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

[stellenbosch]

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

How about instead of privilege, the poster said that she's never had to face prejudice or discrimination or disadvantage based on her skin colour?

But it's the same thing? Or do you mean people would actually get the point if it was worded that way?

How about instead of privilege, the poster said that she's never had to face prejudice or discrimination or disadvantage based on her skin colour?

You mean until this very moment, when she's had to publicly shame herself on a poster due to nothing other than her skin colour?

Jesus. Its not in any way shameful to identify and acknowledge your own privilege

Jesus. Its not in any way shameful to identify and acknowledge your own privilege

Oh, I'm sure this Canadian woman felt positively elated - no, deeply honoured - at this opportunity to denounce herself in public for her innate genetic characteristics!

While there is a certain amount of 'cis privilege' in existence, that term is mainly favoured by straight cis men as a way of justifying violent misogyny that otherwise wouldn't be acceptable if you're supposed to be progressive. (Because the sort of people who use 'privilege' to shut other people up are generally, erm, those who have a lot of privilege ie straight white men who like to make a lot of noise about how 'woke' they are.)
Privilege, in general, does exist. A person might have white/heterosexual/able/thin/cis/whatever privilege. That doesn't mean this person is a bad person who is taking advantage of others. About the most sensible way of viewing it is: if you own your own home because your family were able to either leave it to you or lend you enough money to buy it, that doesn't make you a bad person. If you like to bang on about how other people could own their own homes if they stopped spending their money on beer, fags, avocados or hairdressing while disregarding the fact that you got half a million from your parents then that makes you a person who is ignorant of their own privilege - and a dick.

It was mainly for Whales's benefit but I'm getting the sense that he/she is determined to be insulted by the whole thing.

Whales, she ran the campaign.

“We feel that when any group that is defined as a minority is being impacted by racism, you also need to have the conversation that someone is benefiting from that racism,” said Downs. “And we here acknowledge that as white privilege and feel that that is an equally important conversation that needs to be occurring.”

The people in the posters were not actors.

Actually the simplest definition of privilege is this: if you sincerely believe that the only thing a person needs to live a comfortable life is 'hard work' then you have a lot of privilege.

What they are doing is putting the blame on individuals who are not being abused for not being discriminated against, instead of the system enforcers who discriminate against the First Nations peoples.
It is a truly shitty thing to do to people. Most of all it keeps the attention off the perps.

@ReanimatedSGB

In all fairness, capitalism would totally grind to a hault, if we people stopped swallowing that shit. The people with no teeth who elected Trump, would eat him if they got 'woke' to that lie.

Someone who gives themselves the nickname "stellenbosch" knows exactly what white privilege is.

For those who don't get the reference, Stellenbosch is not only a town in South Africa, it's the name of the oldest Afrikaans-speaking university and provided the intellectual underpinnings (such as they were) of apartheid.

It's also a really pretty tourist destination with really tasty wine. And a number of threads on mn discuss it in this context. But yes, I'm sure it was chosen as a racial and political goad.

What they are doing is putting the blame on individuals who are not being abused for not being discriminated against, instead of the system enforcers who discriminate against the First Nations peoples.

Yes. This effort could be harnessed into improving things for less privileged minorities, what exactly are ppl supposed to do based on this posters message? It's not going to convince the ppl who use and/abuse their white privilege to do anything differently and chances are that your average white person doesn't use this fact to disadvantage others....Not sure exactly what it's meant to achieve.

@stellenbosch you obviously have zero understanding of privilege, white or otherwise.

I find it ironic that the opening posters username is that of a town in South Africa.

Not that white people there would know anything about white privilege.

It really was all just made up.

Sorry, just saw the post above.

I'm all in favour of students being taught what privilege is all about. But I don't like this poster.
There are all sorts of privilege, white privilege is one of those things that it's really difficult for many white people (including me) to understand without really being told how it is for non-whites. Yes there are other issues - sexism, anti-religionism (yes I just made it up), disablism etc - but just like many people think feminism has "done its job" and that women are now completely equal, many people also think that there are no disadvantages to not being white, when in fact MANY POC still experience racism in their daily lives.

Teach it - but no "soundbite" posters.

I think “privilege” is an unhelpful word actually. I totally agree with the concept and the message but the semantics just make people defensive and it becomes counter productive.

Can’t speak for Canada, but here where the population is 90% white, while it is true to say white people have not suffered from the disadvantage that BME people have, which is important to talk about and try to remedy, equally it’s not like life is handed to white people on a plate because the majority of the country is on the same level.

I guess I think the word implies a sort of unique advantage whereas actually it’s an absence of disadvantage given that the majority of people are in the same position.

It’s late and I’ve worded that badly, sorry.

I also agree that the phrase “check your privilege” is bandied around far too readily as an attempt to silence people. A quick search for the phrase on twitter should confirm this.

I guess I think the word implies a sort of unique advantage whereas actually it’s an absence of disadvantage given that the majority of people are in the same position.

I think you worded this pretty well mctufty.

I *guess I think the word implies a sort of *unique advantage whereas actually it’s an absence of disadvantage given that the majority of people are in the same position.

Very simply put Mc Tyft

Mc Tufty! (Damn weird autocorrect)

Need to take the kids to school, then will come back and read this all properly. BUT, was what really hit home for me

There is nothing children who were born white can do to give up the advantage being a white child gives them when dealing with adults. If it is consciousness raising they are after it is best not to do it by guilt tripping children.

The $100 race is brilliant.

That's really well put, McTufty - not so much privilege as the absence of disadvantage - yes!

And yes, the $100 race is amazingly telling. I've seen it before but it really hits home - and it doesn't even mention race.