White People - A Documentary

[Jenksismyhero]

 

Finally, all those who suffer from white guilt have an outlet! Jesus.

 

Here's the thing: you can, as a white person, appreciate and acknowledge that white people are privileged in a lot of ways and have certainly been MORE privileged than other races throughout history. However, (1) all "white" people are not the same. Some "white" people are not privileged and haven't experienced the same privilege as other whites; (2) whites in 2015, especially teenagers and young adults that this "documentary" is shaming, have nothing to do with the "privilege" and realistically are the LEAST privileged white people there has been in this country.

 

The whole thing is a disgrace, but I'm sure some people will praise it as some amazing achievement in social commentary.

 

edit: oh, and how is this not racist? The non-white guy is targeting white people specifically and chastising them. Can you imagine if he made a "Black People" documentary?

Edited July 9, 2015 by Jenksismybitch

[chw42]

 

Finally, all those who suffer from white guilt have an outlet! Jesus.

 

Here's the thing: you can, as a white person, appreciate and acknowledge that white people are privileged in a lot of ways and have certainly been MORE privileged than other races throughout history. However, (1) all "white" people are not the same. Some "white" people are not privileged and haven't experienced the same privilege as other whites; (2) whites in 2015, especially teenagers and young adults that this "documentary" is shaming, have nothing to do with the "privilege" and realistically are the LEAST privileged white people there has been in this country.

 

The whole thing is a disgrace, but I'm sure some people will praise it as some amazing achievement in social commentary.

 

edit: oh, and how is this not racist? The non-white guy is targeting white people specifically and chastising them. Can you imagine if he made a "Black People" documentary?

 

I agree on your first point, but just because young white people are not as privileged today as they were 20 years ago doesn't mean they aren't privileged in some way.

 

And you know why there isn't a "Black People" documentary. Just like there isn't a Hispanic People or Asian People documentary. Because they aren't privileged and they're minorities. There would be no point to make a documentary like that.

[Balta1701]

(2) whites in 2015, especially teenagers and young adults that this "documentary" is shaming, have nothing to do with the "privilege" and realistically are the LEAST privileged white people there has been in this country.

And that's treated as somehow a badge of honor in this comment. Or an excuse to ignore the remaining significant inequalities.

[Jenksismyhero]

But the documentary blames those white kids. WTF did they do but win the birth lottery? Nothing. It's a movie about making white kids feel bad about being white. That's bulls***.

 

 

[Balta1701]

But the documentary blames those white kids. WTF did they do but win the birth lottery? Nothing. It's a movie about making white kids feel bad about being white. That's bulls***.

I know how bad would it be if large parts of this country regularly made minority groups feel bad about being the race that they were born? That'd be truly awful.

[Jenksismyhero]

I know how bad would it be if large parts of this country regularly made minority groups feel bad about being the race that they were born? That'd be truly awful.

 

Ah yes, the "they do it too so it's ok for us!" response.

[chw42]

But the documentary blames those white kids. WTF did they do but win the birth lottery? Nothing. It's a movie about making white kids feel bad about being white. That's bulls***.

 

lol you got "blame" from watching a one minute trailer?

 

I think you're overreacting here.

[Balta1701]

Ah yes, the "they do it too so it's ok for us!" response.

No, that's the "read your own words and actually pause to check your own privilege" response.

[Jenksismyhero]

No, that's the "read your own words and actually pause to check your own privilege" response.

 

I, and most sane white people, don't deny there's a certain privilege to being white. However, it's not of my doing nor does it continue because of anything I do. So to blame me for it or make me apologize for it is bulls***.

[Balta1701]

I, and most sane white people, don't deny there's a certain privilege to being white. However, it's not of my doing nor does it continue because of anything I do. So to blame me for it or make me apologize for it is bulls***.

So it's not your fault, you can't be called upon to act to do anything to correct that problem, yet somehow it doesn't continue because of anything you do.

 

And there's the beautiful contradiction that is white privilege. It doesn't exist because of anything you do but you can't be asked to do anything about it, you just get to enjoy the benefits. Fixing it is other people's problem. They just need to be better, after all.

[EvilMonkey]

I, and most sane white people, don't deny there's a certain privilege to being white. However, it's not of my doing nor does it continue because of anything I do. So to blame me for it or make me apologize for it is bulls***.

I also refuse to apologize for whatever, if any, advantage I have for being white. I hate white people as much as black people or brown people, if they are deserving of my hate. Assholery knows no color. When hiring, if you can do the job right and make me money, I don't care what color you are, so I am not keeping anyone down, other than stupid people who can't do the job I need them to do. My current designer is a bisexual hispanic woman, the one before that was a fat gay man. I had hired some black guy who just got out of college but he quit before he even started because he got a better offer, so gay fat guy it was.

[EvilMonkey]

So it's not your fault, you can't be called upon to act to do anything to correct that problem, yet somehow it doesn't continue because of anything you do.

