[ricksplat]

Have you actually checked your privilege?

As a white male you are the wealthiest, healthiest, most celebrated segment in modern society.

If you feel otherwise it's likely something going on in your own head.

EDIT my point is that you're complaining you can't celebrate your white privilege, when in fact every day is a celebration of that. Not that because you are white you necessarily are any of those things - just that it is easier to be.

EDIT2

> All it leads to is an endless loop of arguments

Or, if you step back and don't get so "offended" it's also known as a "discussion".

There's a huge amount of people who really, really don't know how good they have it. Talk about how they need more. Then get offended when you point out there are people worse off.

Inequality is a serious issue, and yes we do need to have a discussion around "privilege", who is or isn't "privileged", and comparison of levels of "privilege".

[mindcrime]

Telling people to "check their privilege" is pretty close to the worst way to advance any kind of meaningful dialogue, from what I've seen. Speaking that way manages to be simultaneously presumptuous, condescending and demeaning. I'll go out on a limb and posit that we should drop use of the term "privilege" altogether. All it leads to is an endless loop of arguments about: the nature (or existence) of "privilege", who is or isn't "privileged", and comparison of levels of "privilege". I have yet to see one of these discussions change anyone's mind, or lead to any increased understanding.

[cabalamat]

> Telling people to "check their privilege" is pretty close to the worst way to advance any kind of meaningful dialogue, from what I've seen. Speaking that way manages to be simultaneously presumptuous, condescending and demeaning.

Given the closeness of the election result, it may well have been the straw that tipped it over into a Trump victory.

People who have spread the "check your privilege" meme should reflect on that. But I bet most of them won't.

[belorn]

Fully agree. Labels which aren't falsifiable is generally very bad and is mostly used as a pejorative term.

[TeMPOraL]

Congratulations, you've just perfectly proven the GP's point.

This kind of reaction is what makes it forbidden for white westerners "to cultivate, maintain, and respect" their own culture. This kind of reaction, multiplied milionfold via media - both social and traditional alike - which can sometimes lead you to lose your job, or home.

I get it - mistakes were made, some people in the past got trampled in order for the West to get where it is. We can, and should, absolutely talk about it[0]. But living our lives in despair over the "privilege"? Feeling constantly guilty for being born? That's an overreaction.

Frankly, all that privilege talk seems to be just an attempt to guilt-trip the west into self-destructing.

--

[0] - I'm talking pretty recent times; if you want to go back to the beginnings, then each culture has humongous amounts of blood on its hands.

[grzm]

"which can sometimes lead you to lose your job, or home."

Can you provide examples of this? I'm not questioning the veracity of the claim. I'm genuinely curious.

[TeMPOraL]

From the top of my head:

- A Nobel Prize laureate made a joke at a conference lunch, it costed him and his wife their jobs. [0]

- Rosetta comet landing twisted from success into abusing one of the lead scientists. [1]

- There was someone about to or after losing his/her home over a Twitter shitstorm, but I can't for life remember who he or she was now :/.

There are many more stories if you read reports on abuse of Twitter, which has turned into the literal "Internet hate machine". Whether or not these stories are completely innocent or maybe the victims lacked taste in their initial deed is a different discussion; my point is, social media became weaponized and used to strike people at random, and the people wielding the weapon are the same who scream evils of west culture patriarchy at you.

----

[0] - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/tim-hunt-hun...

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Taylor_(scientist)#Shirt_...

[grzm]

I appreciate the links. Thank!

[ricksplat]

> living our lives in despair over the "privilege"? Feeling constantly guilty for being born?

Which is partly my point. Are these the worst things you have to worry about?

You're complaining that you no longer have the right "to cultivate, maintain, and respect" your culture.

But you do. Your culture is imprinted right across the face of the world.

This is your privilege, that you fail to appreciate.

You are like C.S. Lewis' dwarves in the stable https://vox-nova.com/2009/09/20/c-s-lewis-and-the-mind-only-...

Or more classicaly, Plato's cave.

