I AM WHITE/AMERICAN PRIVILEGE

[caulfield12]

I thought about the Reddy/Rabbit debate in the other thread and I think the basic point remains that, as a white male, you grow up with a much different life in terms of opportunities, access to education, etc., compared to the AVERAGE Hispanic, African-American or Indian American male.

 

So I considered all the markers or indicators, this stems from a conversation I had on a trip to Peru in 2006 with my white/female fellow American teachers. We had a big debate about whether we were all "rich," because we had passports, the resources/ability to reasonably travel anywhere in the world, and the time to do so (opportunity cost).

 

I thought about my own childhood, which was typical suburban "vanilla white" in the Quad Cities. My father never made a salary of over $44,000 working as a technical writer for the Federal Government, Rock Island Arsenal, and my mother still was able to stay at home with me until middle school and even then she only worked part-time at a local cafeteria and Hardee's (she had only a high school diploma, while my father had done everything but his thesis for a Master's), simply because she wanted to socialize and enjoyed being around people.

 

My salary has never been over that same $44,000 mark, the highest was teaching in the KC Missouri School District and because I had two Master's (which I didn't pay for, due to aforementioned educational opportunities to excel academically), which bumped me higher on the pay scale. My pay here in China is similar, after tax about $3000 per month is left over, so my gross salary before taxes is in the mid 40's range.

 

EDIT: 1A) Only child and always had 10+ presents for Christmas. In fact, one time, my parents got really angry because I counted them all and compared them to other kids and they said I was way too spoiled, haha.

 

Despite just being an "average" white kid in an average Midwest city:

 

1) I never had to work during high school or university, except summers (and only when I wanted to, and wasn't playing/travelling for sports like soccer and baseball)...my parents allowed me to travel with my high school friends pretty much anywhere we wanted to go, within reason. Some summers, I simply sold baseball cards that my father helped me to obtain by trading his classic stamps/coins, for example, I had every Roberto Clemente TOPPS card except for his rookie year in 1955. So I basically just sold the cards of HoF players/rookie cards to subsidize my expenses, even though I had an allowance and made extra money mowing the lawn or trimming the bushes/shrubs.

 

2) The hardest summer camp work I had to do was being a summer school activities camp counselor and mowing lawns/landscaping (it was so hot and humid, haha!!!)

 

3) Went to an excellent suburban school where all of us got high 20's/low 30's on the ACT without even having to work hard, it was just expected of us...my two best friends went to NW, I could have gone to NW or ND but wanted to save my parents money (also because I was going to study English and History) and be closer to my g/f who was still in high school.

 

4) Got two Master's degrees without having to spend any money due to scholarships based on GRE scores and also subsidies (the second one was subsidized through a program similar to Teach for America)...access to excellent and cheap (just property taxes) education. In fact, the house I grew up in (only lived in two houses while growing up, yet another classic marker of privilege) would only sell for about $115,000 today (3 BR, 2 bath, 2 car garage, typical late 60's/early 70's house). In fact, my mom still lives there.

 

5) Have enough free time to post "frequently" at SoxTalk but still can afford a nanny for my two year old...what would you say, 90%+ of the posters at SoxTalk are white males between 20-50? The mods could clarify their demographics, but it's mostly white males who have enough time in their lives to consume and discuss sports on a daily basis.

 

6) Was always able to choose "dream" or "cool" jobs because I never had to worry about money, like working for the Augusta GreenJackets (I did get free rent and a stipend and commissions from sales) for two seasons as Director of Stadium Operations and PR and starting a non-profit with an NFL football player (I agreed to work the first year for $1000/month and free rent at LaQuinta despite him earning an NFL salary for the Broncos and Giants...speaking of privilege, read what became of Arthur Marshall, Jr., as it relates to real estate fraud, glad I quit working for him as I could see it coming a mile away, just like Trump's staffers).

 

7) Was able to take positions like AmeriCorps Promise Fellow (paying $8-10,000) a year for two years because it was what I wanted to do at the time...my father paid off my Toyota Camry lease (kept for himself) and bought me a used Buick so I could pursue volunteer work for 5 years. In fact, my salary as program director of Youth Volunteer Corps of Greater KC (the program still exists today) was only $27,000 per year, but I could still buy a house for $77,000 and make payments around $500 per month because of savings despite the low salary. How many African-American/Indian/Hispanics in their late 20's can easily access credit for car leases and home loans? NOT MANY.

