the concept of white privilege (a word vomit that you can either read or ignore)

Author: MisterChris

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MisterChris
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I suppose there is always an inherent benefit to being within the majority. Even something as small as the psychological benefit of feeling "more at home" in your community is technically a privilege. In that sense there is no way white privileges does not exist in the US. The real question is whether it prevails to the point that it is worth addressing over the multitude of variables that are more controllable. Racial distribution can not be controlled as easily as the choice to wait until 21 to have children, or actually sticking around once they are born.

That is something I feel that critical race theorists neglect to consider... whether that inherent benefit of whiteness overrides other privilege of circumstance, or whether additional factors such as the choices of individuals can override racial privilege when it comes to predicting success. If that were the case a debate about how to solve white privilege would be moot and a net harm (think of all the racial tensions cultivated by critical race theory so far in the US). Even in the rare scenario we managed to quell white privilege in some fashion, if other factors outweighed it anyway, then we would have just been pissing in the wind. A better debate to have then would be "well, which controllable variables predict the most success and how do we encourage everyone to positively correlate with as many of those variables as possible?"

The evidence is in on that front... controllable factors easily matter more and we have specifically identified many of the important ones.

"Let politicians, schoolteachers and administrators, community leaders, ministers and parents drill into children the message that in a free society, they enter adulthood with three major responsibilities: at least finish high school, get a full-time job and wait until age 21 to get married and have children.

Our research shows that of American adults who followed these three simple rules, only about 2 percent are in poverty and nearly 75 percent have joined the middle class (defined as earning around $55,000 or more per year). There are surely influences other than these principles at play, but following them guides a young adult away from poverty and toward the middle class.

Consider an example. Today, more than 40 percent of American children, including more than 70 percent of black children and 50 percent of Hispanic children, are born outside marriage. This unprecedented rate of nonmarital births, combined with the nation’s high divorce rate, means that around half of children will spend part of their childhood—and for a considerable number of these all of their childhood — in a single-parent family. As hard as single parents try to give their children a healthy home environment, children in female-headed families are four or more times as likely as children from married-couple families to live in poverty. In turn, poverty is associated with a wide range of negative outcomes in children, including school dropout and out-of-wedlock births."
So, then, maybe we should reallocate our focus.

But that doesn't make for good politics, does it?  Now you must take some form of responsibility for where you are in life, and you can not simply label "group X" as the reason for all your problems. I suppose, though, that this phenomena is to be expected. The tribal mentality of humanity is not so easily overridden after a few million years of development. 


Conway
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Only a racist can develop new kinds of racial theory.  There is no [insert race] privilege where I come from, so such language would only serve to draw suspicion


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@MisterChris
The people who go around bashing people over the head with "white privlege" tend to be the same people who are may be closet racists themselves, taking their own whiteness as superiority.

Really, the contents of one's character make such a huge difference. The same people who spout all this racist rhetoric equate blackness with low life culture. And what does the media perpetuate but this view? 

I genuinely find it offensive.

Systemic racism is real, no doubt. It takes the form of making a black man or woman some kind of novelty, being "black". It takes the form of ignoring the talented black musicians in favor of rappers who spout a bunch of crap that incites people to revolution, behavior that is maladaptive, or makes black people look bad. It takes the form of pushing black people into a defeatist worldview, even one that equates blackness with being intentionally ignorant and violent.

Oh yeah, I find it offensive. So much in our culture is working to keep blacks down. It's a real thing. The people who claim to fight for blacks onlyperpetuate this, because to them, blacks are simply a people to be exploited for a political end. Those that go outside of this are told that they sren't really black, or that they are race traitors. A black person who speaks eloquently is said to "talk white".

Oh yeah, I find it offensive.

But let me talk real. Someone who is black who doesn't buy into this crap, who doesn't let these fake social justice warriors push them into a box, who lives a genuinely virtuous life, who is empowered by truth rather than kept down by those who would rather have them stay in some ghetto or plantation.. There is real opportunity for success in this life. For respect.


Don't buy into all this race politic garbage I say. We're one race. We all have different types of skin, different types of hair, and it is all beautiful in it's own way. 

Anyone who tries to make you feel inferior for being black is an asshole, and don't think because someone pretends they are fighting for you that means that they aren't trying to make you feel inferior. Don't be tricked into this black supremacy racist crap either. It's just as wicked. We got to stop looking at race. 

Martin Luther King Jr. had the dream, and that is what I hope for. That a man will not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.  Lets shoot for that. Content of character.

Black is beautiful. Don't try to be something you aren't. Black hair is beautiful. Black skin is beautiful. Rock it, but not with pride. God gives grace to the humble, not the proud. Live virtuously, and ignore the race baiters. They are assholes. In the end, they aren't really standing for the cause. We're all brothers and sisters. Anyone who says otherwise is a racist. We're one people. The only way we are going to get through this is to stop entertaining these clowns. Escape the trap, do right. In the end, good triumphs over evil.







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@Mopac
Your view is quite insightful. Thank you for sharing.

I must ask, when you are told that you must accept some form of "help," whether it be racial diversity quotas in the workplace/university, offers of reparations, or any other form of affirmative action, how do you interpret this?

