7 ms·

First off - I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, al

First off - I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, all black people have some disadvantage, etc. It’s a brutally racist mentality that is very common. Secondly, poverty is not a lack of money or material wealth. That is part of it and is definitely a symptom. But actual poverty is a culture and a set of habits that easily pass from one generation to the next. The idea that just injecting money at the lowest levels of society will fix this is absurd. This is a multi generational problem that will not be fixed with money. I don’t know a better answer, but I think about it a lot.

cup 8y ago
All white people do have some innate starting advantage due to their whiteness. That isn't to say they don't also have disadvantages too, for instance poverty, disability etc. Having white skin though gives you an advantage in a system that prioritises whiteness over other colours. Its not racist to discuss this.
- jimbobimbo 8y ago
  RE: "All white people": You are a white person living in Eastern Europe. How's your advantage now?
  - BugsJustFindMe 8y ago
    Compared to a black person living in the same place and going to the same school and having the same number of living parents with the same jobs and same dedication to success, probably very good. Please remember to keep other factors equal when comparing aspects of demography. Otherwise you've just strayed off into the wilderness of logical fallacyland.
    - refurb 8y ago
      Ok, you’re a white farmer living in South Africa. How’s you’re whiteness helping you now?
      - jeromebaek 8y ago
        You do realize apartheid ended not long ago in South Africa, right? If you chose something like South Korea maybe this would make more sense.
      - marsrover 8y ago
        Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. Not a lot of white privilege going on in South Africa right now.
      - BugsJustFindMe 8y ago
        Quick couple of questions for you... What percentage of farm land in South Africa is currently owned by white people? Answer: 72% How does that compare to the demographic breakdown of the South African population? Answer: White people make up 9% of the population. Question: In what year did SA repeal The Natives Land Act of 1913? Answer: 1991. What did The Natives Land Act of 1913 do? Among other things, it made it illegal for non-whites to buy land except from other non-whites. What percentage of South African farmland was owned by white people in 1994? Answer: 86% So how much land could non-white farmers own just because they weren't white? Very little. How long ago? Very recently. So if you're a white South African farmer, your enduring privilege, like it or not, is that non-white South African farmers were almost certainly not allowed to buy that land until very recently. It's much harder to be a farmer without land. So then we need to ask, how did this white farmer in South Africa get there? It's important to recognize that your life is structured, harmed, hindered, buoyed, and improved by violence that happened even before you were born, that you had no control over, and that you would even not choose to support today. That doesn't mean you live in a vacuum.
DoreenMichele 8y ago
On the one hand, while homeless, being white very much helped protect me most of the time from things like simply being thrown off the premises. (Though certainly not always.) Just as poverty isn't about lack of money per se, white privilege mostly isn't about money per se either. As you say, the money (or lack thereof) is really a symptom. On the other hand, I also have a predominantly Caucasian genetic disorder classified as a dread disease because of the horrors it inflicts upon your life. So being white absolutely comes with a very huge downside for me. I mostly don't get a lot of sympathy for that. I mostly get attacked and told I'm making crap up. I wish we could default to seeing each other as spirits in a material world and try harder to find solutions, not scapegoats. /2cents
thex10 8y ago
> I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, all black people have some disadvantage, etc. It’s a brutally racist mentality that is very common. Dislike it all you want, but observing realities that are often shared within blocks of people (as opposed to randomly distributed across every slice of every group of population) and daring to discuss them (out loud!) in a moderately visible venue should not be seen as problematic, and certainly not as "a brutally racist mentality".
- mberning 8y ago
  It’s not discussed. It’s casually accepted by many even though there is no evidence for it and evidence against it is ignored or hand waved away.
likeclockwork 8y ago
"But actual poverty is a culture and a set of habits that easily pass from one generation to the next." Wow.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

cup 8y ago

All white people do have some innate starting advantage due to their whiteness. That isn't to say they don't also have disadvantages too, for instance poverty, disability etc. Having white skin though gives you an advantage in a system that prioritises whiteness over other colours. Its not racist to discuss this.

jimbobimbo 8y ago
RE: "All white people": You are a white person living in Eastern Europe. How's your advantage now?
- BugsJustFindMe 8y ago
  Compared to a black person living in the same place and going to the same school and having the same number of living parents with the same jobs and same dedication to success, probably very good. Please remember to keep other factors equal when comparing aspects of demography. Otherwise you've just strayed off into the wilderness of logical fallacyland.
  - refurb 8y ago
    Ok, you’re a white farmer living in South Africa. How’s you’re whiteness helping you now?
    - jeromebaek 8y ago
      You do realize apartheid ended not long ago in South Africa, right? If you chose something like South Korea maybe this would make more sense.
    - marsrover 8y ago
      Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. Not a lot of white privilege going on in South Africa right now.
    - BugsJustFindMe 8y ago
      Quick couple of questions for you... What percentage of farm land in South Africa is currently owned by white people? Answer: 72% How does that compare to the demographic breakdown of the South African population? Answer: White people make up 9% of the population. Question: In what year did SA repeal The Natives Land Act of 1913? Answer: 1991. What did The Natives Land Act of 1913 do? Among other things, it made it illegal for non-whites to buy land except from other non-whites. What percentage of South African farmland was owned by white people in 1994? Answer: 86% So how much land could non-white farmers own just because they weren't white? Very little. How long ago? Very recently. So if you're a white South African farmer, your enduring privilege, like it or not, is that non-white South African farmers were almost certainly not allowed to buy that land until very recently. It's much harder to be a farmer without land. So then we need to ask, how did this white farmer in South Africa get there? It's important to recognize that your life is structured, harmed, hindered, buoyed, and improved by violence that happened even before you were born, that you had no control over, and that you would even not choose to support today. That doesn't mean you live in a vacuum.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

On the one hand, while homeless, being white very much helped protect me most of the time from things like simply being thrown off the premises. (Though certainly not always.) Just as poverty isn't about lack of money per se, white privilege mostly isn't about money per se either. As you say, the money (or lack thereof) is really a symptom. On the other hand, I also have a predominantly Caucasian genetic disorder classified as a dread disease because of the horrors it inflicts upon your life. So being white absolutely comes with a very huge downside for me. I mostly don't get a lot of sympathy for that. I mostly get attacked and told I'm making crap up. I wish we could default to seeing each other as spirits in a material world and try harder to find solutions, not scapegoats. /2cents

thex10 8y ago

> I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, all black people have some disadvantage, etc. It’s a brutally racist mentality that is very common. Dislike it all you want, but observing realities that are often shared within blocks of people (as opposed to randomly distributed across every slice of every group of population) and daring to discuss them (out loud!) in a moderately visible venue should not be seen as problematic, and certainly not as "a brutally racist mentality".

mberning 8y ago
It’s not discussed. It’s casually accepted by many even though there is no evidence for it and evidence against it is ignored or hand waved away.

likeclockwork 8y ago

"But actual poverty is a culture and a set of habits that easily pass from one generation to the next." Wow.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]