 

8) My father started putting money into a ROTH IRA for me when I was just 20 or 21...like an idiot, in the late 1990's, I got frustrated with a conservative/value-oriented mutual fund and got into tech, but how many of those same minority kids are accruing compound interest in their 20's??? The answer is about 3-5%, mostly through 401K employer-based plans.

 

9) Have been able to travel all around the world, 40+ countries, 47 states...my father brought me to every Civil War battlefield, every historic site in Washington, DC, one summer because he was able to take time off his job. He and my mother also shared their love of reading/history with me as a child, which turned me into a lifetime reader (minority kids typically have a single mother working two jobs, which is why their vocabulary attainment is 2-4,000 words at the same time mine was 20,000). Most of those kids never catch up, they're already starting the 100 meters 10 meters behind before they even start KG.

 

10) Don't have to worry about retirement or my son's educational expenses due to investments/family trust.

 

11) Was able to spend the period from 2003-2013 basically traveling all around the world...teaching whenever I needed money (well, I taught full-time about 75% of that, and of course had summers/Christmas/Spring Break, etc. off to travel). Most recently, was able to go to India for three weeks and to Kenya/Tanzania for three weeks in 2013, but have spent a ton of time at all the beaches in Hawaii, Bali, Thailand, Philippines, Goa/Kerala, etc.

 

12) Because I was a privileged white male and American, was able to date pretty much any woman in the world from 2003 until 2013 (despite being 33-43 years old) because I had money/resources and was American...more white privilege. In fact, how many minority Americans can have a 20 year old Russian model for a wife, or how many can be 45 and marry and have a family with a highly-educated and attractive Chinese woman who's fully fluent in English (her alma mater, Wuhan University, is the equivalent of a lower-rung Chinese version of an Ivy League school), has a good full-time job and is a full 14-15 years younger than me?

 

13) Besides all that, I eat what I want, I have been able to read pretty much every book and watch every movie or t.v. show that I've ever wanted to (my best friend had a similar life, except he pursued listening to music and going to concerts, his sister went to Harvard Law), for most of my life I was single and could do whatever the heck I wanted to, without having to worry about how much money I made (and, saying that, I never borrowed money from my parents after the age of 22, other than my father subsidizing my car when I was doing national service through AmeriCorps...and one time when I was in the Philippines/Cebu in 2008 and went out every night for 39 nights in a row to a bar/club/disco and lost my ATM card abroad, so had emergency money sent via Western Union).

 

1-2%? I AM WHITE PRIVILEGE. I AM AMERICAN PRIVILEGE.

 

We can wrap this argument in economics instead of race, but the fact remains I was raised in a very average middle class white family...maybe with the exception being my father was very wise/conservative/prudent about saving and investment. He taught me to never buy a new car, always to pay for everything in cash, never to have a balance on a credit card but that they were very useful for traveling/renting cars, how to invest in the stock market (Buffett/Benjamin Graham/Ayn Rand books galore in our house).

 

Once again, how many minority kids are growing up with those exact same opportunities, to spend the whole year traveling and playing baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, cross country, ultimate frisbee....instead of working? About the only thing I didn't do was learn how to play a musical instrument, which I am currently correcting that with my son. Oh, and I didn't get my wish to have a Labrador Retriever growing up. I had to wait until my late 20's when I was living on my own and renting a room in a boarding house when I was making the Federal poverty rate of $8,740 as an AmeriCorps member in 1998 (I did get $4,500 "free" for educational expenses too, in all fairness).

 

How many of those kids actually get to live their dreams of doing volunteer work for five years, but still can afford to buy a house and sell it for $20,000 profit when their base salary is only $27,000?

 

I REST MY CASE.

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[greg775]

I thought about the Reddy/Rabbit debate in the other thread and I think the basic point remains that, as a white male, you grow up with a much different life in terms of opportunities, access to education, etc., compared to the AVERAGE Hispanic, African-American or Indian American male.

 

So I considered all the markers or indicators, this stems from a conversation I had on a trip to Peru in 2006 with my white/female fellow American teachers. We had a big debate about whether we were all "rich," because we had passports, the resources/ability to reasonably travel anywhere in the world, and the time to do so (opportunity cost).

 

I thought about my own childhood, which was typical suburban "vanilla white" in the Quad Cities. My father never made a salary of over $44,000 working as a technical writer for the Federal Government, Rock Island Arsenal, and my mother still was able to stay at home with me until middle school and even then she only worked part-time at a local cafeteria and Hardee's (she had only a high school diploma, while my father had done everything but his thesis for a Master's), simply because she wanted to socialize and enjoyed being around people.

