White privilege... really? In schools??!

[stellenbosch]

To quote Bastille, 'the world's gone mad' ...

Are you aggressive and racist ? Does that make you feel uncomfortable?

That’s interesting and enlightening hamsters. Thank you for sharing it. It does though, indicate that you’re being judged by your looks and name/ language in a way that a typical white British person wouldn’t, do you’re appearence putting you at a disadvantage to them

Hamster I also wanted to add whilst I would never claim that it’s similar, my Irish family also lied frequently about their name and background during the 80s, for obvious reasons.

I think this is important to mention. Politically I'm in the centre. There is good and bad on both sides. I say this as we are talking about identity politics which is left wing. I am aware of historical racism. It was wrong. It was disgusting. People were ignorant in a lack of knowledge way, not a finger in ears way. Even up to the 1950s/60/70/80's attitudes have taken longer for some people, I'm talking about in this country. Now? the U.K. In 2018 though? We have law. The equality act. We have quotas that represent 'diversity' how far does this go? How many oppressed groups are there? Do we keep fighting for victim hood? The way I see it, poverty is the biggest disadvantage any of us have, forget melanin! Poverty breeds poverty it's a cycle of deprivation. The reason little working class white and black boys are underperforming in education is because they are poor. Most black people who came here in the 40/50/60s were brought here for labour, they were poor and "cheap". Look up the stats for Chinese boys in the uk, does being chinese mean you are clever? Then look up the income of their parents. Working class kids speak in colloquial accents, they do not speak the same English as middle class kids (does not matter their skin tone). This means they find it harder to read the English that middle class kids speak naturally. Disadvantaged from reception at school with literacy and reading. Are Diane abbots kids at a disadvantage in comparison to mark and Clair's kids from Glasgow because their kids are white and hers are black? Dianne abbot is middle class and sends her kids to private school as she knows it will give them an advantage. I wish race/sex/disability wasn't used as concrete reasons why some people fail. Poverty is the biggest factor by a mile. A black, gay, trans disabled kid, with rich parents will have way more priviledge than an underclass white boy from a council estate. It shouldn't be a competition anymore it's dividing us. Stop blaming all white people for things the elite controlled. That's why the bnp/UKIP/the rise of the right all over Europe, that's why the backlash, it because of defence. When people insist all white people are to blame for others oppression, especially when they are up against so much themselves, poverty, lack of employment, demonisation by the media and in turn the public, a backlash happens. It's not hatred for people of colour it's defence. Identity politics divides us all

sprinkle there are a lot of similarities between the Irish and the Jewish experiences I think. ‘No Blacks, no Irish, No Jews’ was a common notice to see in hotels, shops. Your Irish family would have been recognisable by their name most probably and their accent which would both single them out for prejudice and inequality. There are other minority groups who aren’t black or brown skinned but are very easily recognised as not your average white British person and have been at a disadvantage because of that. Are Irish people in the UK disadvantaged now though? I feel the Jewish people I know who go through life unbothered by their ethnicity are ones who arent easily identifiable physically or by their not particularly Jewish sounding names.

Mrsbrightside I agree with you.

Thanks hamster. I think the constant definitions of our 'identities' divides us. We are all human trying to get by. I think poverty is intentionally over looked. Identity politics distracts us from the disadvantages of being poor. Poverty does not discriminate

Identity politics distracts us from the disadvantages of being poor

What would you say to someone who knows they face prejudice and discrimination because of 'identity'- even if they have all the advantages of class and skin colour?

Should they just be quiet and accept it? Or challenge it?

And that discrimination leads to someone with those advantages of class and wealth ending up in poverty?

Somebody who has disadvantage because of identity, but advantage of skin tone and class? What is your identity? Then I can clarify my thoughts

Then I can clarify my thoughts

Do you think that white, middle class women should be complaining about male privilege ?

