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I would like to know what this "privilege" is all about. I'm a tech worker who makes a very good salary. Am I privileged? I couldn't afford a fancy high end co

I would like to know what this "privilege" is all about. I'm a tech worker who makes a very good salary. Am I privileged? I couldn't afford a fancy high end college, so I chose a cheaper one and got a loan from the Government, which I paid back in full. I studied hard in a public school and those achievements helped me get a grant to offset some cost as well. I got a job in tech support, worked my way up through the ranks by pushing myself and going above and beyond every day. I continually educate myself with classes and books that I pay for out of my own pocket, and invest my own time to keep my skills sharp and advance myself. I am a "tech worker" and I have a job that pays well above average, so am I privileged? I would like to know what was handed to me that couldn't have been given to anyone else who worked hard. I'm not a rarity: tens of thousands of people in the tech industry are exactly like me. They saw a target and they hit it. That's why I don't support these idiots. It's an idea full of fallacies. They're just trying to ruin the lives of hard working mid level people based on perceived wrongs by their bosses by people with nothing better to do.

krisdol 13y ago
> I would like to know what this "privilege" is all about. I'm a tech worker who makes a very good salary. Am I privileged? Yes. So am I and so is most of the audience here.
- JeremyMorgan 13y ago
  In what way? How is what do confined to an exclusive group of people? I can understand Americans as a whole being privileged, yes. We have tons of opportunities people in other countries don't. But we're talking about Americans protesting against Americans and that's why it doesn't make much sense.
  - ForHackernews 13y ago
    > How is what do confined to an exclusive group of people? At a very basic level, not everyone is smart enough to do what you do. At a more practical level, not everyone has access to a good education, or grew up in a community that encourages education. I know I'll get a bunch of responses like "What access!? Just go on codecademy and teach yourself Javascript!" But good luck teaching web development to a 21 year old who's never been taught how to read properly.
kasey_junk 13y ago
A few questions: Are you white? Are you male? Were you born in a country that had clean running water? What about public education system, or a country that had education loans easily available for you? Did you grow up around people that had jobs? Were literate? Had gone to college? Did you know your parents? How often did you suffer from hunger growing up? All of these are forms of privilege. Some of them may apply to you, some of them may not, but if you are posting on this board there is a very good chance that you were privileged. One of the insidious problems of privilege is those with it think it is the norm. When we talk about privilege we are not trying to take away from the very real benefit of drive/ambition/hard work. I'm sure you deserve the good life you've built for yourself. But a little empathy/understanding that you did have some very clear advantages just as a product of your lucky birth, goes a long way.
- JeremyMorgan 13y ago
  I am not trying to discount any of those things but I'm sure the protesters had most, if not all of those privileges as well. As far as being white and male, that's a fallacy as well. Do you work in tech? Take a look around and you'll see some of the most diversity of any industry. I worked for a fortune 100 for a large part of my career and most teams had more "minorities" on them than whites. Most of them born in India in horrible conditions. Color blindness is one of the reasons I'm proud to be in tech. Is it so hard to admit that most of these protesters are lazy misguided kids with nothing better to do?
  - kasey_junk 13y ago
    I don't have any characterizations of these kids. I don't live in SF and don't understand the problems at all. They definitely seem misguided from an outsider. It's not at all a fallacy that being white & male in the US provides privilege. If nothing else the incarceration rate among African-American males in this country means that if you are born African-American there is a significantly higher chance that your father is incarcerated during your childhood than if you are born white. As the child being born white you have the privilege of a higher chance of an non-incarcerated parent. It is just luck of the draw. Diversity & privilege are not the same things. They are orthogonal issues. A Japanese-American has a certain set of privileges as do European-Americans & African Americans & Africans for that matter. Just because a place hires a lot of Indians does nothing to mitigate the lack of privilege for African American boy children. Finally, your experience may be completely different than mine, but the Indian colleague's I've had did not come from horrible conditions. Quite the contrary they were among the elite in their country, born with dramatic privileges.
nilkn 13y ago
What about the people who worked just as hard and still can't afford decent housing in the area? Just one aspect of the privilege you enjoy is the fact that one of your passions in life happened to lead to a high-paying job. I and almost everybody on this forum enjoy this same privilege. This is a particularly insidious one because it's so hard to detect in yourself and admit to. When you're the sort of person who started programming at age 12, with no clue that it would one day lead to a financially prosperous life, it's hard to identify with someone for whom the stars just didn't happen to align in that way. It's a lot harder to "see a target and hit it" when you have absolutely no interest or passion in the target.
- JeremyMorgan 13y ago
  >It's a lot harder to "see a target and hit it" when you have absolutely no interest or passion in the target. Then those people are not entitled to anything. I have no interest or passion in becoming a surgeon, and since they make so much more than me I should go start a ruckus down at the hospital, using this logic.
  - nilkn 13y ago
    Actually this logic doesn't imply that at all. I really don't see how you concluded from my post that I support the actions of the protestors in the original article. If you refuse to admit you might be privileged in any way, that's your prerogative. I won't show up at your doorstep, but I won't agree with you.
joyeuse6701 13y ago
Heh, privilege, the way leftist flagellate see it is: If your life is better than someone else's, you are privileged. It is relative apparently. It is usually used to reinforce guilt and self-doubt in an attempt to shame you into caring about the plight of others. It is a devious ploy and attack on the self. You are right to question it. Strictly speaking, by the definition of privilege, they're right in that you are in a position that not all can attain in practice. Whether it's because you weren't born a crack baby, or because you weren't implicitly discriminated against obviously for some historically known reason (sex, race, handicap). But life isn't fair, and never will. Others will argue that they will continue to level the playing field, but there will those who are still privileged and those who aren't, for things like being born better looking, or being smarter, or being at the right place or the right time. Ultimately people chaff against the label of 'privilege' because it has such a negative connotation. And implies that life was easy for you to begin with. You weren't privileged then, but now you are as it were. For those that call you that, most want you to have the perspective that your life is better than others and that by noblesse oblige you have a duty to the less privileged, by some moral code be it Christian, Bushido, Chivalry what have you. Consider it a social tax on your success.

krisdol 13y ago

> I would like to know what this "privilege" is all about. I'm a tech worker who makes a very good salary. Am I privileged? Yes. So am I and so is most of the audience here.

