I AM WHITE/AMERICAN PRIVILEGE

[Jose Abreu]

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.

uChicago in particular is very anti-safe space. Their welcome letter to incoming first-year students last year was basically just ripping safe spaces.

[Reddy]

Safe spaces in college are stupid. The point of college is to challenge your beliefs.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Reddy

[Jenksismyhero]

Safe spaces in college are stupid. The point of college is to challenge your beliefs. End of story.

 

Of course your privileged whiteness would say that, you've never needed a safe space before.

[Reddy]

Of course your privileged whiteness would say that, you've never needed a safe space before.

ignoring the obvious troll, are we talking intellectual safe spaces or physical safe spaces where marginalized communities are accepted/protected/etc? Two different things.

[LittleHurt05]

Are the white privilege gangsters affiliated with the Bloods or the Crips?

[greg775]

Are the white privilege gangsters affiliated with the Bloods or the Crips?

They should be suspended if caught going up to students in a library who are trying to study.

[RegionSox]

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.

I felt like i was reading a Horatio Alger story.

[greg775]

I felt like i was reading a Horatio Alger story.

The world is full of anger and sarcasm. People despise and/or mock everybody not in their immediate family. Nobody wants to hear others' takes as seen in the response to my post. The workplace is run by corporate speak as evidenced in the job thread in the filibuster. Sad world we live in. People just want puppets that agree with insane things like the white privilege mob demanding people admit their white privilege. Don't dispute them or dissent, just agree they are right. The president is such a name dropper glory seeker that he leaks info to foreign leaders to feel important. We are in trouble, folks.

Edited May 26, 2017 by greg775

[RegionSox]

The world is full of anger and sarcasm. People despise and/or mock everybody not in their immediate family. Nobody wants to hear others' takes as seen in the response to my post. The workplace is run by corporate speak as evidenced in the job thread in the filibuster. Sad world we live in. People just want puppets that agree with insane things like the white privilege mob demanding people admit their white privilege. Don't dispute them or dissent, just agree they are right. The president is such a name dropper glory seeker that he leaks info to foreign leaders to feel important. We are in trouble, folks.

Calm down, i wasn't insulting you. Just saying it was like those old Horation Alger stories with the penniless people dragging themselves to become wealthy millionaires.

[caulfield12]

No responses?

 

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

 

Greg did in his own way, yet he usually has ripped Trump as an oblivious (to the needs of regular Joes) 1%er in recent weeks.

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[Reddy]

No responses?

 

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

 

Greg did in his own way, yet he usually rips Trump as an oblivious (to the needs of regular Joes) 1%er in recent weeks.

The time and energy and honesty it takes to do that type of self-reflection isn't easy, and most people aren't willing to do it. I'll give greg credit on that front. I may not agree with a damn thing he says or thinks, but at least he takes the time to consider why he feels a certain way.

[caulfield12]

The time and energy and honesty it takes to do that type of self-reflection isn't easy, and most people aren't willing to do it. I'll give greg credit on that front. I may not agree with a damn thing he says or thinks, but at least he takes the time to consider why he feels a certain way.

 

Yeah, while a fleshing out of how his father's success directly impacted him isn't really there yet, it's a good start, at least.

 

As someone noted, it does read like the Horatio Alger, "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" stories that are essentially still the ideological foundation for many Republicans today.

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/us/racist-ra...deos/index.html

What to make of these viral racist rants recently?

 

 

"It means that America is back where it was ... decades ago. That kind of thing went out of fashion with the Civil Rights movement; the Trump campaign brought it back into fashion," said the Rev. Joseph A. Darby, vice president of the Charleston, South Carolina, NAACP branch.

 

President Donald Trump "tapped into seething anger" that was already boiling in those who couldn't accept an African-American President, Darby said. Trump "legitimized bigotry by the way he campaigned."

 

"People who found their hope in him feel emboldened to say and do things that they wouldn't do before ... It leads to all kinds of foolishness that people have kept under wraps before because now they feel empowered because they think they have a President."

 

Darby said he believes some of the rants also stem from "fear on the part of some misguided, for the lack of a better word, ignorant people who believe they are losing their country, with their country being a white country."

 

He said: "They feel that they're going to lose the privilege of being white, and when you have fear, you do ugly things sometimes."

 

 

 

[caulfield12]

A different angle at white privilege from Zuckerberg that will rile up many...

 

 

"Every generation expands its definition of equality. Now it's time for our generation to define a new social contract," Zuckerberg said during his speech. "We should have a society that measures progress not by economic metrics like GDP but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas."

 

Zuckerberg said that, because he knew he had a safety net if projects like Facebook had failed, he was confident enough to continue on without fear of failing. Others, he said, such as children who need to support households instead of poking away on computers learning how to code, don't have the foundation Zuckerberg had. Universal basic income would provide that sort of cushion, Zuckerberg argued.