 

My salary has never been over that same $44,000 mark, the highest was teaching in the KC Missouri School District and because I had two Master's (which I didn't pay for, due to aforementioned educational opportunities to excel academically), which bumped me higher on the pay scale. My pay here in China is similar, after tax about $3000 per month is left over, so my gross salary before taxes is in the mid 40's range.

 

EDIT: 1A) Only child and always had 10+ presents for Christmas. In fact, one time, my parents got really angry because I counted them all and compared them to other kids and they said I was way too spoiled, haha.

 

Despite just being an "average" white kid in an average Midwest city:

 

1) I never had to work during high school or university, except summers (and only when I wanted to, and wasn't playing/travelling for sports like soccer and baseball)...my parents allowed me to travel with my high school friends pretty much anywhere we wanted to go, within reason. Some summers, I simply sold baseball cards that my father helped me to obtain by trading his classic stamps/coins, for example, I had every Roberto Clemente TOPPS card except for his rookie year in 1955. So I basically just sold the cards of HoF players/rookie cards to subsidize my expenses, even though I had an allowance and made extra money mowing the lawn or trimming the bushes/shrubs.

 

2) The hardest summer camp work I had to do was being a summer school activities camp counselor and mowing lawns/landscaping (it was so hot and humid, haha!!!)

 

3) Went to an excellent suburban school where all of us got high 20's/low 30's on the ACT without even having to work hard, it was just expected of us...my two best friends went to NW, I could have gone to NW or ND but wanted to save my parents money (also because I was going to study English and History) and be closer to my g/f who was still in high school.

 

4) Got two Master's degrees without having to spend any money due to scholarships based on GRE scores and also subsidies (the second one was subsidized through a program similar to Teach for America)...access to excellent and cheap (just property taxes) education. In fact, the house I grew up in (only lived in two houses while growing up, yet another classic marker of privilege) would only sell for about $115,000 today (3 BR, 2 bath, 2 car garage, typical late 60's/early 70's house). In fact, my mom still lives there.

 

5) Have enough free time to post "frequently" at SoxTalk but still can afford a nanny for my two year old...what would you say, 90%+ of the posters at SoxTalk are white males between 20-50? The mods could clarify their demographics, but it's mostly white males who have enough time in their lives to consume and discuss sports on a daily basis.

 

6) Was always able to choose "dream" or "cool" jobs because I never had to worry about money, like working for the Augusta GreenJackets (I did get free rent and a stipend and commissions from sales) for two seasons as Director of Stadium Operations and PR and starting a non-profit with an NFL football player (I agreed to work the first year for $1000/month and free rent at LaQuinta despite him earning an NFL salary for the Broncos and Giants...speaking of privilege, read what became of Arthur Marshall, Jr., as it relates to real estate fraud, glad I quit working for him as I could see it coming a mile away, just like Trump's staffers).

 

7) Was able to take positions like AmeriCorps Promise Fellow (paying $8-10,000) a year for two years because it was what I wanted to do at the time...my father paid off my Toyota Camry lease (kept for himself) and bought me a used Buick so I could pursue volunteer work for 5 years. In fact, my salary as program director of Youth Volunteer Corps of Greater KC (the program still exists today) was only $27,000 per year, but I could still buy a house for $77,000 and make payments around $500 per month because of savings despite the low salary. How many African-American/Indian/Hispanics in their late 20's can easily access credit for car leases and home loans? NOT MANY.

 

8) My father started putting money into a ROTH IRA for me when I was just 20 or 21...like an idiot, in the late 1990's, I got frustrated with a conservative/value-oriented mutual fund and got into tech, but how many of those same minority kids are accruing compound interest in their 20's??? The answer is about 3-5%, mostly through 401K employer-based plans.

 

9) Have been able to travel all around the world, 40+ countries, 47 states...my father brought me to every Civil War battlefield, every historic site in Washington, DC, one summer because he was able to take time off his job. He and my mother also shared their love of reading/history with me as a child, which turned me into a lifetime reader (minority kids typically have a single mother working two jobs, which is why their vocabulary attainment is 2-4,000 words at the same time mine was 20,000). Most of those kids never catch up, they're already starting the 100 meters 10 meters behind before they even start KG.

 

10) Don't have to worry about retirement or my son's educational expenses due to investments/family trust.

 

11) Was able to spend the period from 2003-2013 basically traveling all around the world...teaching whenever I needed money (well, I taught full-time about 75% of that, and of course had summers/Christmas/Spring Break, etc. off to travel). Most recently, was able to go to India for three weeks and to Kenya/Tanzania for three weeks in 2013, but have spent a ton of time at all the beaches in Hawaii, Bali, Thailand, Philippines, Goa/Kerala, etc.