I would class my self as being realistic. Identity is something people believe in their own mind. That's who you think you are. What other people think I am is a different matter.

Think men have dominated women for centuries because they are physically stronger. If men and women had the same physical strength we wouldn't have sexism, same as if the poor had money there would be no elite, spit out your point

I think white middle class women were the first women who fought for female representation, both in politics and the work place, you know why? At the time they were the only ones who stood a chance of being heard! They were battered, demonised, when they fought through and won, who benefitted? All women? Look at the 1960s and see who benefitted. Identity politics make me angry! Women started equality, men get involved and it reverts back to the 1950s, it's creepy af

mamaryllis No I'm not in Kamloops. I'm from Nova Scotia, and my DGM was Mi'kmaq. I understand the issues surrounding the whole Canada 150, and token gestures. In all honesty, this is a poster campaign designed to start a conversation, which it has.

Will it make any major differences to the First Nations community? Not really, it might inspire a couple of kids, but no poster campaign or 150+ or whatever token gestures is going to solve the problem. Only a long hard slog of political back and forth, retributions, and a fuck tonne of I don't know what kind of re-habilitation is going to make any kind of difference.

It's not like there's a blueprint for re-building absolutely devastated cultures.

and the backlash against it demonstrates why.

To be fair, it doesn't seem like there was a lot of backlash in the community itself, the problem is that it went viral and now people in the UK who know nothing about the issues surrounding the First Nations, particularly the First National in BC are talking about the poster without the context.

If you tell someone that they are privileged and they see others getting what they consider are 'handouts' they will not be enlightened, they will just get angry. Both tax differences for those living on reserves and compensation payments for those affected by residential schools are big sources of resentment.

Then those people are fucking idiots. There is nothing advantageous about living on a reservation. The amount of physical, sexual and substance abuse, not to mention the treatment by neighboring communities, not to mention your own community if you try to change things, is not worth the tax cuts and the ability to hunt year round.

I should know, I turned down the opportunity to gain status because my "white privilege" was going to get my far more opportunities than life on a reserve ever would.

Nicely said Hulk. I just don’t think most people (including some canadians) are aware how dire life on a poor reserve is.

Not to mention getting asked all the time if I'm Jewish when I'm Irish - it really gives the white supremacist freaks the shits that there are NATIVELY dark Europeans who look Jewish 😂

there are NATIVELY dark Europeans

They must be pissing themselves over cheddar man.

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/10/cheddar-man-changed-way-we-think-about-ancestors

TheHulks - my grandmother's skin colour was just a bit fairer than the Cheddarman's - she looked like a beautiful Italian or southern Spanish woman - her family was from Galway originally. Dad's side can be quite dark too except when they've 'intermarried' with non- Irish. A DNA test revealed I only have 2% Scandinavian which is amazing given history of the isles- bulk of my ethnicity is Irish with a bit of Scots.

User I have heard of that. My DGM was First Nations Canadian (as I mentioned above), and among her tribe it's not terribly uncommon for members to have blue or grey eyes, and among the now extinct Beothuk tribe who used to occupy Newfoundland it was actually pretty common. They trace it back to the Viking's that came and settled there over 1000 years ago. Obviously they got a little frisky with the locals before they left. :P

Statistically white, working class males do the poorest in U.K schools and are least likely to enter higher education. I went to school in London and this was very evident.

That’s only the case fairly recently olive, due to resource being pumped into black bits at school. And an enormous amount of resource is currently going into bringing up the performance of white Boys, so it’s not ignored

Mmm. I think all this victim identifying by reason of race, gender, religion etc is an absolute cop out. I come from a disadvantaged background went to a very thought school, supported myself through uni. I’m white. Yet my colleague, privately educated, father a top lawyer who’s black has recently had the opportunity to shadow a top partner at our firm which had raised her profile because she is black. But hey I’m privileged because I’m white. Keep telling someone they’re a victim and it becomes a self fulfilling proficy.