JeremyMorgan 13y ago
In what way? How is what do confined to an exclusive group of people? I can understand Americans as a whole being privileged, yes. We have tons of opportunities people in other countries don't. But we're talking about Americans protesting against Americans and that's why it doesn't make much sense.
- ForHackernews 13y ago
  > How is what do confined to an exclusive group of people? At a very basic level, not everyone is smart enough to do what you do. At a more practical level, not everyone has access to a good education, or grew up in a community that encourages education. I know I'll get a bunch of responses like "What access!? Just go on codecademy and teach yourself Javascript!" But good luck teaching web development to a 21 year old who's never been taught how to read properly.

kasey_junk 13y ago

A few questions: Are you white? Are you male? Were you born in a country that had clean running water? What about public education system, or a country that had education loans easily available for you? Did you grow up around people that had jobs? Were literate? Had gone to college? Did you know your parents? How often did you suffer from hunger growing up? All of these are forms of privilege. Some of them may apply to you, some of them may not, but if you are posting on this board there is a very good chance that you were privileged. One of the insidious problems of privilege is those with it think it is the norm. When we talk about privilege we are not trying to take away from the very real benefit of drive/ambition/hard work. I'm sure you deserve the good life you've built for yourself. But a little empathy/understanding that you did have some very clear advantages just as a product of your lucky birth, goes a long way.

JeremyMorgan 13y ago
I am not trying to discount any of those things but I'm sure the protesters had most, if not all of those privileges as well. As far as being white and male, that's a fallacy as well. Do you work in tech? Take a look around and you'll see some of the most diversity of any industry. I worked for a fortune 100 for a large part of my career and most teams had more "minorities" on them than whites. Most of them born in India in horrible conditions. Color blindness is one of the reasons I'm proud to be in tech. Is it so hard to admit that most of these protesters are lazy misguided kids with nothing better to do?
- kasey_junk 13y ago
  I don't have any characterizations of these kids. I don't live in SF and don't understand the problems at all. They definitely seem misguided from an outsider. It's not at all a fallacy that being white & male in the US provides privilege. If nothing else the incarceration rate among African-American males in this country means that if you are born African-American there is a significantly higher chance that your father is incarcerated during your childhood than if you are born white. As the child being born white you have the privilege of a higher chance of an non-incarcerated parent. It is just luck of the draw. Diversity & privilege are not the same things. They are orthogonal issues. A Japanese-American has a certain set of privileges as do European-Americans & African Americans & Africans for that matter. Just because a place hires a lot of Indians does nothing to mitigate the lack of privilege for African American boy children. Finally, your experience may be completely different than mine, but the Indian colleague's I've had did not come from horrible conditions. Quite the contrary they were among the elite in their country, born with dramatic privileges.

nilkn 13y ago

What about the people who worked just as hard and still can't afford decent housing in the area? Just one aspect of the privilege you enjoy is the fact that one of your passions in life happened to lead to a high-paying job. I and almost everybody on this forum enjoy this same privilege. This is a particularly insidious one because it's so hard to detect in yourself and admit to. When you're the sort of person who started programming at age 12, with no clue that it would one day lead to a financially prosperous life, it's hard to identify with someone for whom the stars just didn't happen to align in that way. It's a lot harder to "see a target and hit it" when you have absolutely no interest or passion in the target.

JeremyMorgan 13y ago
>It's a lot harder to "see a target and hit it" when you have absolutely no interest or passion in the target. Then those people are not entitled to anything. I have no interest or passion in becoming a surgeon, and since they make so much more than me I should go start a ruckus down at the hospital, using this logic.
- nilkn 13y ago
  Actually this logic doesn't imply that at all. I really don't see how you concluded from my post that I support the actions of the protestors in the original article. If you refuse to admit you might be privileged in any way, that's your prerogative. I won't show up at your doorstep, but I won't agree with you.

joyeuse6701 13y ago

Heh, privilege, the way leftist flagellate see it is: If your life is better than someone else's, you are privileged. It is relative apparently. It is usually used to reinforce guilt and self-doubt in an attempt to shame you into caring about the plight of others. It is a devious ploy and attack on the self. You are right to question it. Strictly speaking, by the definition of privilege, they're right in that you are in a position that not all can attain in practice. Whether it's because you weren't born a crack baby, or because you weren't implicitly discriminated against obviously for some historically known reason (sex, race, handicap). But life isn't fair, and never will. Others will argue that they will continue to level the playing field, but there will those who are still privileged and those who aren't, for things like being born better looking, or being smarter, or being at the right place or the right time. Ultimately people chaff against the label of 'privilege' because it has such a negative connotation. And implies that life was easy for you to begin with. You weren't privileged then, but now you are as it were. For those that call you that, most want you to have the perspective that your life is better than others and that by noblesse oblige you have a duty to the less privileged, by some moral code be it Christian, Bushido, Chivalry what have you. Consider it a social tax on your success.