To those who can't or don't understand privilege, show them this Video

[ReverendHellh0und]

You should learn to judge people- and help those who you judge to be in positions of weakness and vulnerability. It's called a sense of humanity. Try it sometime.

You confuse empathy with judgment. I donate time and money to numerous charities. I would bet straight up money that I do more than you.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

:lamo

I do love the video...

Those ****ing morons in that video are who the OP relies on to feel shame and guilt. This pretense that it isnt about WHITE privilege...its 'just' privilege is bull****.

The whole concept of "whitesplaining" is racist as ****.

 

[ataraxia]

If you wanted to start a thread about Obamacare and those folks that would be great...though why you bring this up in a discussion about 'privilege' I have no ide.......oh...wait...I get it. You know its ridiculous to pretend 'privilege' isnt really a discussion about "white privilege" so you dont want to talk about that. You instead want to say "TRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!"

:lamo

geeee zus. So ****ing predictable.

So when you DO start that thread...make sure you do that follow up to what those Kentucky farmers are now facing with their wonderful Obamacare exchanges.

"Some premiums for Ky. health exchange to skyrocket in 2017"

But really...thats a topic for another thread.

It's all about watching out for people getting hurt or stuck in bad places. That's OK to do if you are not in their place and you are in a better place, in a position to help out. Doing it in a systematic manner as a society tends to be the best way. It's not just about a sense of humanity or justice. In the long term, you will benefit too by having a more stable, peaceful, just society.

 

[Lutherf]

Cutting funding for healthcare or education or even food to inner city children and their families because you don't think they should be getting any extra help from the government is not creating the opportunity for anything. It's OK to give a little extra help to those in a particularly bad place. That's how you create opportunity.

There is no real problem with helping those in need and doing so of your own volition is a selfless act. That being said, there comes a point where "help" becomes "enabling". As I said before, privilege comes from choices, generally choices to be selfless. If one chooses to receive help from others but also chooses not to help themselves then they not being selfless and have chosen to become subjects to a given "master". Maybe they have rationalized their selfishness and maybe they have simply accepted their position in life but either way they will not find privilege because they have chosen not to earn it.

 

[AlbqOwl]

There's no need to be defencive, or argumentative or angry.

Just be aware, respectful and educated that everything is not equal.

Of course it is not equal. But while it is true that privilege had nothing to do with their own choices as the speaker described, it is also not the fault of the 'privileged' he identified that they have advantages.

Should those people be expected to use the blessings they have been granted to good advantage and benefit to society? Yes they are and of course they should.

Are those not so blessed still capable of using their God given abilities to good advantage and benefit to society? Yes they are and they should.

The false analogy is that a foot race depends on who is the most economically 'privileged'. A foot race depends on who has the most athletic ability which has nothing to do with economic privilege and everything to do with God given abilities we are born with.

So for a foot race, he could have just as well said:
1. Those who have normal intelligence take two steps forward.
2. Those who are healthy and physically whole take two steps forward.
3. Those who can run fast take two steps forward.
4. Those who have a competitive spirit take two steps forward.
5. Those who are sprinters take two steps forward.
6. Those who are male take two steps forward.
Etc.

The point is that they all were starting from the same point. The person most athletically gifted and used that gift to the best advantage would most likely win the race. The kid from the poorest ghetto but who has great athletic ability is much more likely to be drafted into the NFL or NBA and earn millions than is the less athletic kid who has enjoyed financial privilege.

What we should be teaching kids are the values and qualities that lead to privilege and success and strive for that. And it is a simple fact of life that there will always be disparities among people--some will be gifted musically and/or artistically while others are not. some will have IQs that allow them to understand and excel in advanced scientific or mathematic fields while others will not. Some will have people skills while others not so much. Some will have ability to envision solutions while others will be more suited to be worker bees to make the vision happen but are just as important to the results.

The truth is that life simply is not fair and never will be. But every person can hold his/her head high and be proud of his/her accomplishments when the hand he/she is dealt is played for maximum advantage. The choices we all make are the most determining factor in the life we will lead, and the poorest of the poor financially can achieve greatness while those born with great economic advantage can squander that advantage.

 

[AlbqOwl]

It's all about watching out for people getting hurt or stuck in bad places. That's OK to do if you are not in their place and you are in a better place, in a position to help out. Doing it in a systematic manner as a society tends to be the best way. It's not just about a sense of humanity or justice. In the long term, you will benefit too by having a more stable, peaceful, just society.

But why not go for a society that creates expectations that the strong do not prey on the weak, that people do their children a great service by staying married and raising their kids to be responsible citizens, that people should help people out, take care of the helpless, give a hand up, and treat all who deserve it with respect and dignity, and people should expect to carry their own weight as they are able to do so? Expecting people to involuntarily be forced into doing that by an authoritarian government sure isn't accomplishing that kind of society.

I think it is high time that we all rethink the process and evaluate what works and what doesn't and go for what works.

 

[ataraxia]

You confuse empathy with judgment. I donate time and money to numerous charities. I would bet straight up money that I do more than you.

Charities have never been a substitute for a formal system of safety nets and policies. If you think they have, why don't we try cutting out FEMA in TX and FL and leave it to charities to clean up the mess there, and we can see how it goes.

 

[ataraxia]

But why not go for a society that creates expectations that the strong do not prey on the weak, that people do their children a great service by staying married and raising their kids to be responsible citizens, that people should help people out, take care of the helpless, give a hand up, and treat all who deserve it with respect and dignity, and people should expect to carry their own weight as they are able to do so? Expecting people to involuntarily be forced into doing that by an authoritarian government sure isn't accomplishing that kind of society.

I think it is high time that we all rethink the process and evaluate what works and what doesn't and go for what works.

