Posted: 5/2/2014 8:59:02 PM EDT
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http://chicksontheright.com/posts/item/25782-white-privilege-in-its-full-glory
I do not accuse those who “check” me and my perspective of overt racism, although the phrase, which assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it, toes that line. But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. Interesting article about some dude who got told to "Check your privilege" one time too many. At least he now has a history to come back with. |
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He's from an expensive area of New York and he's in a nice school. If he's paying for it himself or has an academic full ride, cool, he can be righteous. In his essay, however, he talks about the struggle his family went through, not his personal struggle. "Check your privilege" is a douchey thing to say and he apparently hears it a bit, but it doesn't sound like he has actually had to claw his way up from the mud.
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Quoted: He's from an expensive area of New York and he's in a nice school. If he's paying for it himself or has an academic full ride, cool, he can be righteous. In his essay, however, he talks about the struggle his family went through, not his personal struggle. "Check your privilege" is a douchey thing to say and he apparently hears it a bit, but it doesn't sound like he has actually had to claw his way up from the mud. so if you haven't had to claw your way up from the mud your privileged? |
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Quoted: "Check your privilege" is a douchey thing to say and he apparently hears it a bit, but it doesn't sound like he has actually had to claw his way up from the mud. Quoted: Quoted: He's from an expensive area of New York and he's in a nice school. If he's paying for it himself or has an academic full ride, cool, he can be righteous. In his essay, however, he talks about the struggle his family went through, not his personal struggle. "Check your privilege" is a douchey thing to say and he apparently hears it a bit, but it doesn't sound like he has actually had to claw his way up from the mud. so if you haven't had to claw your way up from the mud your privileged? No. His flawed initial premise is akin to "I've been told I was born on third base and I act like I hit a triple". He then goes on to say how hard his grandparent's lives were and that his parents worked hard. He does not speak to his own personal struggles. This undermines his argument that he's not a child of privilege. If his essay had listed HIS hard work and HIS struggles he'd have a stronger argument. None of this excuses the jackholes who say things about checking privilege when they use it as a rhetorical hammer to shut people up. |
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Quoted:
so if you haven't had to claw your way up from the mud your privileged? No. His flawed initial premise is akin to "I've been told I was born on third base and I act like I hit a triple". He then goes on to say how hard his grandparent's lives were and that his parents worked hard. He does not speak to his own personal struggles. This undermines his argument that he's not a child of privilege. If his essay had listed HIS hard work and HIS struggles he'd have a stronger argument. None of this excuses the jackholes who say things about checking privilege when they use it as a rhetorical hammer to shut people up. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
He's from an expensive area of New York and he's in a nice school. If he's paying for it himself or has an academic full ride, cool, he can be righteous. In his essay, however, he talks about the struggle his family went through, not his personal struggle. so if you haven't had to claw your way up from the mud your privileged? No. His flawed initial premise is akin to "I've been told I was born on third base and I act like I hit a triple". He then goes on to say how hard his grandparent's lives were and that his parents worked hard. He does not speak to his own personal struggles. This undermines his argument that he's not a child of privilege. If his essay had listed HIS hard work and HIS struggles he'd have a stronger argument. None of this excuses the jackholes who say things about checking privilege when they use it as a rhetorical hammer to shut people up. He made his point quite well... that his parents and grandparents WORKED to provide what he has. While HE may have benefited from that, they did not. The whole "check your privilege" thing he's talking about is people ASSUMING that he, and thusly also his ancestors, had it easy and had everything handed to them. One point he doesn't make or approach is that while other people's grandparents and such may have suffered at the hands of real tangible racism, that shit is in the past. Those people could be working to provide their children with a better future... instead of bitching about MY 'privilege'. |
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Quoted:
He's from an expensive area of New York and he's in a nice school. If he's paying for it himself or has an academic full ride, cool, he can be righteous. In his essay, however, he talks about the struggle his family went through, not his personal struggle. "Check your privilege" is a douchey thing to say and he apparently hears it a bit, but it doesn't sound like he has actually had to claw his way up from the mud. It doesn't matter if he had to crawl up from the mud or not. The kind of people who say "check your privilege" would STILL say it anyway. Personally I wouldn't accuse them of overt racism either. I'd accuse them of overt racism and sexism. Because that's pretty much what it is. The people who regurgitate that phrase are pretty much trying to justify their own bigotry... as if by saying "privilege" it's OK for them to bash others yet still call themselves the 'victims' |
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Quoted: He made his point quite well... that his parents and grandparents WORKED to provide what he has. While HE may have benefited from that, they did not. The whole "check your privilege" thing he's talking about is people ASSUMING that he, and thusly also his ancestors, had it easy and had everything handed to them. One point he doesn't make or approach is that while other people's grandparents and such may have suffered at the hands of real tangible racism, that shit is in the past. Those people could be working to provide their children with a better future... instead of bitching about MY 'privilege'. Quoted: Me One point he doesn't make or approach is that while other people's grandparents and such may have suffered at the hands of real tangible racism, that shit is in the past. Those people could be working to provide their children with a better future... instead of bitching about MY 'privilege'. See, I disagree. I think he would have had a strong premise had he take a macro view of the situation and dwelt on his forebears accomplishments to the detriment of his own. He misses the fact that his grandparents achieved all they did as "polaks" who would have been second class citizens (much like the Irish or Chinese or Vietnamese) scrabbling their way to the top. He concentrates on ephemeral things like "entrepreneurial spirit" and stupidly takes shots at "environmentalism". I'll even skip over the Scalia Groupie thing. He had a genuine and solid HOOK into immigrant minorities keeping their heritage while assimilating and succeeding and he fucking blew it but saying shit like this: But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. and But they can’t be telling me that everything I’ve done with my life can be credited to the racist patriarchy holding my hand throughout my years of education and eventually guiding me into Princeton First, he devolves into a patois (can't be telling me), which sounds stupid and again harps on how he's somehow worked his way from an upper middle class life into Princeton. He had a golden opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of the people telling him to "check his privilege" and point out that race relations in this country have always been fraught with peril. He could have drilled into how white on white bigotry (remember the anti-Kennedy ads that said he'd be a puppet of the Pope?) has a long and storied history. So much could have been done with this. Instead, he made it about himself with some token nods to the blood, sweat and tears that made sure he was able to be sit at Princeton and be a dick. |
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Life is difficult, I intend to use any and every advantage available to me, just like every other human being does and will.
