4 ms·
> irrelevant relative to the individual person's life, ideas, experiences, ability to express themselves etc. I’m not sure I get you here. Of course race and g
by hk__2 5y ago
> irrelevant relative to the individual person's life, ideas, experiences, ability to express themselves etc.
I’m not sure I get you here. Of course race and gender have a huge impact on a person’s life, and thus on their ideas, experiences and ability to express themselves. White men virtually never experience racism or sexism, whereas women and/or Black people are reminded about their identity every day. All women have been bothered by men in the street and all Black people have heard numerous racist comments through their life. They are so used to it they don’t even talk about it; it’s just normal. White men can’t even imagine to what extend this goes because they never experience it. People who never experience discriminations often don’t see the problem or diminish it because it’s unfamiliar to them.
- epivosism 5y agoSome of your "nevers" are a bit too strong. While a majority where I was born, I spent 10+ years as a minority relative to my surroundings and definitely got different treatment, in some cases in a disagreeable way and sometimes favorably. The world is more complex than just blacks & whites in the USA - there's cantonese/mandarin speaker discrimination, caste discrimination, fluent vs accented mandarin speaking ability, being from the wrong side of the tracks/from the wrong neighborhood or social class discrimination independent of race. Heck, black and white cops like each other and hate firemen of all races with a passion; Non-muslims have paid Jizya in Muslim countries. So I agree that minimizing discrimination shouldn't be done, but I disagree that this is something the racial or gender majority never experiences. I agree it is wrong to live in your own privilege and unfairly judge other people, but I think experience of both sides of the experience are more universal than you suggest. In fact I think we should emphasize the extent of the problem on all axes, as a way to make people come to the moral realization that they should judge people as individuals and not by any other group trait - because they should remember how wrong it was when someone did it to them.
- akomtu 5y agoWho are those "white men"? Jews, italians, chinese? Where's the whiteness line drawn?
- hk__2 5y agoThis is irrelevant to the point. The definition of those "white mens" varies according to the place or the time [1] but the point doesn’t change. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/opinion/columbus-day-italian-american-racism.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/opinion/colum...