 

And there's the beautiful contradiction that is white privilege. It doesn't exist because of anything you do but you can't be asked to do anything about it, you just get to enjoy the benefits. Fixing it is other people's problem. They just need to be better, after all.

What will making a bunch of white kids feel like s*** do to fix the problem? Todays kids are more accepting of everyone then ever before. Sounds like what you want is for it to be reversed and for white kids to have to go thru hell and back because someone else had to do it years ago that didn't look like them.

[Balta1701]

I also refuse to apologize for whatever, if any, advantage I have for being white. I hate white people as much as black people or brown people, if they are deserving of my hate. Assholery knows no color. When hiring, if you can do the job right and make me money, I don't care what color you are, so I am not keeping anyone down, other than stupid people who can't do the job I need them to do. My current designer is a bisexual hispanic woman, the one before that was a fat gay man. I had hired some black guy who just got out of college but he quit before he even started because he got a better offer, so gay fat guy it was.

And of course, the ability to say that and have it turn out to exclude people because of a long legacy of things that happened to them is a part of the white privilege we get to ignore.

[Balta1701]

What will making a bunch of white kids feel like s*** do to fix the problem? Todays kids are more accepting of everyone then ever before. Sounds like what you want is for it to be reversed and for white kids to have to go thru hell and back because someone else had to do it years ago that didn't look like them.

And the next example of white privilege presented in this thread is asserting that it doesn't happen any more. Maybe we should educate our kids better on what kinds of additional privileges they get because of their skin color.

 

You guys are the textbook examples of why. You just don't have to face up to that...because...well you knwo.

[Jenksismyhero]

So it's not your fault, you can't be called upon to act to do anything to correct that problem, yet somehow it doesn't continue because of anything you do.

 

And there's the beautiful contradiction that is white privilege. It doesn't exist because of anything you do but you can't be asked to do anything about it, you just get to enjoy the benefits. Fixing it is other people's problem. They just need to be better, after all.

 

I can't change my skin color. I can't change what happened in the past. So, yeah, there's not much I can do about "being white" in 2015 America.

 

[Jenksismyhero]

And the next example of white privilege presented in this thread is asserting that it doesn't happen any more. Maybe we should educate our kids better on what kinds of additional privileges they get because of their skin color.

 

You guys are the textbook examples of why. You just don't have to face up to that...because...well you knwo.

 

Nah, let's blame 18 year olds for it and make them cry and feel responsible. Oh, and be racist while doing it (but it's cool guys cause he's not a white dude!) A MUCH better plan.

 

 

[Jenksismyhero]

And the next example of white privilege presented in this thread is asserting that it doesn't happen any more. Maybe we should educate our kids better on what kinds of additional privileges they get because of their skin color.

 

You guys are the textbook examples of why. You just don't have to face up to that...because...well you knwo.

 

Stop making s*** up. No one is saying this.

[Balta1701]

Stop making s*** up. No one is saying this.

"someone else had to do it years ago that didn't look like them."

 

Highlighting again.

[Chisoxfn]

"someone else had to do it years ago that didn't look like them."

 

Highlighting again.

Lets cut through all the stuff and just get to the...what do you propose? Should everyone that was born a certain color not accept any job they get or college they got into or move out of their house because of any potential advantage they had in life? And lets go past this, lets take race out of the equation...should everyone be born have to be stripped of any wealth / privileges from their families and be moved to a separate land away from their families so all children can have equal starting points?

[Balta1701]

Lets cut through all the stuff and just get to the...what do you propose? Should everyone that was born a certain color not accept any job they get or college they got into or move out of their house because of any potential advantage they had in life? And lets go past this, lets take race out of the equation...should everyone be born have to be stripped of any wealth / privlidges from their families and be moved to a seperate land away from their families so all children can have equal starting points?

No. But you know what is important? Recognizing when something you're saying actually does damage to other people. That alone, right there, is motivation for people making a movie like this.

 

I have to work with it in my daily life. When I was taught Earth Science, it was a laundry list of historical white geologists, ignoring the contributions of women, minorities, which in many cases were equal. I'm right now working to alter that in my own lectures, but I would not be doing so had I not stopped to realize that's what I was doing.

 

That doesn't fix everything, but it's one of a great many positive steps people can make with their own attitudes just by realizing that they're doing it. In other words, making people actually stop, face up to the subtle things they do in their daily lives. Which looks to be exactly what the point of a movie like this might be!

 

When we saw the Baltimore riots, one of the posters in this thread replied "good job playing to the sterotype black males of Baltimore". Exactly the same kind of thing. Medical evidence actually shows that by the time they're 30 years old, African American women are the equivalent of biologically being several years older than white women due to increased stress. We insult people, we treat them as less important in our daily lives, and then we justify that by saying "oh I'll hire anyone as long as they're the best fit" or "good job playing to the stereotype" without realizing that both of those actions feed directly back into the whole setup. Insults, shunning, casual comments, whatever it is, the effects are actually strong enough to show up in people's biology.