If privilege exists, calls to check privilege are really calls to give it to someone else. Given human nature, such a thing as transfer of privilege, if it exists, is unlikely and probably not possible. Meritocracy and individual liberty are far more likely to increase human happiness, prosperity and bring us nearer to perfection than any check on so-called privilege. |
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Quoted:
See, I disagree. I think he would have had a strong premise had he take a macro view of the situation and dwelt on his forebears accomplishments to the detriment of his own. He misses the fact that his grandparents achieved all they did as "polaks" who would have been second class citizens (much like the Irish or Chinese or Vietnamese) scrabbling their way to the top. He concentrates on ephemeral things like "entrepreneurial spirit" and stupidly takes shots at "environmentalism". I'll even skip over the Scalia Groupie thing. He had a genuine and solid HOOK into immigrant minorities keeping their heritage while assimilating and succeeding and he fucking blew it but saying shit like this: But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. and But they can’t be telling me that everything I’ve done with my life can be credited to the racist patriarchy holding my hand throughout my years of education and eventually guiding me into Princeton First, he devolves into a patois (can't be telling me), which sounds stupid and again harps on how he's somehow worked his way from an upper middle class life into Princeton. He had a golden opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of the people telling him to "check his privilege" and point out that race relations in this country have always been fraught with peril. He could have drilled into how white on white bigotry (remember the anti-Kennedy ads that said he'd be a puppet of the Pope?) has a long and storied history. So much could have been done with this. Instead, he made it about himself with some token nods to the blood, sweat and tears that made sure he was able to be sit at Princeton and be a dick. Quoted:
Quoted:
Me One point he doesn't make or approach is that while other people's grandparents and such may have suffered at the hands of real tangible racism, that shit is in the past. Those people could be working to provide their children with a better future... instead of bitching about MY 'privilege'. See, I disagree. I think he would have had a strong premise had he take a macro view of the situation and dwelt on his forebears accomplishments to the detriment of his own. He misses the fact that his grandparents achieved all they did as "polaks" who would have been second class citizens (much like the Irish or Chinese or Vietnamese) scrabbling their way to the top. He concentrates on ephemeral things like "entrepreneurial spirit" and stupidly takes shots at "environmentalism". I'll even skip over the Scalia Groupie thing. He had a genuine and solid HOOK into immigrant minorities keeping their heritage while assimilating and succeeding and he fucking blew it but saying shit like this: But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. and But they can’t be telling me that everything I’ve done with my life can be credited to the racist patriarchy holding my hand throughout my years of education and eventually guiding me into Princeton First, he devolves into a patois (can't be telling me), which sounds stupid and again harps on how he's somehow worked his way from an upper middle class life into Princeton. He had a golden opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of the people telling him to "check his privilege" and point out that race relations in this country have always been fraught with peril. He could have drilled into how white on white bigotry (remember the anti-Kennedy ads that said he'd be a puppet of the Pope?) has a long and storied history. So much could have been done with this. Instead, he made it about himself with some token nods to the blood, sweat and tears that made sure he was able to be sit at Princeton and be a dick. How could you NOT make it about yourself when it is yourself that is constantly being told to "check your privilege"? Sure, he could have gone one about how other ethnicities and nationalities had it hard, and they pulled through and did well, but I kinda get that from what he said. Even though he didn't say the Irish and Italians and other immigrants had it hard, we know that they did. He was simply pointing out that one cannot level "check your privilege" at any random white dude, because a stranger wouldn't know that white dude's family history and what they may or may not have had to go through. I think he did a great job of exposing "check your privilege" as ignorant and bigoted. |
