3 ms·

> However, when I have to join a cheesy townhall once a month to discuss diversity hires, it makes me feel like I have no right to feel proud of any accomplishm

> However, when I have to join a cheesy townhall once a month to discuss diversity hires, it makes me feel like I have no right to feel proud of any accomplishments I've made within the company. I feel the same way, kinda... I'm male, and not a PoC, so perhaps maybe my perspective is different? I'm told that I'm privileged, but that's not how I feel. I'm told due to systemic bias that I'm probably unaware of my privilege, but I feel well aware of all the disadvantages I've actually experienced. And yet I'm open minded to exploring the way I could be oblivious to other people' problems. I'm not sure if I'm actually the bad guy, or if I'm being gas lighted.

Dooflegna 4y ago
> I'm male, and not a PoC, so perhaps maybe my perspective is different? > > I'm told that I'm privileged, but that's not how I feel. Think of it this way: As a male and not POC, you're starting at the starting line with no inherent disadvantages. If you're a woman, you're farther behind on the starting line. If you're a POC, you're farther behind on the starting line. Privilege isn't supposed to make you feel -bad-. You didn't choose to be born male and white. It just happened to you. Your accomplishments are still your own, your life is still your own. But it's ignorance (willful or otherwise) to deny the inherent advantages of being male and white, as compared to women, or POC, or people who are LGBTQ. Put differently: if feeling bad about being privileged is the worst part of your experience where it comes to things like diversity, then you are a very privileged person.
tristor 4y ago
> I'm not sure if I'm actually the bad guy, or if I'm being gas lighted. Neither, but more gas lighted than bad guy. The reality is that what is currently described as "privilege", isn't. It's actually the absence of oppression. Most oppression in Western society is based on class, not race or gender, and therefor all but a tiny minority of people in Western society face some oppression at some point in their life. Some oppression is based on race and gender, and this oppression is limited to people of that race or gender, and therefore some people experience more oppression in their life than others. The gas lighting is two-fold: 1. DEI advocates ignore class issues (intentionally, and arguably maliciously), and focus only on race and gender, extrapolating as hard as possible from the most wealthy and privileged minority to the majority. 2. "Privilege" as the absence of oppression is discussed as special treatment, rather than a default state to strive for that should apply to all people. The entire movement to take white people and especially white men down a peg or two, is actually just increasing oppression in totality, rather than reducing oppression in any way. The correct path away from oppression is not adding more oppression, and it is asinine for any rational person to consider a temporary and situational absence of oppression as a form of "privilege". Actually solving these issues is complex and likely intractable, but there are constructive and well-researched ways to improve these issues on societal scale. The, primarily white elites, advocates for DEI though are not interested in actually improving these issues, but getting social status from paying lip service to the issues without improving them to a point at which they could no longer talk about them.

Dooflegna 4y ago

> I'm male, and not a PoC, so perhaps maybe my perspective is different? > > I'm told that I'm privileged, but that's not how I feel. Think of it this way: As a male and not POC, you're starting at the starting line with no inherent disadvantages. If you're a woman, you're farther behind on the starting line. If you're a POC, you're farther behind on the starting line. Privilege isn't supposed to make you feel -bad-. You didn't choose to be born male and white. It just happened to you. Your accomplishments are still your own, your life is still your own. But it's ignorance (willful or otherwise) to deny the inherent advantages of being male and white, as compared to women, or POC, or people who are LGBTQ. Put differently: if feeling bad about being privileged is the worst part of your experience where it comes to things like diversity, then you are a very privileged person.

tristor 4y ago

> I'm not sure if I'm actually the bad guy, or if I'm being gas lighted. Neither, but more gas lighted than bad guy. The reality is that what is currently described as "privilege", isn't. It's actually the absence of oppression. Most oppression in Western society is based on class, not race or gender, and therefor all but a tiny minority of people in Western society face some oppression at some point in their life. Some oppression is based on race and gender, and this oppression is limited to people of that race or gender, and therefore some people experience more oppression in their life than others. The gas lighting is two-fold: 1. DEI advocates ignore class issues (intentionally, and arguably maliciously), and focus only on race and gender, extrapolating as hard as possible from the most wealthy and privileged minority to the majority. 2. "Privilege" as the absence of oppression is discussed as special treatment, rather than a default state to strive for that should apply to all people. The entire movement to take white people and especially white men down a peg or two, is actually just increasing oppression in totality, rather than reducing oppression in any way. The correct path away from oppression is not adding more oppression, and it is asinine for any rational person to consider a temporary and situational absence of oppression as a form of "privilege". Actually solving these issues is complex and likely intractable, but there are constructive and well-researched ways to improve these issues on societal scale. The, primarily white elites, advocates for DEI though are not interested in actually improving these issues, but getting social status from paying lip service to the issues without improving them to a point at which they could no longer talk about them.