of the good things about diversity is that you get to see people at different levels.
Maybe a better way of saying “check your privilege” would be “count your blessings.” If you remove the religious connotation, it behooves all of us to appreciate what they are.