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> Good point. How do you fix this? Precisely. My wife works in one of the exact kind of schools (in exactly the kind of neighborhood) JoeAltmaier mentions. Som

> Good point. How do you fix this? Precisely. My wife works in one of the exact kind of schools (in exactly the kind of neighborhood) JoeAltmaier mentions. Some parents, regardless of where they're coming from, make it clear to their children that education is a priority, ensure their children arrive at school on time each day dressed in clean clothes, and that their homework is completed. Other parents do not make this effort. It's heartbreaking that it's true, but there's nothing anyone but their parents can do about it. Yes, those children are being put at a disadvantage in life - there's zero denying it. And it's tragic. As you correctly point out, these attitudes and priorities have nothing to do with race. If it's privilege, it's more appropriately called decision privilege.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Of course its not caused by race. But it is correlated with it. Statistics show that poorer people do this more; poorer people are often minorities for historical reasons. Compound this with discrimination ("Most X people I see don't value education, so I won't bother trying with their children") and you have the whole 'white privilege' package tied up in a bow. We're all agreeing here; sensible people don't confuse opportunity with race. But there are a whole lot of not-sensible people out there, who take simple correlation and conclude "X people are stupid" or whatever. In the end its about fixing the problem. Its not clear that the 'white privilege' label is helping much. Maybe just to get conversations like this one going?
Chris2048 10y ago
The truth is, it's a lottery. And the only fix is something very non-standard; Greater government interference in family life, or removal of liberal reproduction rights. Until we accept something like that, the best we can do is try to reduce the 'cultural' aspects of bad-parenting, but that's all. > these attitudes and priorities have nothing to do with race they correlate with race - sometimes. It's the ambiguous nature of 'culture'. But privilege appears to me to refer specifically to opportunity. "decision privilege" seems contradictory in that respect; especially with things like "getting pregnant at a young age" and "having children outside marriage" - I think these are actually "behavioral privilege" (living in a culture/environment that values/encourages certain behavior), which does not fit the usual narratives and semantics around the word 'privilege', one of which is, change can only come from within the community, and resistance to change is not imposed from outside.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago

Of course its not caused by race. But it is correlated with it. Statistics show that poorer people do this more; poorer people are often minorities for historical reasons. Compound this with discrimination ("Most X people I see don't value education, so I won't bother trying with their children") and you have the whole 'white privilege' package tied up in a bow. We're all agreeing here; sensible people don't confuse opportunity with race. But there are a whole lot of not-sensible people out there, who take simple correlation and conclude "X people are stupid" or whatever. In the end its about fixing the problem. Its not clear that the 'white privilege' label is helping much. Maybe just to get conversations like this one going?

Chris2048 10y ago

The truth is, it's a lottery. And the only fix is something very non-standard; Greater government interference in family life, or removal of liberal reproduction rights. Until we accept something like that, the best we can do is try to reduce the 'cultural' aspects of bad-parenting, but that's all. > these attitudes and priorities have nothing to do with race they correlate with race - sometimes. It's the ambiguous nature of 'culture'. But privilege appears to me to refer specifically to opportunity. "decision privilege" seems contradictory in that respect; especially with things like "getting pregnant at a young age" and "having children outside marriage" - I think these are actually "behavioral privilege" (living in a culture/environment that values/encourages certain behavior), which does not fit the usual narratives and semantics around the word 'privilege', one of which is, change can only come from within the community, and resistance to change is not imposed from outside.