 

12) Because I was a privileged white male and American, was able to date pretty much any woman in the world from 2003 until 2013 (despite being 33-43 years old) because I had money/resources and was American...more white privilege. In fact, how many minority Americans can have a 20 year old Russian model for a wife, or how many can be 45 and marry and have a family with a highly-educated and attractive Chinese woman who's fully fluent in English (her alma mater, Wuhan University, is the equivalent of a lower-rung Chinese version of an Ivy League school), has a good full-time job and is a full 14-15 years younger than me?

 

13) Besides all that, I eat what I want, I have been able to read pretty much every book and watch every movie or t.v. show that I've ever wanted to (my best friend had a similar life, except he pursued listening to music and going to concerts, his sister went to Harvard Law), for most of my life I was single and could do whatever the heck I wanted to, without having to worry about how much money I made (and, saying that, I never borrowed money from my parents after the age of 22, other than my father subsidizing my car when I was doing national service through AmeriCorps...and one time when I was in the Philippines/Cebu in 2008 and went out every night for 39 nights in a row to a bar/club/disco and lost my ATM card abroad, so had emergency money sent via Western Union).

 

1-2%? I AM WHITE PRIVILEGE. I AM AMERICAN PRIVILEGE.

 

We can wrap this argument in economics instead of race, but the fact remains I was raised in a very average middle class white family...maybe with the exception being my father was very wise/conservative/prudent about saving and investment. He taught me to never buy a new car, always to pay for everything in cash, never to have a balance on a credit card but that they were very useful for traveling/renting cars, how to invest in the stock market (Buffett/Benjamin Graham/Ayn Rand books galore in our house).

 

Once again, how many minority kids are growing up with those exact same opportunities, to spend the whole year traveling and playing baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, cross country, ultimate frisbee....instead of working? About the only thing I didn't do was learn how to play a musical instrument, which I am currently correcting that with my son. Oh, and I didn't get my wish to have a Labrador Retriever growing up. I had to wait until my late 20's when I was living on my own and renting a room in a boarding house when I was making the Federal poverty rate of $8,740 as an AmeriCorps member in 1998 (I did get $4,500 "free" for educational expenses too, in all fairness).

 

How many of those kids actually get to live their dreams of doing volunteer work for five years, but still can afford to buy a house and sell it for $20,000 profit when their base salary is only $27,000?

 

I REST MY CASE.

Good post.

I still am not into the white privilege thing. Don't like the moniker White Privilege. Don't like the bullying tactics to get you to admit it. I'd rather be beaten to a pulp by a gang of thugs telling me to invoke my "white privilege" than say I have it. Of course I've had some opportunities because of my race and my parents helping me. However there are plenty of rich assholes who have never worked a day in their lives. They've had it MUCH easier and better than me and they are white. There are also African Americans whose parents are rich surgeons and they will be set for life and their kids will be set for life. Should they thank privilege of any kind?

 

What good does it do to say we're privileged. There are hard working people of all races. There are lazy people of all races. In a perfect world the hard workers get rewarded privilege be f***ed.

Edited May 26, 2017 by greg775

[ron883]

Good post.

I still am not into the white privilege thing. Don't like the moniker White Privilege. Don't like the bullying tactics to get you to admit it. I'd rather be beaten to a pulp by a gang of thugs telling me to invoke my "white privilege" than say I have it. Of course I've had some opportunities because of my race and my parents helping me. However there are plenty of rich assholes who have never worked a day in their lives. They've had it MUCH easier and better than me and they are white. There are also African Americans whose parents are rich surgeons and they will be set for life and their kids will be set for life. Should they thank privilege of any kind?

 

What good does it do to say we're privileged. There are hard working people of all races. There are lazy people of all races. In a perfect world the hard workers get rewarded privilege be f***ed.

Did you get this idea from the PC principal south park episodes?

 

[greg775]

Did you get this idea from the PC principal south park episodes?

No, it was films of the protests at MU in the library where people were harassed while studying. Turns out some of them marched earlier in the night and they still got reamed for not declaring their white privilege. How bout, "Say please." Or hand out Halloween candy to those who agree to declare their "white privilege" in front of the gangs.

[Quin]

No, it was films of the protests at MU in the library where people were harassed while studying. Turns out some of them marched earlier in the night and they still got reamed for not declaring their white privilege. How bout, "Say please." Or hand out Halloween candy to those who agree to declare their "white privilege" in front of the gangs.

 

Yeah, no.

 

I understand that you get your information from Rush, but that didn't happen. And if it did, it'd have been one small instance because I can't remember.

