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It's worth noting that "privilege" comes from the Latin for "private law", which is to say a law that established a code of conduct for one class that was not a
by cperciva 11y ago
It's worth noting that "privilege" comes from the Latin for "private law", which is to say a law that established a code of conduct for one class that was not applied to another. Typically, this took the form of exempting some people from the laws that bound everyone else.
Sounds to me like "it's wrong for you to discriminate on the basis of race, but it's fine when I do it" fits perfectly into the definition of privilege here.
- alexqgb 11y agoIt's only wrong if you strip it of all context. In the real world, which is defined by deep and ancient legacies, things are very different. In in America circa 2015, where the status quo is inherently wrong and racist, it's wrong to consider race when doing so propagates the status quo. At the same time, it is right to consider race when seeking to frustrate or dismantle the status quo. Both judgements rest on the same principle, which is that the status quo is inherently wrong and racist. So you see? There's no double standard. Of course, if you can't already see the injustice built into the status quo, then efforts to counter it are going to appear baseless and suspect. But given all the evidence to the contrary, that would take a pretty extraordinary act of willful blindness.