aTm wrote:Privilege definitely exists. The phrase that "its not what you know, but who you know," can be dead-on perfectly accurate at times. The fact that this is a huge disadvantage to minority and immigrant populations cannot be denied.
But what it has become in the last 15 years or so with the rise of hard core identity politics is insanity. Assuming someone is privileged just because they are white, or are not privileged just because they are a minority is basically the exact type of racist bullshit that we were taught was horseshit from when we were babies.
well to some extent, the idea has really changed from Kings statement - it IS about judging someone by the color of their skin and not the content of their character -
its really about equal outcomes, not equal opportunity - and if there is an outcome inequality then its not about an individual, its about a race.
I recognize there are issues beyond economics, but economics is the #1 issue here. If you're a minority and you are affluent enough to move into a neighborhood where your kids are in good schools, there is no crime and you have access to shopping, community amenities and entertainment, then I have to believe that racial inequality isn't you're primary driver during the day.
And what bothers me is this idea that all white kids go to a high dollar major university, graduate (relatively debt free) and then start off with their $200K home in the suburb and the Toyota Camry in the driveway.
They ignore the hundreds of thousands of kids that are going to community college because of their lack of privilege who go on graduate, land a mundane job and work 10 or 15 years before they attain the level of middle class. Their kids won't be going to private schools, they won't be socking away $2 million into a 401K and they won't be getting memberships to a country club, but they've laid the groundwork for them to get out of the cycle of poverty and maybe their grandkids , assuming their own children inherit a similar work ethic they did, will see some of the benefits of generational ladder climbing.
This path is open to anyone and everyone in America - whether they are in the midst of living in the worst inner city neighborhood or on the side of a mountain in Appalachia - and the privilege is - there is a path you can take to dig your way out. Lets call that the American privilege. Its why thousands of people walk for days to cross our border.
And being white you aren't allowed to say it but both minorities and white America have a large % of people that just don't take advantage of that opportunity. The difference is I don't give a fuck about the white people that don't, but I'm supposed to feel guilty about the minorities.
I don't know if electing Donald Trump made white people more embolden to talk about this sort of thing or his election just outraged minorities who associate white privilege with those who elected a president who was white (and had the misfortune to follow an African American president), but the country has many, many more white people that are in their first generation of being middle class , whose parents sacrificed and pushed them to obtain that position with their own hard work than multiple generations of white wealthy country club types, and those first generation middle class white people have zero sympathy for anyone telling them they benefited from privilege.
That is why they'd vote for and support a guy like Trump, not because they have any connection or aspirations to the life he leads, but because they just aren't going to listen to any entitled bullshit from anyone which is what they'd get electing any democrat to office.
Obama had a great opportunity to move this country forward in race relations. Instead he spoke to and inflamed the baggage of racial inequality as he presided over his job as the most powerful man in the world, a job he earned because white people voted for him.
I like the stinky pinky but only up to the first knuckle, I do not want a GD thumb up there--I've told her multiple times and I always catch her when she tries to pull a fast one---it's my butthole for Chrissakes I'm gonna know--so cut out the BS.