 

There was no Mad Max roving gang of social justice.

[greg775]

Yeah, no.

 

I understand that you get your information from Rush, but that didn't happen. And if it did, it'd have been one small instance because I can't remember.

 

There was no Mad Max roving gang of social justice.

I believe you, but I saw tape. If it wasn't Mizzu library it was some library. I thought it was definitely Mizzou. I didn't like the gang taking over the library. And I remember for a fact one of the students saying they had marched with the gang but had to get a paper done so went back to the library. And still that person got harassed. The people that force you to say White Privilege are selfish bastards who don't even consider the situations of the people they are harassing.

I can't be the only one who feels this way, considering the declines in enrollment at schools with the gang of White Privilege protestors running amok last year. Welcome to the real world. If people are ordering others to say they have privilege, well it's the right of those being harassed to transfer away from that bulls*** and try another school.

Edited May 26, 2017 by greg775

[caulfield12]

I honestly think that was the University of Chicago, Columbia, one of those super elite schools that was having similar PC and safe space debates at the time.

 

Maybe Greg's right and it's Mizzou, but my recollection was it was another university.

[greg775]

I honestly think that was the University of Chicago, Columbia, one of those super elite schools that was having similar PC and safe space debates at the time.

 

Maybe Greg's right and it's Mizzou, but my recollection was it was another university.

I could be wrong. Sorry.

I don't like the methods. Very rude and selfish and crude and annoying. If they came up to me and I was studying and they pulled that s*** I'd give them a piece of my mind. Wonder if they'd leave or get violent. Hopefully this white privilege protest stuff is lessening.

[caulfield12]

However there are plenty of rich assholes who have never worked a day in their lives. They've had it MUCH easier and better than me and they are white. There are also African Americans whose parents are rich surgeons and they will be set for life and their kids will be set for life. Should they thank privilege of any kind?

 

So what if you were presented evidence statistically that whites were 10X likely to enjoy these particular circumstances than any minority group?

 

I don't mean by sheer numbers, I mean, let's say 40 white kids (out of 100, or 400 out of 1000) enjoy some type of privilege and only 4-5 African-American or Hispanic kids enjoy the same opportunities and access to social/alumni networks.

 

Statistically, whites comprise roughly 65% of the population, Hispanics 14%, African Americans 12.5% then Asians at roughly 8.5% and Native Americans.

 

Out of all those Asian students, I'd argue 60-70% of them have XXX amount of privilege, at least in terms of educational access and opportunity, largely due to their parents and cultural stress on educational attainment.

 

But to say that the average white or Asian (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Singaporean, etc.) or American-Born Chinese Descent families don't enjoy similar advantages is crazy.

 

It's just like that statistic where a white person killing a black person is 8X less likely to receive the death penalty than the other way around. Part of it's economics again, the ability to afford a strong or at least competent defense (mostly it's pro bono or groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center/ACLU)...but that immense disparity isn't explained away solely by economics, culture, education, there's a racial bias/discrimination factor cooked into the numbers as well that you just can't ignore (but which many conservatives feel is not their responsibility since the Civil War, Civil Rights movement or Affirmative Action supposedly leveled the playing fields and everyone's operating on "even footing" in this theoretical universe. Well, that's just not the case. And sure, my dad hated working for the government in the 80's and 90's when women and minorities that were less qualified were promoted ahead of him, but he never became bitter about it. Frustrated, maybe that would be the better term. He wanted a government that promoted on merit and ability, and it's one of the reasons he voted for Perot in 1992, just like many people put their hopes in Trump to "restore American greatness/fairness" in this last year's election. That doesn't mean they are/were going to see an improvement, but they wanted to believe it was possible, to have something to hope for so they wouldn't become discouraged.

[Reddy]

Thanks for this post, caulfield. I appreciate the amount of thought and energy that goes into this type of self reflection, and your willingness to do it is commendable.

 

greg, of course you don't want to think about your privilege. Of course it rubs you the wrong way. That's... literally the point. It's hard to be honest with yourself and admit that even if you didn't achieve everything you ever dreamed, that even to get where you are, you had a head start from a lot of other folks in this country, for reasons outside of your or their control.

 

It's not easy. But it's the things that aren't easy that end up being the most valuable endeavors.

[caulfield12]

You're welcome.

 

Really, I think it's a matter of two issues to settle.

 

Does "white privilege" actually exist, and how exactly to define it? From their arguments, Rabbit and Southsider2K5 might say no, not in any appreciable way, or that they feel they earned 100% of their success/es in life.