No matter what you have, you will never be happy. All your blessings are curses to you.

and woebetide anybody that dares point that out to you.

[zo1]

>"No matter what you have, you will never be happy. All your blessings are curses to you."

That makes no sense. Most would be happy to be just left alone and not be vilified for being white, male, of a western-culture, non-liberal, having cultural/national pride, etc.

Just leave people alone, that's what people are failing to grasp.

The worst we have to worry about is that this "progressive" non-sense is being washed-into our children at public schools and elsewhere. Through the pervasive hate-men and hate-western privilege media that makes such a narrative pervasive to an extent that the teachers themselves can't help but push it onto their pupils.

[laichzeit0]

> Just leave people alone, that's what people are failing to grasp.

Exactly this. Why even bring up the topic of "privilege"? If someone brings it up, they're trying to illicit some sort of reaction from the other party. Ok I fit the definition of what you use the word "privilege" to refer to. I don't feel like I need to be moved to any sort of action because of this. No apologies, no feeling of shame, no feeling of I need to be charitable, respect someone else's position more or less, no need to gloat about it, etc. Nothing. It's like making the observation that the sky is blue. I can look, agree with you, and that is exactly where it should end. If you expect anything more than that, I outright reject it.

[vacri]

> Through the pervasive hate-men and hate-western privilege media

Have a look at the demographic makeup of your country, then have a look at the demographic makeup of TV hosts. Compare also how many times male vs female anchors have their appearance commented on.

Have a listen to some talkback radio.

Read a variety of local papers.

I thoroughly agree that people want to be left alone, but people also want life to be fair. For example, life is not fair when black people get sentenced to significantly longer terms than whites, for identical crimes.

[Chris2048]

> Are these the worst things you have to worry about?

What else? What other issue are you going to conflate with this one in order to derail it? The "There are starving children in Africa, so all your problems are trivial" argument?

> Your culture is imprinted right across the face of the world

As previously mentioned, "white" isn't really a simple culture, there are many white cultures. If you can be specific by what you mean by culture in this instance?

> woebetide anybody that dares point that out to you.

generalization. You don't know anything about that poster, other than their interactions with you specifically. Your dismissing specific problems in your own arguments as just being general disagree-ability in you opponents.

[ericd]

This ignores the many white men for whom there is no economic hope, because their towns and regions are dying. Many of these white men are living off of disability because their jobs left and aren't going to be coming back. Many are addicted to pain killers and other drugs to help distract them from the reality of their situation. That is an existence without much hope, a slow, depressive sinking into despair.

With that in mind, I think you can imagine why the drum telling them about how privileged they are and have no right to complain might inspire more than a little anger.

Have the same empathy towards poor white men as you would to anyone else, and encourage your friends to, for everyone's sake.

[noobermin]

Can we stop this tired meme? The median income for Trump voter at least in the primaries was higher than the nation's median and higher than Clinton's or Sanders'[0].

[0] http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-...

[ericd]

That article has very suspect figures. It says that all the major candidates had supporters with median incomes above the national median income. Which tells me that the population they're polling isn't representative.

[wool_gather]

That's not cause to suspect the analysis. Yes, the sampled population may not be congruent with the nationwide population. There's a reason for that: these are exit polls at the primaries. Only those who showed up to vote in those primaries can be polled.

The article links to its source data: http://www.cbsnews.com/elections/2016/primaries/republican/v...

The VA results there, for example, also show that the majority of respondents for both Republican and Democratic primaries are over the median state (and national) _age_.

[ericd]

Right, that was my point - primary voters are not representative of general election voters, and so conclusions about general election voters should not be drawn from primary voter data.

[wool_gather]

Okay, fair enough, I didn't quite realize that's what you were arguing against.

I need to hunt down the demographic info for the general exit polling; this is one of the big questions on my mind.

[imtringued]

Maybe you should start to see people as individuals instead of treating them as members of a group and putting all of them into a box labeled "privileged".

Not every white male is part of the "wealthiest, healthiest, most celebrated segment in modern society".

