5 ms·

Which sort of goes hand in hand with the idea of white privilege. If I grow up dirt poor, with uneducated parents, in a rural dirt poor region where there wasn’

Which sort of goes hand in hand with the idea of white privilege. If I grow up dirt poor, with uneducated parents, in a rural dirt poor region where there wasn’t anyone except other white people in a 100 mile radius for me to be favoured over, apparently I’ve still benefited from some sort of systemic or inherent bias in favour of myself on the basis of race. Which apparently needs to be corrected and puts me at a disadvantage when applying to certain schools or jobs.

axoltl 2y ago
The term "white privilege" is a bit of a misnomer. What it's mean to convey is the fact that a white person is much less likely to get passed over for something than a person of color. It doesn't mean an actual privilege, more the lack of a hardship. That doesn't mean one didn't experience hardship, just that it's unlikely to have been due to the color of your skin.
- llm_trw 2y ago
  Which may have been true in 1970s, today I get told in emails to pass over White and Asian candidates because we need more diversity. The sheer hubris of putting racism in writing makes me feel like I'm in a topsy turvy 1950s.
  - jimbokun 2y ago
    Yeah, it's especially confusing trying to understand how it's the Asians fault, too.
    - ajsnigrutin 2y ago
      Yep, on one hand, concetration camps in US for japanese people not that long ago, and now discriminated against when applying for college...
  - noisy_boy 2y ago
    It is true in 2024 also, just that you have to choose a location different from US; go to Southeast Asia to see it in action everyday, where everyone is extra nice to white people - sales people are extra polite, people laugh extra hard at everything white people say, the lady at the counter pays first attention to white people among the group of folks waiting and so on. I have heard white people say "I loved the experience, everyone was so nice"... Of course it was, of course they were. To be fair, there are flip sides to this too e.g white folks are more likely to be overcharged, more likely to be subject of scams etc but that's just the other side of the same coin.
    - llm_trw 2y ago
      So in South East Asia they are nice to minorities? That's nice.
- transcriptase 2y ago
  And so the cosmic scales apparently require that this person be discriminated against, not on the basis of anything they’ve done, or have had done for them, but because of the colour of their skin and what wasn’t done to them. Regardless of all other hardships and lack of opportunity they may have experienced their whole life. I still don’t follow the logic, if you’re claiming there is some to be followed.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    > And so the cosmic scales apparently require that this person be discriminated against [...] because of the colour of their skin and what wasn’t done to them. The scale was already tipped because of race. Is it unfair to try to tip it back? Is there no way at all to reasonably apply pressure? Even if your answer is that it's unfair, it should be easy for you to understand why some people try. And if any attempt to adjust the scale counts as "discrimination", then "discrimination" is not necessarily a dirty word. > not on the basis of anything they’ve done, or have had done for them, [...] Regardless of all other hardships and lack of opportunity they may have experienced their whole life. Well, if you had a way to measure that, it would help a lot. But if you don't have a way to measure it, I feel like disregarding it is probably reasonable. "Don't try to fix problem X, because for some people problem X compensates for problem Y" is a pretty bad reason not to try to fix X. (With problem X being racism and problem Y being the other discrimination this white poor person faced.)
jimbokun 2y ago
To steel man the "white privilege" argument, would be to say a black person growing up equally poor as you, would still be at a disadvantage to you in terms of how they would be treated. (And yes, that's ironic if you are then discriminated against specifically due to the assumption you are inherently privileged.)
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

axoltl 2y ago

The term "white privilege" is a bit of a misnomer. What it's mean to convey is the fact that a white person is much less likely to get passed over for something than a person of color. It doesn't mean an actual privilege, more the lack of a hardship. That doesn't mean one didn't experience hardship, just that it's unlikely to have been due to the color of your skin.

llm_trw 2y ago
Which may have been true in 1970s, today I get told in emails to pass over White and Asian candidates because we need more diversity. The sheer hubris of putting racism in writing makes me feel like I'm in a topsy turvy 1950s.
- jimbokun 2y ago
  Yeah, it's especially confusing trying to understand how it's the Asians fault, too.
  - ajsnigrutin 2y ago
    Yep, on one hand, concetration camps in US for japanese people not that long ago, and now discriminated against when applying for college...
- noisy_boy 2y ago
  It is true in 2024 also, just that you have to choose a location different from US; go to Southeast Asia to see it in action everyday, where everyone is extra nice to white people - sales people are extra polite, people laugh extra hard at everything white people say, the lady at the counter pays first attention to white people among the group of folks waiting and so on. I have heard white people say "I loved the experience, everyone was so nice"... Of course it was, of course they were. To be fair, there are flip sides to this too e.g white folks are more likely to be overcharged, more likely to be subject of scams etc but that's just the other side of the same coin.
  - llm_trw 2y ago
    So in South East Asia they are nice to minorities? That's nice.
transcriptase 2y ago
And so the cosmic scales apparently require that this person be discriminated against, not on the basis of anything they’ve done, or have had done for them, but because of the colour of their skin and what wasn’t done to them. Regardless of all other hardships and lack of opportunity they may have experienced their whole life. I still don’t follow the logic, if you’re claiming there is some to be followed.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  > And so the cosmic scales apparently require that this person be discriminated against [...] because of the colour of their skin and what wasn’t done to them. The scale was already tipped because of race. Is it unfair to try to tip it back? Is there no way at all to reasonably apply pressure? Even if your answer is that it's unfair, it should be easy for you to understand why some people try. And if any attempt to adjust the scale counts as "discrimination", then "discrimination" is not necessarily a dirty word. > not on the basis of anything they’ve done, or have had done for them, [...] Regardless of all other hardships and lack of opportunity they may have experienced their whole life. Well, if you had a way to measure that, it would help a lot. But if you don't have a way to measure it, I feel like disregarding it is probably reasonable. "Don't try to fix problem X, because for some people problem X compensates for problem Y" is a pretty bad reason not to try to fix X. (With problem X being racism and problem Y being the other discrimination this white poor person faced.)

jimbokun 2y ago

To steel man the "white privilege" argument, would be to say a black person growing up equally poor as you, would still be at a disadvantage to you in terms of how they would be treated. (And yes, that's ironic if you are then discriminated against specifically due to the assumption you are inherently privileged.)

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]