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> I just got back from 12 hours in NYPD holding. If I can get arrested (with all of my white privilege and generally perceived non-threatening stature), so can

> I just got back from 12 hours in NYPD holding. If I can get arrested (with all of my white privilege and generally perceived non-threatening stature), so can anybody. ... Obviously I don’t know what happened in each person’s actual arrest, but I do know that the criminal charges overwhelmingly fell to people of color and those with more masculine gender presentations. One of the most distressing things I find about the language of 'privilege' is that it denies that women can have it as a group. In this last sentence, she recognizes that women can be privileged over men in some situations.

waqf 12y ago
And even then she avoids connecting it with the word "privilege". You can almost see the cognitive dissonance in those sentences.
- deleted 12y ago
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PhasmaFelis 12y ago
Privilege theory generally asserts that everyone has some privilege in some situations. It's just that there's a lot of imbalance between groups in terms of how often and how much your personal privilege benefits you. I think you're attacking a strawman here. I'm sure there are people who say that women have no privilege ever and men have all of it all the time, you shouldn't judge the entire concept based on the angriest 15-year-old Tumblrers.
- waqf 12y ago
  Why are you so sure that the 15-year-old Tumblrinas are not the true Scotsmen? I mean, it's clear that you're defending a more reasonable version of the claim and GP is attacking a more unreasonable one, but it's not clear to me which of those is going to win out as the common understanding associated with the expression "privilege theory".
  - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
    I think that the "common understanding" of pretty much any political idea, no matter where it lies on the spectrum, is going to be mostly composed of soundbites and tweets and memes, because those are the easiest to ingest and repost. It's easy to get a strawman idea from that, but to get to to the heart of an idea you need to read the TL;DR stuff too. If you're afraid that the superficially furious people are going to win out over the reasonable, thoughtful people on issue X, then the best thing you can do is try to understand issue X and promote the reasonable approach to it. Just saying "All Xs suck as proven by this misspelled Tumblr post" will only further polarize the dialogue and help shout down (or radicalize) the reasonable people.
    - Flimm 12y ago
      I love it when a conversation moves beyond the typical argument and counter-argument. Thank you!
      - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
        You're welcome! I've been making a conscious effort to be less of a curmudgeon online these days. I got tired of being angry all the time.

waqf 12y ago

And even then she avoids connecting it with the word "privilege". You can almost see the cognitive dissonance in those sentences.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

Privilege theory generally asserts that everyone has some privilege in some situations. It's just that there's a lot of imbalance between groups in terms of how often and how much your personal privilege benefits you. I think you're attacking a strawman here. I'm sure there are people who say that women have no privilege ever and men have all of it all the time, you shouldn't judge the entire concept based on the angriest 15-year-old Tumblrers.

waqf 12y ago
Why are you so sure that the 15-year-old Tumblrinas are not the true Scotsmen? I mean, it's clear that you're defending a more reasonable version of the claim and GP is attacking a more unreasonable one, but it's not clear to me which of those is going to win out as the common understanding associated with the expression "privilege theory".
- PhasmaFelis 12y ago
  I think that the "common understanding" of pretty much any political idea, no matter where it lies on the spectrum, is going to be mostly composed of soundbites and tweets and memes, because those are the easiest to ingest and repost. It's easy to get a strawman idea from that, but to get to to the heart of an idea you need to read the TL;DR stuff too. If you're afraid that the superficially furious people are going to win out over the reasonable, thoughtful people on issue X, then the best thing you can do is try to understand issue X and promote the reasonable approach to it. Just saying "All Xs suck as proven by this misspelled Tumblr post" will only further polarize the dialogue and help shout down (or radicalize) the reasonable people.
  - Flimm 12y ago
    I love it when a conversation moves beyond the typical argument and counter-argument. Thank you!
    - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
      You're welcome! I've been making a conscious effort to be less of a curmudgeon online these days. I got tired of being angry all the time.