[7Z7]

Society does not treat individuals as individuals. People are put into boxes every day, and it's really only now that people are saying, "hey you know that being white means you probably get put in less boxes, and boxes of less negative importance, let's just acknowledge that", that people are suddenly imploring people to not put people in boxes.

[Klockan]

> As a white male you are the ..., healthiest, ... in modern society.

Not true, Asians are healthier than whites and females are healthier than males. White males have some privileges but they certainly don't have all of them.

[ainiriand]

When you say asians I think you are forgetting that the 'asian' group is mostly chinese people with really bad life expectancy. http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/china-life-expectancy

[Klockan]

You need to compare within countries or it doesn't matter. Asians in the US lives a lot longer than whites in the US. Also if you want to find poor whites you just have to look at Russia where they live shorter than even China. Therefore we can conclude that being born in the US is a privilege in terms of life span, but being white is not.

http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/russia-life-expectancy

[flukus]

Where is all this wealth I get just for being white?

[BirdieNZ]

You mean you haven't been cashing in your monthly white-privilege cheques?

[labster]

Everywhere around you. You have a indoor plumbing and electricity and always-on internet, correct? You eat three squares a day, right? In global terms, you are likely to be quite wealthy. Most software developers easily make it into the world's top 5%, if not the top 1%.

[konart]

>Most software developers easily make it into the world's top 5%, if not the top 1%.

You do realise they are what they are because they made it so? Or at least becasuse their parents grandparents did. They weren't born pro developets, not a single one of them had any guaratees of being succesful or fairly paid.

And no - not all of them were born into a wealthy family of the 1% of the first world countries. You can check some noatable bios and see for yourself just how many of the so called 'world's top 5%, if not the top 1%' started at the bottom of the world.

[labster]

You seem to be attacking me for stating a fact. Who cares about why they are wealthy — people in the computer industry are astonishingly wealthy in historic or global terms.

[konart]

>astonishingly wealthy in historic or global terms

Like if we compare a junior sys.admin to some kid of the similar age from an african village that has problems with drinkable water? Yes, well, no shit.

[Chris2048]

It probably wasn't the fact, but the intent of stating that fact in context.

[ricksplat]

This is the essence of white privilege. A belief that you got there through your own hard work, smarts and gumption.

Stand back a second. Many third world countries have this in spades, but just never had your opportunities.

There is a possibility, that maybe you failed to consider, that maybe you are just "lucky". The gaping chasm of inequality that faces you is insurmountable, so you justify your privilege by telling yourself you're better.

I know that's a hard pill to swallow, because it calls into question a belief that you are in control of your life which is a scary thought. Especially for 'murca.

[laichzeit0]

And the opposite belief is that because someone has privilege they should "do something about it". White males are at the top of the ladder. It doesn't matter why. They have no need to apologize or feel guilty about it. Even if it is an indirect result of exploiting slave labor at some point in the distant past, so be it.

The current pre-Trump political zeitgeist is completely antithetical towards this. It downright seeks to eradicate patriarchy. I like Trump because he gives me the impression that if someone were to give me shit about my so-called "white privilege" and I said to them "So what, go fuck yourself" he'd have my back all the way.

The pendulum has swung.

[konart]

>This is the essence of white privilege. A belief that you got there through your own hard work, smarts and gumption.

Oh really? Lend me a minute of your time then, if you can be so kind.

My family (half russian half ukrainian) comes from Tajikistan (both parents and their parents were living and working there before USSR went down). At the time I was born (1988) Tajikistan was still part of the USSR, obviously.

When the shit hit the fan in the late 80s (civil war began in 1991) we had to move from there. While father was trying to start up his business in Cheboksary (capital of Chuvash republic in Russia) - my mother and I were living in Poltava, Ukraine. So, while Ukraine and Russia were our respective homelands - we were refugees, formally. Yet, in a matter of 4 or 5 year my father and his friends, who also made it out from Tajikistan torn by a war, were able to establish a company, which was successful enough to provide these families with homes, food etc. They made it with their knowledge, will, effort and hard work. Despite being refugees in their own country (which is a paradox, right?). Not because they were white, not because they had more money (they had not) or any other "privileges". So - my 'privileges', did not just appeared out of the blue, because I'm white. They are the result if my father's and mother's efforts. Had they thrown this chance away - I wouldn't have any of this. No matter how white I am.