 

Altman's view is similar. A year ago, Altman said he thinks "everyone should have enough money to meet their basic needs—no matter what, especially if there are enough resources to make it possible. We don't yet know how it should look or how to pay for it, but basic income seems a promising way to do this." Altman believes basic income will be possible as technological advancements "generate an abundance of resources" that help decrease the cost of living.

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerb...-202800717.html

 

 

Have to admit this one was funny...

BobBob8 hours ago

Maybe this little schmuck should give some of his money instead of preaching that the govt should be giving some of my tax dollars. Typical lib, complains about Trump building a wall then gets into a big legal fight with his neighbors about building a wall in SF and Hawaii (the locals in Hawaii beat him down with public pressure) lmfao at this whiny lib.

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[Reddy]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/us/racist-ra...deos/index.html

What to make of these viral racist rants recently?

 

 

"It means that America is back where it was ... decades ago. That kind of thing went out of fashion with the Civil Rights movement; the Trump campaign brought it back into fashion," said the Rev. Joseph A. Darby, vice president of the Charleston, South Carolina, NAACP branch.

 

President Donald Trump "tapped into seething anger" that was already boiling in those who couldn't accept an African-American President, Darby said. Trump "legitimized bigotry by the way he campaigned."

 

"People who found their hope in him feel emboldened to say and do things that they wouldn't do before ... It leads to all kinds of foolishness that people have kept under wraps before because now they feel empowered because they think they have a President."

 

Darby said he believes some of the rants also stem from "fear on the part of some misguided, for the lack of a better word, ignorant people who believe they are losing their country, with their country being a white country."

 

He said: "They feel that they're going to lose the privilege of being white, and when you have fear, you do ugly things sometimes."

 

I wrote an essay about the bolded today on the FB. I know a lot of this flies in the face of the argument I was making in the Republican thread the other day, but the discussion I'm writing about was pretty revelatory:

 

Had an amazing conversation with a Trump voter last night, and today I'm even more certain that the Left's need for social and political purity is the enemy of progress.

 

I believe that we are, in large part, responsible for the rise of Trump's America.

 

I have often said to conservatives that I'm "intolerant of intolerance". But that mistakes the issue. No, we don't have to accept and respect others' bigotry or ignorance, but it's incredibly important we understand where it comes from and WHY it exists.

 

There are millions of people in this country who, when they think of America, think of it like a Norman Rockwell painting. White picket fences. Suburbia. Somewhere That's Green. Baseball, apple pie and the American flag. Hell, if I'm honest, those are the images that were burned into MY brain as a kid, too!

These people are the ones who see progressivism, and specifically concepts like political correctness and intersectionalism, as an assault on all of those deeply held feelings of what America *is*. To them, our movement is an assault on their Field of Dreams. They're scared of losing their American culture - where everything has its place - in the tide of significant cultural shifts that have occurred over the last decade.

 

Is calling them racist going to change that view? Is calling them bigots going to do it? Hateful? Monsters? Ignorant? Uneducated? Privileged? Are ANY of those tactics going to be successful?

 

In my mind, the only way this movement we have succeeds is if we fundamentally change our tactics, and realize that the way into these hearts is by teaching them, respectfully and with compassion, that the causes we fight for ALIGN with their deeply held patriotism and love for America. That yes, these people may look different than you and speak a different language than you, but they want all the same things you do, and they want to have them in the incredible country we've built together. They ALSO want to have a Field of Dreams. And isn't it the American Way to do everything we can to give them that opportunity?

 

What that also means is we need to stop getting so damn offended by everything, and learn to put ourselves in others' shoes. All of our experiences give us unique perspectives, and it is absolutely unhelpful to say things like "it's not my job to teach you XYZ." Actually, it is.

 

I know that won't be a popular sentiment coming from a person like me, but if you're waiting for the people who hold a different view to change their minds without being guided through that process, you'll be waiting an awfully long time. I think you'd all agree that time is not something we have to waste. It may not be fair, but marginalized communities MUST be willing to teach, because to vilify, shame and condemn only causes those who don't understand to dig in their heels.

 

The same thing happens with allies. I don't get to check any progressive resistance cred boxes beyond "millennial". I'm not "woke" about every single nuance of every issue from every corner of the Resistance. There are things I don't understand. I'm trying. I'm working on it. But there's this pervasive vibe that if you f*** up once, if you fall out of line on even the smallest issue, or if you prove to not understand the complexities of intersectionalism that you're the enemy. I hate to say it, but if any progressive sees me as an enemy, they've got far more enemies than allies. Again, let's stop judging people for the life they've led, and let's stop assigning progressive street cred. Let's listen and teach. I want to help your cause. Teach me how.

