Explaining "Privilege' to Straight White Male nerds....

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You need a mammoth sized list of all the possible privileges there are for this to be a coherent concept when we're speaking in terms of individuals. One deprivation can trump all others. Do some of you go visit mental health facilities to tell the white heterosexual males there how privileged they are?

I love when people make big impassioned arguments that make it clear that they missed the point of the article completely...........

He states his metaphor very clearly in my opinion nor does he deny other forms of privledge don't exist. Just because you're on the easiest setting doesn't mean you're going to do better than others on different settings.

A white person in the US will have plenty of opportunities, even if he was born into a poor family. A black person will face more challenges because there is still institutional racism in the US; even though most Americans are not racists, the few who are are still numerous enough to make a significant impact. There are also all sorts of divisors that reek of white guilt (eg. Black History Month) which do nothing but promote the idea that black people are different from white people.

A whopping 27.4% of the black population lives below the poverty line, compared to just 9.9% of the white population.



How often do you see hate crimes against people because they're straight? I don't think there's ever been a case of someone being laid off for not being gay, but there are plenty of examples of gay people getting the boot because of their sexual orientation (and in many southern states, this is a perfectly valid reason for laying someone off).

Last edited by Kurgan on 07 Nov 2013, 5:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If we go by his analogy, then a man also need more experience points to level up, because men are under far more pressure to get a career, lose virginity before his 16th birthday and be physically fit. That's the tradeoff for getting more skill points when you start the game.

Completely unrelated to the topic...but I feel that if I'd been born into the exact same circumstances but the only difference is that I had a Y chromosome, I do believe my life would've been smoother. I can't know for certain.

I don't get any of the advantages of being female but I guess in the circumstances I'm now in as an adult, and I have good methods of mitigating the disadvantages.

I don't doubt that my life would've been more difficult if I was black.

I wouldn't want to be straight or not have Asperger's because even though those things would make my life easier, I seriously can't imagine myself being straight or NT in the same way I can imagine being black or male. Weird, eh? Just shows which parts of my identity I'm more attached to, which I guess is a bad thing.

Woman are under far more pressure to be physically fit, and men aren't under pressure to lose their virginities before they are 16. But good try.

So what do you call a person who loses on the "easiest setting"?

I beg to differ (compare the cardio bunnies in the media to the beefcakes and see for yourself). Women are under no pressure to be fit as long as they stay lean.

Most socially inept men have Charisma as a dump stat and don't have as many points to work with. They lack the social capacity to fully benefit from thier ineherent race or gender priveledges makes them bitter and angry because they aren't getting what they feel they are owned.

This is the route cause of the MRA/PUA/Niceguy(TM) and other bigoted reactionary groups populated by angry involuntarily celebate beta males on the internet.

Want a minute, I though this was about privilege? Social capacity and a desire to meet the standards of your race do not sound like privilege
.

Predominantly black neighbourhoods like the Bronx and Compton are notorious even beyond America, because of poverty related issues.


True, but because whites are the majority group in the USA by definition there is going to be more of them.

The point is if you are black in the USA, the chances of you being poor and/or ending up in prison are far higher.

Conversely, if you're white in the USA you're far more likely to be employed and/or go to university for reasons not necessarily linked to ability.

Last edited by thomas81 on 07 Nov 2013, 6:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The odds of getting the death penalty are higher as well.

That wouldn't surprise me either.

The Mumia Abu Jamal case says all that needs to be said about the state of racial bias in American justice.

Or perhaps social skill or capacity is another form of privilege? Try white as pie males as compared to white NT males, who has the most privilege when comparing those two groups.

Last edited by Jono on 07 Nov 2013, 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What is your point? Some people face discrimination, some don't. Some people have abusive alcoholic dads too. The implication of white male privilege is that white men benefit at the expense of other peoples, which is just completely BS. I grew up in black neighborhoods and went to black schools, I was the minority most of my life. I find it pretty hard to take the assertions of lily white liberals who cry about all the injustices of the world and who is responsible for them when their first interaction with 'people of color' is college. That's a generalization and they can be hurtful by the way...

Sorry, when was the last time that someone was beaten up in the street, murdered, had abusive epithets hurled at them or fired from a job for having an 'abusive alcoholic dad'?