Do you side with Frederick Douglass when he says:

I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, -- don't disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner-table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot-box, let him alone, -- don't disturb him! (Applause.) If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone, -- your interference is doing him a positive injury. 

Or do you see it as something necessary or even deserved?

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@MisterChris
It is against my religion to have entitlement.

In the case of employment, if a place discriminates based on race, I wouldn't want to work for them anyway! 

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@MisterChris
I suppose there is always an inherent benefit to being within the majority
True.

Even something as small as the psychological benefit of feeling "more at home" in your community is technically a privilege. In that sense there is no way white privileges does not exist in the US.
What nasty legerdemain you've engaged in here. You've taken something very natural, something that *all* races enjoy (feeling "more at home" in your community), and turned it into a white only issue, all the whilst glancing over it as if it's already a given. Notice how you haven't applied this logic to India, Pakistan, South Korea or Sudan -- no mention of those countries with non-white ethnic groups being the majority. 

None of the rest of your argument follows because this sinister premise is wrong (not to mention grossly anti-white).

Get your anti-white rhetoric out of here.
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@MgtowDemon
In that sense there is no way white privileges does not exist in the US. 
Was very obviously speaking about the US specifically.

I think you should probably read the rest of the post too before making any assumptions about its contents. 


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@MisterChris
Was very obviously speaking about the US specifically.
Yes, and that's entirely the problem LOL.

You are looking *only* at a majority white country, without looking at other countries which behave *exactly* the same way, and then concluding that "feeling at home" is a manifestation of 'white privilege'. My point is that this "feeling at home" is universal amongst all races.

Do you see how not only wrong but anti-white that is?

I think you should probably read the rest of the post too before making any assumptions about its contents. 
You've worked from a faulty premise (that white privilege manifests through "feeling at home"). Therefore, the conclusions you draw from that will be incorrect, even if the argument's structure is sound.



MisterChris
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Yes, and that's entirely the problem LOL.

You are looking *only* at a majority white country, without looking at other countries which behave *exactly* the same way, and then concluding that "feeling at home" is a manifestation of 'white privilege'. My point is that this "feeling at home" is universal amongst all races.

Do you see how not only wrong but anti-white that is?
Right... I'm not looking at other countries. I am looking at the US. Thanks for telling me what I already know.

And yes. Expanding the scope to other nations, we would hypothesize that the benefits of being within the majority as a white person would diminish when we look at minority white nations, because obviously you can not be within the majority in a nation in which you are the minority. That's true. And it doesn't effect my point one bit.

You've worked from a faulty premise (that white privilege manifests through "feeling at home"). Therefore, the conclusions you draw from that will be incorrect, even if the argument's structure is sound.

But there is a privilege in that. And if blacks or Hispanics were the majority race in the US they would experience it too. If we really want to go down the rabbit hole, we can talk about privileges that are experienced by minorities (affirmative action much?) and privileges that are not tied to race at all. There's many different categories, some cancelling out the benefit of others. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. If my white majority privilege is cancelled out by someone's minority privilege that doesn't mean I don't have have white majority privilege... it simply means it's not consequential. And that's precisely what I'm arguing. That despite certain white privileges existing it's not consequential in determining success. At least not compared to controllable factors like choices. 




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@MisterChris
Right... I'm not looking at other countries. I am looking at the US. Thanks for telling me what I already know.
Let's try again a different way.

If other races felt at home in other countries, say Africans in Chad, would this be okay? Is it only not okay when Whites feel at home in America?

And yes. Expanding the scope to other nations, we would hypothesize that the benefits of being within the majority as a white person would diminish when we look at minority white nations, because obviously you can not be within the majority in a nation in which you are the minority. That's true. And it doesn't effect my point one bit.
No, you still don't understand. "Being White" doesn't cause one to "feel at home" in a racial majority country. Being within the racial majority causes one to "feel at home" in a racial majority country. To put it in terms you'll understand, being of African decent (particular of Chad descent) in Chad gives you 'African privilege'.

I don't agree with using the term 'privilege' (as I'm about to get into), but the semantics should shine through for you if I use that term, for this example.

But there is a privilege in that. And if blacks or Hispanics were the majority race in the US they would experience it too. If we really want to go down the rabbit hole, we can talk about privileges that are experienced by minorities (affirmative action much?) and privileges that are not tied to race at all. There's many different categories, some cancelling out the benefit of others. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. If my white majority privilege is cancelled out by someone's minority privilege that doesn't mean I don't have have white majority privilege... it simply means it's not consequential. And that's precisely what I'm arguing. That despite certain white privileges existing it's not consequential in determining success. At least not compared to controllable factors like choices. 
"Privilege" isn't a neutral term. It's a loaded term designed to criticise people. When someone says "check your privilege" in response to an argument I'm making, that isn't a neutral comment. That application is designed to shut down conversation *because* the person is deemed privileged.

If you said "there are benefits to being White in a White majority country", then I could agree with you. "Benefits" isn't a politically loaded and charged term designed to shut people down for being a certain race.

Using the term "privilege" also leads to pathologising people for natural feelings (the "feeling at home" feeling), because you're shutting people down and making them feel bad for a natural feeling they have. That is incredibly sinister.

46 days later

Jasmine
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I think White privilege, but I also think there's Black privilege. But I think that the economic classes make the most difference.