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

[stellenbosch]

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

BertrandRussell

I think you might have missed the point, rather.

On the contrary, I think TerranceandPhilip hit the nail right on the head. The ability to exploit the narrative of "privilege" to be able to cast oneself as the perpetual victim ironically places one in a position of extreme privilege in our PC society!

Is any group saying “denounce yourself and shut up”?

You bet they are - just type the word "privilege" into Twitter and watch thousands of examples fly by!

What about ppl from poor backgrounds, that have gone through shit and worked their way up, so their kids can have a better life. But, cos they are white, they are privileged somehow?

Is this a trick question? Of course they are

“No - because the Chinese haven't lost their fucking minds”

Pretty sure there are plenty of Chinese people who do think about things like that. Trouble is, they live in a society that....discourages....that sort of discourse.

Tbc I know I benefit from appearing white, and I understand white privilege. I also feel the way first nation peoples are treating in Canada is appalling.
I don't think a poster campaign to make people upset is how to go about fixing things.
We need to be willing to learn about why the situation became this way, talk about how to sort it out, and invest a fuck load more money in Northern infrastructure, so they have access to health care, clean water, housing, food at better prices, jobs and travel.
We won't get there by making people feel like shit about something they were born with.

“We won't get there by making people feel like shit about something they were born with“

I don’t feel shit about being born privileged. I am bloody grateful. Acknowledging does not equal feeling shit.

Pretty sure there are plenty of Chinese people who do think about things like that. Trouble is, they live in a society that....discourages....that sort of discourse.

Feel free to replace the word "Chinese" with "Japanese", "Bolivian", "Nigerian"... none of them would resort to this kind of politically-mandated public self-loathing.

A poster called stellenbosch who has no concept of white privilege?
How ironic

Feel free to replace “Chinese” in my post with any of your other categories.

word "Chinese" with "Japanese", "Bolivian", "Nigerian"... none of them would resort to this kind of politically-mandated public self-loathing.

Can I clarify, is it that you think there's no race privilege, that all races are treated in a fair and equatable way; do you think that there is no privilege at all and everyone is treated in a fair and equatable way; or do you think it's just best not mentioned, least said soonest mended sort of thing?

BertrandRussell

What, you think the Japanese, Bolivians, and Nigerians "live in a society that....discourages....that sort of discourse." Really? That's bloody insulting to those societies, don't you think? I prefer to believe they're too intelligent to have fallen prey to the politically-correct self-loathing that has overtaken large parts of the West.

I think there might be a touch of the “white people/men are the real minorities now......” going on

Come on, can we as women really think white privilege doesn't exist when we so often have to deal with the consequences of male privilege? Seriously? I can understand why many white men have such a hard time understanding white privilege but surely women can see how we are sometimes marginalised by another group's privilege and use our imagination and empathy to understand that we have a privilege people with darker skin tones don't.

It doesn't mean our lives have always been easy. It doesn't mean that we have every privilege. But it does mean that many things, even shitty things, can be easier for us than they are for others.

You sound like a lot of my relatives OP who argue when I point out that as white heterosexual folks they are privileged.

They don't understand that while yes, a white person can be poor and indeed have a thousand different problems just the same as any person of any ethnicity, the fact is that being white will NEVER ever be a problem for them. It just won't. So while A may have the exact same problems as B if A is white then she will still be more priviledged than B because while they are dealing with the exact same problems B has to worry about racism and all the problems that can come with being a minority which A doesn't have to deal with, it is THAT simple.

That being said privilege come in all shapes and form I am a mixed race queer woman for example, so far from what people consider priviledged in term of "race", sexuality or even sex yet I still feel extremely priviledged and still enjoy a lot of privileges that many people don't have access to.

As someone from a powerful European country I get to travel and can enter and immigrate to other countries with ease and have access to ALL the privileges that come with being European.

When I go to the airport with my European passport I am fully conscious that despite being the exact same person I would be having a fully different experience/treatment if I was to use the passport from my other nationality (think poor country), THIS IS PRIVILEGE, being seen as "safe" when passing immigration because I am using the "right" passport and this is a privilege I am very conscious of profiting from. There is nothing wrong with being privileged, nobody got to pick their skin color or being born male etc... but not acknowledging that being born a certain way (be it white/straight/male) brings up some advantages/privileges or on the contrary disadvantages is ridiculous and only adds up to the problem and divide between people.

“That's bloody insulting to those societies, don't you think?”
Yes. That was clumsy of me. I don’t actually know enough about any of those societies to know whether or not class analysis goes on. My point was that all societies have hierarchies of privilege, and people who acknowledge it and people who deny it.

Stillscreaming

None of your options quite covers my view, which is that the world is full of inequalities and injustices, both subtle and gross, many of which may be traced to unfair reactions to a person's innate characteristics or the perception of them. That much is obvious.

What I can't stand, however, is the prevailing use of "privilege" as a political weapon to selectively assail, demean, and silence groups of people based purely on their identity - a tactic that I find as vile and loathesome as the open bigotry of the worst racist. But since it's the left that employs this form of bigotry, it gets a free pass - or worse, is publicly extolled, as in the Canadian example - across much of the West these days.

Poster is shit
But it’s not wrong

BetrandRussell

I think there might be a touch of the “white people/men are the real minorities now......” going on

Since this thread is about a white woman in Canada publicly denouncing herself on the basis of her skin colour alone, I'd say the concept is not nearly as far-fetched as your grin would imply.

“What I can't stand, however, is the prevailing use of "privilege" as a political weapon to selectively assail, demean, and silence groups of people based purely on their identity”

Any examples?

Any examples?

Don't give me this faux-naive bullshit - read any left-wing newspaper, comment section, twitter handle, blog, or vlog to find countless instances.

In fact, "faux-naive" doesn't begin to cover it - gaslighting would be a better term. Or am I supposed to collect a scrapbook of the most commonplace things - water being wet, a bear shitting on the Pope - before some random on the internet will accept that they occur?

So you haven’t got any then. Thought not. Next!

As a mightily privileged white Australian (European rather than British heritage), this resonates so much. Perhaps living in a Commonwealth colony where the Indigenous population faced genocidal invasion and now suffer horrendous inequality on every single life measure makes the case for the existence of white privilege more clear?

@WhalesOfYore

Does it actually shut anyone up, I'm not sure it does? I would agree that it's thrown around a lot, often by people with a fair amount of privilege, but I never see anyone shutting and sitting down when they hear it.

I read a lot and I think I can honestly say I've never seen anyone say fair cop, and disengage from a debate after being told to check their privilege, it's never worked as a get of argument free card.

More thoughtful people might rearrange their argument for next time but that's as far as it goes.

So you haven’t got any then. Thought not. Next!

Enjoy denouncing yourself to the transactivists for your female privilege