 

Greg's argument more is about being "forced" or cajoled into admitting to minority groups that he is a "victim of white privilege and has to apologize for his background/being white/being successful, etc."

 

That's a different issue. Greg himself has admitted he went to a private/Catholic school and had access to a very good (albeit strict) morals/ethics-based education. Not everyone has that given to them, and scholarships are limited...obviously.

 

So Greg would PROBABLY admit he feels privileged by the life his parents provided him, the opportunities he's been able to enjoy in life, but NOT that he should be forced or publicly humiliated into castigating himself. That's not unreasonable. Those of us born with privilege don't have to announce it, it's there whether you like it or not. Catholics even have a term called "Catholic guilt" regarding our lack of impact on the peace and social justice issues of the modern world (coming from a relatively well-to-do background).

 

Parsing how much is race, how much is economics, how much is parenting...and quantifiably proving it with a battery of statistics is nearly impossible to do. There's no "winning side." It's not like reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged and wishing there was a more merit-based utopian society that exists...because it's simply not reality, not for such a "melting pot" or mosaic of a country with such a long tradition of slavery/discrimination as the United States.

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[knightni]

In my experience, it can be a class or money privilege almost as much as a race privilege.

[caulfield12]

Well, if I was in a real ultra wealthy family, I could have accepted the internship to work for the Red Sox for $300 or $500 per month (one of those two) instead of a minor league team that would pay a stipend of $250-300, free rent for the year and 10% sales commissions for billboards, sponsorships, season ticket packages, etc. That seemed more practical at the time from an economic standpoint.

 

Looking back, not taking a major league job regardless of the salary was a huge mistake...even though you learn a ton in the minors, it's not the best way to end up eventually working for a big league front office.

 

Once again, how many workers today can afford to work for a pittance (or worse, unpaid intern) in order to pursue their dream job?

[Chicago White Sox]

Caulfield, what do you look like? Are you athletic? How's your singing voice? Those are the true indicators of white privilege per Mr. Awesome himself.

[caulfield12]

Well, I ran a 4:45+mile, could dunk anything I could palm, threw 77-81 mph...lettered in soccer (cue Hahn/Epstein jokes here, Dick Allen.) I wasn't great in any one sport, but I also played tennis, racquetball, volleyball (my favorite, but no high school team), pretty much year round doing something or other.

 

Actually, I was pretty innocent and naive, didn't really drink until the end of high school and never smoked pot, National Honor Society, etc. No acting or drama club.

 

Didn't really date until senior year, then stayed with first g/f three years...she played volleyball, basketball, ran track and softball. Kind of looked like a typical 5'9" Iowa Barbie. We met when I hit her with a spike in the face in the church gym...we were altar servers together.

 

6 feet and 155-165 pounds for most of high school, actually no body fat because of running and soccer...I tried to quit running in order to play football senior year (it was fun for a week of two a days) but they wouldn't allow me because my soccer coach was also cross country, and I was just too thin at that time.

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[LittleHurt05]

Caulfield, what do you look like? Are you athletic? How's your singing voice? Those are the true indicators of white privilege per Mr. Awesome himself.

 

Apparently I got the short end of the stick when it comes to white privilege!

[Reddy]

Caulfield, what do you look like? Are you athletic? How's your singing voice? Those are the true indicators of white privilege per Mr. Awesome himself.

You should see my abs.

[Chicago White Sox]

You should see my abs.

And just when I thought you couldn't be any more awesome! I guess being white has its perks.

[caulfield12]

Caulfield you really nailed the whole using caps to make your point emphatic. Oh and you generalized your individual, privileged upbringing and applied it to roughly 215 million people in a country where most of the people in poverty share the same skin tone as you. But hey, YOURE RIGHTEOUS so nothing else matters.

 

For Boerboom, it’s a matter of assigning three emotions – cynical, sentimental and stoic — their proper focus. We should be cynical about our institutions, including political parties, and sentimental toward others, “finding ways to be open to people, even those who really piss you off.” We should look at ourselves stoically, “finding self-control and self-mastery. Don’t roll over, but don’t feel so entitled.” Billings Gazette today.

 

 

 

You're going to get a lecture from someone for deliberately twisting statistics again.

 

Whites make up nearly 2/3rd's of the population, but only 9% of those in poverty...thus, seriously underrepresented.

African Americans, 1/8th of the population, but nearly 25% living in poverty, doubly over-represented.

Hispanics do slightly better, 21% poverty rate for a bigger percentage of population mix.

Others, including Native Americans and Asians, 14%.