 

That's why making people step back and check their own privilege, which is what it looks like this movie is based in doing, is actually one of many necessary but not sufficient steps.

[Jenksismyhero]

No. But you know what is important? Recognizing when something you're saying actually does damage to other people. That alone, right there, is motivation for people making a movie like this.

 

I have to work with it in my daily life. When I was taught Earth Science, it was a laundry list of historical white geologists, ignoring the contributions of women, minorities, which in many cases were equal. I'm right now working to alter that in my own lectures, but I would not be doing so had I not stopped to realize that's what I was doing.

 

That doesn't fix everything, but it's one of a great many positive steps people can make with their own attitudes just by realizing that they're doing it. In other words, making people actually stop, face up to the subtle things they do in their daily lives. Which looks to be exactly what the point of a movie like this might be!

 

Such as? You don't think we all know that we've caught a lot of breaks in comparison to some black folks out there? Give me specific examples Balta of how i'm supposed to change my daily life other than apologizing profusely for being born white and feeling guilty about it.

 

When we saw the Baltimore riots, one of the posters in this thread replied "good job playing to the sterotype black males of Baltimore". Exactly the same kind of thing. Medical evidence actually shows that by the time they're 30 years old, African American women are the equivalent of biologically being several years older than white women due to increased stress. We insult people, we treat them as less important in our daily lives, and then we justify that by saying "oh I'll hire anyone as long as they're the best fit" or "good job playing to the stereotype" without realizing that both of those actions feed directly back into the whole setup. Insults, shunning, casual comments, whatever it is, the effects are actually strong enough to show up in people's biology.

 

1) that's not what I said. I said that you can't break stereotypes that people believe by acting in a stereotypical way. When black males are thought to be lawless criminals by people in our society, it doesn't help that image when you see tons of black males stealing s*** from people in broad day light and bashing in car windows and generally acting like a bunch of lawless criminals. That's just commenting on a fact.

 

2) wtf does that have to do with white privilege? I wasn't saying all black males are lawless criminals, I was commenting on a stereotype that is already out there. Are you suggesting that we should somehow ignore their actions because they're black, because indirectly we're commenting that blacks are just a bunch of criminals? I'm not sure I understand your point here.

 

That's why making people step back and check their own privilege, which is what it looks like this movie is based in doing, is actually one of many necessary but not sufficient steps.

 

Except it doesn't do that. It doesn't appear to be, from the trailer, about getting white kids to recognize how great they've got it. Seems to me it's a big shaming party. Perhaps I'm judging too quickly, but it's tough not to get that sense with the way they edit the trailer with white kids crying and saying "i don't mean to offend," or "i don't want to sound racist" etc.

 

Moreover, that movie is racist as hell. Not all white people think the same. Not all white people act the same. Hell, not all white people have that same white privilege that they're getting at (clearly they're not talking to poor ethnic whites in our own country, they're talking to middle/upper class suburbia there). I mean come on Balta, if I made a video called "black people" and it's me interviewing blacks and asking them why they kill each other or why they commit more crime than whites, etc, and talk to "them" as if all black people act that way, it'd be the most racist movie ever. Here? Meh. It's cool. We're just getting white people to recognize what they do on a daily basis. That's a bunch of BS.

[Jenksismyhero]

"someone else had to do it years ago that didn't look like them."

 

Highlighting again.

 

Well, when we all come back to slavery as the root cause of this, and there's no more slavery, why isn't it ok to say "years ago?" I don't think he means that there isn't a privilege today or that blacks don't have any systemic problems today caused by the past. You're reading too much into that.

[EvilMonkey]

Maybe Balta should lead the way and give up his job for an equally and probably more qualified minority candidate, since he obviously had to have got his position because he is white. Lead on, balta. Show us the way to enlightenment!

[Balta1701]

Well, when we all come back to slavery as the root cause of this, and there's no more slavery, why isn't it ok to say "years ago?" I don't think he means that there isn't a privilege today or that blacks don't have any systemic problems today caused by the past. You're reading too much into that.

Because what he said was "going through Hell", not "slavery". "Going through hell" is not "Years ago."

[Middle Buffalo]

Maybe I'm naive, but I think race relations in this country might improve some if minorities made an attempt to gain empathy for their plight.

 

Race is definitely a factor in the U.S., but how do Mexicans in this country who feel they are targeted because of their race explain the divisions off wealth and power in Mexico? Is "whitey" responsible? How about in India or China or (fill in he blank)? White people can't be responsible in those countries, too.

 

One of the problems some white people have with minorities is that when the minorities point a finger, they are often pointing at people who are not racist. So, from the perspective of the white person, the attack is unwarranted and the white person may naturally feel defensive. A black person or Hispanic person might look at me with envy because my life must have been so great because I'm white. But, they don't know that my parents are immigrants, and they struggled to find good jobs. They struggled to feed, clothe, and educate my family.

 

I can relate with minorities way more than they might believe, but I and many other white people don't/won't get the chance. Many minorities look at me and other white people with the same prejudice that they claim to abhor.