I know the good doctor answered this question, but in my case I have a guy at work who is affable and generally pleasant, but the few times he has been in the middle of a conversation which turned to racism/white privilege, he walks away rather quickly.
A few years ago I decided to stop going out so much and started cooking at home more. I noticed a difference in my bank account after a few weeks. Someone I know has complained often about having to budget. Then a week later I see them getting tattoos and going out to eat all the time. Much as I dislike the conservative opinion about bootstraps, there is something to be said for personal responsibility.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-il...j8hbS1emBAC2UxnWBHFnM6b3foXMATySXONK8KQm_xHck Ali is doing a whole lot of projection in that- assuming that Omar was raised and indoctrinated with the same beliefs she was. That seems kind of Islamophobic- but people who come from one extreme often lurch to another one.
Yeah, some people really don't know. Have a friend who grew up very privileged in Latin America, until the laws changed and family lost their business. She had been going to school with the elite (like the ambassadors kids and such), and had only 1 year to go when her dad lost his business and could not afford school. So she busted her ass for the summer to try and make enough money to pay for school, and lived with a family friend for the year until she graduated. She is currently a professor at a major university researching childhood cancer and just got a 7 figure grant. And she shops at target, and cooks at home. And sends money home to her mom every month. She is both privileged and pulled herself up.
It exists, but people should always be weary of meta narratives because they don't reflect individual reality. No offense but Sasha and Malia Obama aren't struggling from a lack of privilege. Neither are Will Smith's kids. Screaming at poor white people to embrace their privilege is basically how you create Trump voters. Democrats should be working towards building solidarity, not finding new ways to exclude people. It's a give and take ... "I won't scream at you about your privilege, but in return please appreciate the unique struggles in my minority community too."
Saw a graphic flashed on cable the other day. All the states with the highest % who think they can bootsrap themselves but in reality do not, are all red Trumpasslicker states like AL & MS. Explains their love of him. "He made it and I can too!"
I agree. The word privilege seems to imply that white people were handed something for nothing, sort of like the old nobility in royalist Europe, and most poor whites in the US were not. It is more accurate to say that they should be aware that in addition to all the struggles that they face, people of color also face many additional ones that are the result of racism and discrimination.
They're not aware whatsoever. Why we have Trump. They've "lost their country" to Argies, The Blacks, Mexicans, etc. Basically anyone darker than Trump Orange Tint #11
They lost their country to the Argies? Whatever, all I know is, it’s tango night tonight after the pick-up futbol game, whether they like it or not. https://www.tangomango.org/
Why wouldn't they be, on some level? Their father did, the second he took the oath of office. Remind me of the last time a party decided to ignore Supreme nomination protocol. The last time one's face was photoshopped onto a box of fried chicken or food stamps. The last time a sitting POTUS was (unfairly) straight up called a liar by some peckerwood Congressman. Amy Carter and the Bush daughters could and can walk around with minimal concern. Neither Sasha nor Malia will ever be able to do that, not for real. Nobody screams at any White people. That shit will get you killed and your scrotum put in a Mason jar of formaldehyde on some White person's fireplace mantle. Why would any POC want Whites to embrace their privilege? That's what the plunger******** they're doing now, dude. The bolded: Too? All they have to do is stay off the meth and get decent grades. Finish HS, rush KA, make connections and prosper. You're seemingly serious about this screaming thing. Where did you see/hear it?
They were handed the right to walk outdoors, drive at night, visit restaurants without being harassed, park in their driveways and garages without being harassed, BBQ on a park grill without being harassed, sell lemonade without being harassed, yada. You probably think of those things as rights, which is maybe where we're disagreeing. Since I don't have those rights in practice, I tend to think of them as privileges.
Well, yes, you are right. I don’t see those things you mention as privileges, but as something every human being should expect. Maybe it’s semantics, but to me privilege sounds like somebody is getting something they don’t deserve. A rich, well connected man - most likely white - who for example gets into Harvard, or gets a job in a prestigious company, or an ambassadorship, whatever, even though he doesn’t qualify, that to me is privilege. When it comes to the items you mentioned, it’s about white people for the most part experiencing things that everybody deserves and should experience. So, I see it as fighting to ensure everybody in our society has these basic rights, rather than fighting to remove some people’s ‘privileges’.
There's really never been any reason for POCs darker than a paper bag to expect that sort of treatment. I'm pleasantly surprised when it happens. No, it's that you don't have the faintest idea what you're posting about.
Dude, seriously, you can't be that dense. Anyway, I will kindly invite you to read this article that perfectly covers it. https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really "And white privilege is not the assumption that everything a white person has accomplished is unearned; most white people who have reached a high level of success worked extremely hard to get there. Instead, white privilege should be viewed as a built-in advantage, separate from one’s level of income or effort."
The underlying issues associated with "white privilege" are accurate and need to be discussed, but the term itself is unhelpful. It does not succeed at convincing those who are not already convinced. They hear the term and shut down.
Any suggestion how it should be called? Is it really the term that would cause some to shut down or their unwillingness/inability to confront those facts related to white privilege? I would suspect it is the latter.
To be sure, it's a hard sell. The first time I heard somebody talk about how all white people are privileged, I was like, "******** you, who the hell are you to speak about me? How about if I get in front of a black audience and tell them how all black people are alike? You're a total prick." Now, I understand the argument, so I'm no longer annoyed at the speaker. But I didn't there because of her. I got there from hearing about the issues in other ways, from learning as I became older, from (I hope) becoming more thoughtful than my younger self.