 

Kentucky (Appalachia), MS, WV, TN, AL, AR, IN, LA, Maine, Florida, Idaho and KS are only states where 10% or higher of whites are in poverty (I think all Trump states).

 

However, the rate of African Americans in those states living in poverty is more than double whites for KY, AL, Arkansas 12/30 (2.5 times more likely to be poor if you're black), Indiana, Louisiana 12/31 (worse than AR somehow), Florida and Kansas you're more than twice as likely to be poor!!!!! Maine, Idaho don't register as having enough African Americans, lol.

 

NM 10/39....4 times likelier to be poor if you're black

OH. 10/34

GA. 9/31

Iowa, my home state, 9% of whites are poor, blacks aren't staristically significant, Hispanics 18%

MI. 9/26

PA 9/25

SC. 9/27

NV. 8/30

RI and TX. 8/23

 

Kentucky, PA, MA, AZ, NC, OK, WI, ID, RI, MN, NY, CT, NJ, OR...Hispanics are more likely to be poor than blacks.

 

Look at Nebraska, 7% of whites, 46% African Americans, 22% of Hispanics are poor. That's more than double comparing black and Hispanic.

 

No US state has more whites than either black or Hispanics that are considered to be below the poverty rates as defined by the US government. None, zero, zilch, nada.

 

Kentucky's 17% of whites in poverty....comprising 88% of the population, vs. 8.3% Black and 3.4% Hispanic...well, you got me.

Guess their huge failure rates dealing with poverty for all citizens can be blamed on the policies of Democrats like Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell and the current governor.Or the huge opiod crisis in the eastern and northern part of the state.

 

Source=http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[EvilMonkey]

So you have come out of the closet as a 1% white privileger. Now what. You want a participation trophy?

[caulfield12]

So you have come out of the closet as a 1% white privileger. Now what. You want a participation trophy?

 

How can I be a 1%er if my father and I both never made over $44,000 per year? My mom's house in the US (Iowa) might sell for $115,000 if we were really lucky, btw, so it's not real estate wealth.

 

From saving and indexed investing/compound interest principles?

 

No participation trophies, that's Greg's schtick.

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

Trump, Ryan, Mulvaney, All of Them: Partners in Plutocracy

The Republicans have been called the party that hates the poor. With this budget and this health care bill, it’s no longer just the poor.

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017...s-in-plutocracy

 

I include this opinion piece simply to incite a riotous insurrection from the Right, lol. This should be good entertainment to read the rebuttals, at least. Dovetails nicely with our current discussion, Reddy vs. Rabbit and finally, Greg vs. Ditka vs. a Hurricane.

[Reddy]

For Boerboom, it’s a matter of assigning three emotions – cynical, sentimental and stoic — their proper focus. We should be cynical about our institutions, including political parties, and sentimental toward others, “finding ways to be open to people, even those who really piss you off.” We should look at ourselves stoically, “finding self-control and self-mastery. Don’t roll over, but don’t feel so entitled.” Billings Gazette today.

 

 

 

You're going to get a lecture from someone for deliberately twisting statistics again.

 

Whites make up nearly 2/3rd's of the population, but only 9% of those in poverty...thus, seriously underrepresented.

African Americans, 1/8th of the population, but nearly 25% living in poverty, doubly over-represented.

Hispanics do slightly better, 21% poverty rate for a bigger percentage of population mix.

Others, including Native Americans and Asians, 14%.

 

Kentucky (Appalachia), MS, WV, TN, AL, AR, IN, LA, Maine, Florida, Idaho and KS are only states where 10% or higher of whites are in poverty (I think all Trump states).

 

However, the rate of African Americans in those states living in poverty is more than double whites for KY, AL, Arkansas 12/30 (2.5 times more likely to be poor if you're black), Indiana, Louisiana 12/31 (worse than AR somehow), Florida and Kansas you're more than twice as likely to be poor!!!!! Maine, Idaho don't register as having enough African Americans, lol.

 

NM 10/39....4 times likelier to be poor if you're black

OH. 10/34

GA. 9/31

Iowa, my home state, 9% of whites are poor, blacks aren't staristically significant, Hispanics 18%

MI. 9/26

PA 9/25

SC. 9/27

NV. 8/30

RI and TX. 8/23

 

Kentucky, PA, MA, AZ, NC, OK, WI, ID, RI, MN, NY, CT, NJ, OR...Hispanics are more likely to be poor than blacks.

 

Look at Nebraska, 7% of whites, 46% African Americans, 22% of Hispanics are poor. That's more than double comparing black and Hispanic.