 

In summary:

 

Democrats. Socialists. Democratic Socialists. Stop insulting. Stop shaming. Stop condescending. Start listening. Start teaching.

 

When we have that gut-check moment like I had last night upon finding out my friend voted for Trump, we have to find the strength to overcome it, not let it get the best of our emotions, and endeavor to LISTEN.

 

I'm absolutely open to others' perspectives on this and would love to hear thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and yes, I'm going to also endeavor to take my own advice. I'm as guilty as anyone.

 

[caulfield12]

The thing that struck me is the similarity in tone to Trump in Saudia Arabia...that it was too accommodationist. Not apologizing for your beliefs, but trying to hard to create an all-encompassing "big tent." The #1 question is which issues do you draw a line in the sand over that there is no compromising on? If there aren't any, what do we stand for?

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[Reddy]

The thing that struck me is the similarity in tone to Trump in Saudia Arabia...that it was too accommodationist. Not apologizing for your beliefs, but trying to hard to create an all-encompassing "big tent." The #1 question is which issues do you draw a line in the sand over that there is no compromising on? If there aren't any, what do we stand for?

the interesting thing is that the me you guys know here at Soxtalk is actually pretty different from the me that exists in the real world/on social media/in my career. I tend to be a lot more flippant, off the cuff, and un-thought-out here than I am regularly.

 

The essay wasn't really meant to be a discussion of issues though, more just about the tone in which we do the discussing.

[greg775]

Yeah, while a fleshing out of how his father's success directly impacted him isn't really there yet, it's a good start, at least.

 

As someone noted, it does read like the Horatio Alger, "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" stories that are essentially still the ideological foundation for many Republicans today.

There are a lot of white people on the south side barely scraping by who have always barely scraped by. Like I said, my dad was f***ed basically. Had 3 kids boom boom boom and right off the bat had no money to support any of 'em. I never got around to asking him why he started a family of 3 so quick. Maybe it was simply the Catholic thing, but I doubt it. Anyhow, he skyrocketed in his field fairly soon after he moved the family of wife and 3 kids into a relative's house and got to move everybody out, eventually making a ton of money and moving everybody to suburbia, then getting a boat, cottage, paying for everybody's catholic high school and college educations and basically doing the same for my sister's three kids since her hubby was a deadbeat. But the people we left behind in Chicago when we moved to suburbia were basically paycheck to paycheck people with no cash to speak of. Of course the people in Mt. Greenwood were all white, but that's another story.

 

I don't see a lot of privilege in the Mt. Greenwood area when we were growing up there. Nobody had any money or luxuries in those crappy little houses on 103rd street.

 

I find it offensive the white privilege gangs would throw out my story and comments, dismiss them angrily. They would say "but every person on the south side who is white had a chance at least because of their white skin, whereas because of my black skin I don't have a chance (or the same chance).' Which my federal judge friend who is dark Mexican and his successful siblings proved is BULLs***. Their parents had no money and they lived in a shack in KCK basically. They all made millions because of work. Work hard and you stand a chance.

 

I think it's sad that right now the privilege people are laughing at me, saying I am full of s*** for this stance. They feel white privilege is the only reason for my dad's success and other whites. So go ahead and mock me. I never will play the admitting privilege game.

Edited May 27, 2017 by greg775

[caulfield12]

Greg 1

White privilege "gangs" 0

John Glenn's disrespected body (Trump voters did it!) -1

 

 

What's Wrong with Too Many White Men in One Place?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/us/too-many-...-men/index.html

 

"We live in the strongest, most powerful, most prosperous nation in human history and if we're being honest, white men probably deserve 95% of the credit for that," conservative John Hawkins wrote in a 2016 column entitled, "When Did White Men Become The Bad Guys in America?"

 

"That may be unfair because women and black Americans weren't given the opportunity to significantly contribute for most of our nation's history, but it is true."

 

Hawkins says the images coming from the Trump administration look the way they do because the Republican Party is predominantly white.

 

"Republicans have just done a poor job of attracting minorities," says Hawkins, author of "101 Things All Young Adults Should Know."

 

"Part of it is our fault. We've done a terrible job of outreach."

 

Some powerful Republicans defended the White House photo. During an interview with Andrea Mitchell on NBC's "Meet the Press," Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said critics mischaracterized the optics of the event.

Mitchell had asked Price why so few women were at the ceremony, particularly since the Republican health care bill would allow insurers to opt out of providing basic benefits to women such as maternity coverage and birth control.

Price told Mitchell to look again at the photo.

 

"Andrea, come on. Look at that picture. Congresswoman Diane Black, the chair of the budget committee, I was standing next to her. Seema Verma, the administrator of CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services], I was standing right next to her."