And this is just one, not very well telling example.

Yes, living in the more or less modern environment has it's benefits, but this has nothing to do with 'white privilege'.

[TheGirondin]

>You have a indoor plumbing and electricity and always-on internet, correct? You eat three squares a day, right?

So does everyone in America, regardless of race or class.

> Most software developers easily make it into the world's top 5%, if not the top 1%.

I am the only upper middle-class member of my entire extended family. The rest are all lower-middle, blue collar workers - the kind people like you want to kick to the curb with open borders.

[kj01a]

>Everywhere around you. You have a indoor plumbing and electricity and always-on internet, correct? You eat three squares a day, right? In global terms, you are likely to be quite wealthy

These things are true of every black male, white woman, hispanic woman, asian male, etc... I've ever met. So do all of those demographics also have white male privilege?

[labster]

Then you need to meet more people, for sure. You're so wealthy that you don't even know what poverty looks like.

No comment on whether any demographics enjoy white male privilege. It was just a comment on the fact that the wealth of hackers are literally everywhere around us, but we apparently can't have a discussion about it without descending into who has privilege.

[kj01a]

>You're so wealthy that you don't even know what poverty looks like.

I mean, knowing what poverty is and experiencing it are two different things. Of course, I've lived out of my car, so it's possible both apply to me... And even then I had access to all the things you talk about by stepping into a goddamned McDonald's. I would have gone to a shelter of some kind, but none of them let me in because I am a white male.

> but we apparently can't have a discussion about it without descending into who has privilege.

"You disputed my claim about privilege, therefore we can't have a discussion about privilege."

[labster]

> "You disputed my claim about privilege, therefore we can't have a discussion about privilege."

Heh, true that. One point to you, sir.

[flukus]

Every one around me gets those advantages, regardless of skin color.

The real lesson to take away from Trump's win is that there are a lot of people finding it increasingly hard to keep that water running and electricity on. Job security has disappeared and underemployment is a huge problem.

[qb45]

This is what you get for living in place where people built it, not for your race.

[Chris2048]

> In global terms

American white guilt appears to me to be of national scope.

[laichzeit0]

> As a white male you are the wealthiest, healthiest, most celebrated segment in modern society.

Yes. I don't want to feel that I need to apologize for this or be treated in a negative way. I get that we're at the top of the ladder, now leave us alone.

[noobermin]

I'm not sure you need to apologize and it doesn't look like you have been treated in a negative way.

I hope you don't consider this thread as "being treated in a negative way", it's a just discussion. EDIT: I really appreciate you replying. We are supposed to talk to you about it all, apparently, and it's good to have that discussion.

[ricksplat]

>Somehow it feels "frowned upon" to celebrate that you're a white male.

Clearly it isn't.

[Chris2048]

> you are the wealthiest, healthiest, most celebrated segment in modern society.

individuals experience reality as individuals, not in aggregate. Also, you can slice the cake as you wish - you can specify a group as "the wealthiest/celebrated" group directly, without conflating this with race or sex, whatever correlations might exist.

The wealthiest white males live on the liberal coasts of CA and in NY, mean FA to rust belt white men who are being told to stfu because they are so wealthy/powerful/celebrated... in aggregate at least. White men can reject the establishment too - there is no contradiction in the fact that the "establishment" consists mainly of white males, so long as you understand that race/sex/etc aren't the only way to group the world.

[RandomOpinion]

>Have you actually checked your privilege?

I'd check my privilege but President Trump already cashed it. /s

Please never use that condescending phrase again. As last nights election shows, a lot of people are tired of being condescended to.

[gozur88]

You realize women live longer than men, right?