 

No US state has more whites than either black or Hispanics that are considered to be below the poverty rates as defined by the US government. None, zero, zilch, nada.

 

Kentucky's 17% of whites in poverty....comprising 88% of the population, vs. 8.3% Black and 3.4% Hispanic...well, you got me.

Guess their huge failure rates dealing with poverty for all citizens can be blamed on the policies of Democrats like Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell and the current governor.Or the huge opiod crisis in the eastern and northern part of the state.

 

Source=http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/

 

I can't believe how much you manipulated those statistics to help prove your point. What a joke. SAD!

[Reddy]

And just when I thought you couldn't be any more awesome! I guess being white has its perks.

Wanna see 'em? What's your Snapchat?

[greg775]

Greg's argument more is about being "forced" or cajoled into admitting to minority groups that he is a "victim of white privilege and has to apologize for his background/being white/being successful, etc."

 

That's a different issue. Greg himself has admitted he went to a private/Catholic school and had access to a very good (albeit strict) morals/ethics-based education. Not everyone has that given to them, and scholarships are limited...obviously.

 

So Greg would PROBABLY admit he feels privileged by the life his parents provided him, the opportunities he's been able to enjoy in life, but NOT that he should be forced or publicly humiliated into castigating himself. That's not unreasonable.

Well, you are right in some ways. Your first two lines are correct. I won't apologize to anybody for anything regarding this issue, certainly not somebody rudely demanding me to admit privilege.

Your third paragraph ... I feel thankful, not privileged by the life my parents provided me. My dad if he was living probably would have a heart attack over this issue. He was at the point he had no money and had to move his wife and 3 kids into his wife's aunt's house in Beverly for a year. His daddy certainly wasn't giving him any money to bail him out. He then hit the work jackpot, make millions and was able to make sure the kids had everything. Now the white privilege gangs would say no matter what, just the fact he's white, gave him that opportunity to make the millions. That's kind of an insulting nonsequitir.

He had nothing and 3 kids and a wife and had to be scared to death. But he became the best in his field and "good at something" (somebody on here suggested Millenials are going to have to get 'good at something' cause jobs aren't gonna be there otherwise in the future) and thus received the benefits in big house in suburbs, vacation home, paid for kids education, still had oodles of cash left.

Now is this ALL because of his color? Of course not. If he didn't make it at his work big time, he'd have been on the street and his kids in foster care. He earned it all. But the white privilege people would get in his face if they could and say, 'Admit your white privilege.' He'd probably have to go to prison after beating one of them he'd be so offended in knowing how he did it all through hard work. Now did he get THE CHANCE to show he was capable to his bosses only because of his color? WOuld an African American even have the chance to make it in Chicago especially at that time? I don't even care to go there because of the tactics of the white privilege hooligans.

I will say he grew up poor, with just the basics, had to join the Navy because he needed to get out of the house at the time, and turned himself into a wealthy guy because of WORK.

Did his white privilege guarantee anything? Of course not. I know tons of recent white college grads who have rich mommies and daddies who are living at home looking for work and the longer the clock ticks, the tougher it will be to get a job in their fields.

But does white privilege put you in the game to where you have a chance or a much better chance than an African American to go through the system and make money? Maybe, but it is an insult to all the hard working African Americans and whites to make this a race thing.

 

It accomplishes nothing really. I know a guy of Mexican descent, dark skinned, who grew up in a shack in Kansas City Kansas with his brothers and two sisters. He had NOTHING.

He is a federal judge. His two sisters are attorneys in D.C. His brother is an attorney in KC and his other brother is a success in hotels. He did it all on his own, loans, working his ass off in college to meet the right people, join the right clubs, make sure he was an involved student. What the white privilege gangsters don't realize is if they put ALL their energy into developing a plan and attacking it like he did, rather than obsessing over this issue, they would make it. Don't stop until you make it.

 

I realize this take will cause the white privilege people to just shake their head and say, "Ha, what a rich asshole. He doesn't even realize the only reason his dad made it was white privilege and only reason he's made it is white privilege. if he were born African American the odds are stacked so badly against him and his dad he'd be in poverty." ... Well, I tend to think not. My best college buddy the federal judge in KC would argue with you too as would his family of success stories.

 

 

And as far as this issue ... what difference would it make if every minute of every day white people admitted their privilege? We could wear a certain lapel or belt buckle or something that says we admit our privilege. What the hell good does that accomplish? What is this protest all about? It's a waste of people's energy IMO. If it's not, OK, somebody make all the lapels or wristbands and all the non people of color can wear them as signs of support.

Edited May 26, 2017 by greg775