Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nostrademons 3932 days ago
Isn't that precisely what privilege means? Having advantages that accrue to you simply by membership in one group?

There are degrees of privilege, too. I'm not white - I'm multiracial white/Asian, though I look basically Asian. I'm also not a Stanford grad, and my parents weren't millionaires. However, I grew up middle-class in a reasonably affluent suburb, my parents stayed married, they were highly educated, and I'm not black or Hispanic. These are all privileges; they are unearned advantages that I obtained through circumstances before my birth. That I'm not white and can't call up a VC to get them to fund my company doesn't make me unprivileged; it makes me less privileged than certain 1-in-a-million individuals.
2 comments
mc32 3932 days ago
What I read in that is that we can say Argentinians are privileged vs Paraguayans, because due to circumstance beyond anyone's control, Argentines are better off than Paraguayans. Same for Greeks vs Swedes?
link
nostrademons 3932 days ago
Fair assessment, I think. I don't know anything about the specific situations in those countries, but privilege is very frequently used in referring to say, coming from the U.S. vs. the rest of the world, or developed nations rather than developing nations.
link
getfitroxana 3931 days ago
Okay, and when are we gonna talk about Jewish privilege? Because they get all the benefits of white privilege when they're white-passing, PLUS the benefits of being Jewish!

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099803,00.html

(Ynetnews is an Israeli paper, by the way)

"Since the mass immigration some 100 years ago, Jews have become richest religious group in American society. They make up only 2% of US population, but 25% of 400 wealthiest Americans. How did it happen, and how crucial is their aid to Israel?"

Hmmm...

link
Mkae 3931 days ago
Or how about the drawbacks of being Jewish? According to the FBI (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2013/topic-... "Of the 1,223 victims of anti-religious hate crimes: 60.3 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias."

Perhaps Jews do so well because Judaism teaches critical thinking and education as a philosophy, whereas Christianity teaches obedience and the power of wishful thinking. Only one of these schools of thoughts helps you in the real world.

link
getfitroxana 3930 days ago
And yet, no one has a "Perhaps white people do so well because..." and if they do, they're racist. Right?
link