 

To which Mitchell responded: "Out of a group of dozens and dozens of people, you can cite two or three women?"

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins...merica-n2176700

 

Here's an article all the conservatives and some moderates will love...just because we're all about both sides in the Buster, lol.

 

 

 

Christian Church Has Advice For White People – “10 Ways You Can Actively Reject Your White Privilege”

 

Straight White Men are Banned From an Equality Conference

 

Rap Video Shows White Cop Being Tortured, Hanged, But Rapper Claims He’s Not “Inspiring Violence”

 

Obama’s Lackey Tells Students “There Are Too Many Whites In Top Government jobs.”

 

VIDEO: Racist Activist And Friends Issue Filthy Threat if Whites Won’t Pay Reparations…

 

College Celebrates People Who Want To “Breed White People Out Of Existence” [VIDEO]

 

Teacher: Minorities Don’t Have to Show Up or Hand in Assignments on Time Because of “White Privilege”

 

Actress Patricia Clarkson: White Male Actors Should “Shut Up and Sit in the Corner”

[EvilJester99]

Is there somewhere to sign up for the benefits of this white privilege?? I don't think I've ever received mine. Maybe I missed the sign up somewhere.

[caulfield12]

Is there somewhere to sign up for the benefits of this white privilege?? I don't think I've ever received mine. Maybe I missed the sign up somewhere.

 

Rabbit has a blog/sign-up form available somewhere...

[Reddy]

Is there somewhere to sign up for the benefits of this white privilege?? I don't think I've ever received mine. Maybe I missed the sign up somewhere.

This is the kicker right? Starting out a mile ahead in a marathon doesn't inherently mean you know how to run it. And it doesn't mean you're guaranteed to beat the people behind you. All it means is you got a head start, and if all other variables are equal, white people have a head start over a person of color at the same socio-economic level because of societal attitudes and implicit biases.

[caulfield12]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon/17...VlAd#.kskbnm5z8

17 Deplorable Examples of a White Privilege

 

 

Straight White Male: the lowest computer game difficulty setting there is

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/stra...tting-there-is/

 

 

http://www.dickshovel.com/priv.html

Here's what white privilege sounds like: I'm sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support. The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that being white has advantages in the United States. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege.

 

...

 

I am as white as white gets in this country. I am of northern European heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white world surrounded by racism, both personal and institutional. Because I didn't live near a reservation, I didn't even have exposure to the state's only numerically significant nonwhite population, American Indians.

 

I have struggled to resist that racist training and the racism of my culture. I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. But no matter how much I "fix" myself, one thing never changes - I walk through the world with white privilege.

 

What does that mean? Perhaps most importantly, when I seek admission to a university, apply for a job, or hunt for an apartment, I don't look threatening. Almost all of the people evaluating me look like me they are white. They see in me a reflection of themselves - and in a racist world, that is an advantage. I smile. I am white. I am one of them. I am not dangerous. Even when I voice critical opinions, I am cut some slack. After all, I'm white.

 

My flaws also are more easily forgiven because I am white. Some complain that affirmative action has meant the university is saddled with mediocre minority professors. I have no doubt there are minority faculty who are mediocre, though I don't know very many. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. once pointed out, if affirmative action policies were in place for the next hundred years, it's possible that at the end of that time the university could have as many mediocre minority professors as it has mediocre white professors. That isn't meant as an insult to anyone, but it's a simple observation that white privilege has meant that scores of second-rate white professors have slid through the system because their flaws were overlooked out of solidarity based on race, as well as on gender, class and ideology.

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[Chicago White Sox]

This is the kicker right? Starting out a mile ahead in a marathon doesn't inherently mean you know how to run it. And it doesn't mean you're guaranteed to beat the people behind you. All it means is you got a head start, and if all other variables are equal, white people have a head start over a person of color at the same socio-economic level because of societal attitudes and implicit biases.

Again, you speak in absolutes & generalities, and couldn't be further wrong. There are plenty of universities & companies that discriminate against white all in the name of diversity. If you are a person of color with talent and/or strong credentials, I'd argue that in today's corporate environment you actually have an advantage over a similar skilled white person. The value of diversity is screamed out at every business school across the country and most companies are actively pursuing it now. If you ever had a real job (aren't you model when you're not leading the Resistance) you would know this.

 

The average African American no doubt has more challenges than the average white person due to economic factors that restrict opportunities & education. I don't need statistics to tell me that more blacks suffer from poverty than whites and I know well that poverty is a viscous cycle that holds back opportunity for years to come. But there are plenty of whites who also face these challenges and do not start off "a mile ahead". These people deserve the same compassion as the African Americans you fight so hard to support. Again, using blanket generalizations is working against you and makes you come off a know nothing know it all asshole.