Any time you can create a society where there are no longer any burglaries, rapes, murders, identity theft, injustice, man's inhumanity to man, etc... let us know. Until then, we will need a society of enforceable law, order, and justice. Humanity, in all its history, has not found anything that works differently. Freedom is not the same thing as anarchy.

 

[AlbqOwl]

Any time you can create a society where there are no longer any burglaries, rapes, murders, identity theft, injustice, man's inhumanity to man, etc... let us know. Until then, we will need a society of enforceable law, order, and justice. Humanity, in all its history, has not found anything that works differently. Freedom is not the same thing as anarchy.

But freedom is something very different that giving government power to do everything and the people taking no responsibility.

 

[calamity]

What a bunch of ****.


"two parents" is white privilege?
"father figure" is white privilege?

how ****ing stupid, how does thier choices have ANYTHING to do with white people?


"cell phone shut off" -economic issue not a race issue

"access to free tutors" -there are several options from the boys and girls clubs to others.

"private education" -that's a racist democrats against school choice issue.

"scholarship athletic" -bull**** isolation of the issue. Issue is the lack of importance in education in much of the black community. those scholarships are not closed to minorities.

"wonder about eating" -economic, not white privilege issue and rare these days.




What a bunch of victim making devisiveness.

Someone completely missed the point of the video. Whoosh!!

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Charities have never been a substitute for a formal system of safety nets and policies. If you think they have, why don't we try cutting out FEMA in TX and FL and leave it to charities to clean up the mess there, and we can see how it goes.

Cool man, so you your all good with other peoples money helping the poor, makes you equal with someone going out and actually doing it on thier own.

 

[maxparrish]

Charities have never been a substitute for a formal system of safety nets and policies. If you think they have, why don't we try cutting out FEMA in TX and FL and leave it to charities to clean up the mess there, and we can see how it goes.

Actually that is mostly not true. Until the great depression, most of the so-called "safety net planning and provision" was provided by charity, fraternal groups, churches, and local governments. There have been hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, landslides, and other disasters and yet communities and economic production have recovered without Uncle Sam's "formal system".

The problem is that society has made "the nanny state" and its faceless and soulless nomenclatura such a huge part of our lives, no one can remember when none of it was necessary.

It reminds me of the citizens of the Soviet Union. There 'world view' was so limited by experience, they couldn't figure out how the western economies worked. In there experience, societies required order and direction by the state. They wondered: what part of government in America "plans" and "orders" how many cars to produce every year? Who ordered the amount of oil to be refined? What agency directed concrete and steel production, and their prices?

The idea of the market and free choice was so incomprehensible, many thought there was a secret American economic planning center in the Rocky Mountains that was directing every screw, bolt, and service made in America. That was within their own experience.

So it is with the welfare society - all operate with a highly constrained view based on decades of myth-making about the past.

 

[beefheart]

There's no need to be defencive, or argumentative or angry.

Just be aware, respectful and educated that everything is not equal.

Nailed it.

 

[beefheart]

Just a staged video to pretend that those lined up for the race were somehow more privileged if they were white, wealthy and male.

A ridiculous message since the majority of athletes, including runners, are black. Had the man left them all in one line and started the race, would a white kid or black kid have won? Odds are - a black one.

The video was worth a chuckle for the attempt to falsely equate issues. But, just a chuckle. Nothing more.

You really don't understand metaphors do you?

Its not about running speed, its about competing in life.

 

[washunut]

There's no need to be defencive, or argumentative or angry.

Just be aware, respectful and educated that everything is not equal.

Video seems to confirm that privilege comes through economics not race. The subjects in this film seem to follow a bigoted stereotype.

 

[Emily L]

One of my high school teachers talked about THE OPPORTUNITY OF HARDSHIP in uppercase. It not about what you start off with but what you make of what you have. Hardship can make you stronger. My heart goes out to poor children who had a rough childhood but my respect goes to the poor children who took the hardship and learned from it and used it as a tool for motivation.

I know it's easy for me to say that because I am very fortunate to have two good and loving parents. But that makes me respect those people even more because they overcame their hardship and I respect them a lot. That's one of the reasons I do what I can to help poor people who don't have very much money. I want to help them make something of their hardship. That's what I think I'm supposed to do. It sounds like a super-hero saying but with a fortunate upbringing comes great responsibility and I pray that I can fulfill that responsibility.

 

[Emily L]

It's too late for me to edit my last post but when I read it it sounded like I was patting myself on the back for trying to help. I didn't mean it to sound that way. I don't have a lot of money so I can't help as much as I would like to but there are other ways to help and I'm trying to help in other ways but it's not nearly enough and other people help more than I do.

 

[HowardBThiname]

You really don't understand metaphors do you?

Its not about running speed, its about competing in life.

I understood the metaphor the guy was going after, but it was lame to say the least.

Very poor.

 

[molten_dragon]

There's no need to be defencive, or argumentative or angry.

Just be aware, respectful and educated that everything is not equal.

This video does indeed deliver a message. But I wonder if it's the message that the creator(s) intended to deliver?

Because the message that I got from it is that privilege is almost entirely based on wealth. It has little to do with race or gender.

And that's always something I've believed was true. People born into wealthy families absolutely have an inherent advantage over people born to poor families.

 

[beefheart]

I understood the metaphor the guy was going after, but it was lame to say the least.

Very poor.

Then why did you waste a post focusing on how fast African Americans can run?

 

[HowardBThiname]

Then why did you waste a post focusing on how fast African Americans can run?

Because the OP asked for comments.

Why should mine be excluded?

 

[beefheart]

Because the OP asked for comments.

Why should mine be excluded?

Please, by all means, keep making such silly comments, it is pretty funny.

 

[D_NATURED]

Maybe I should put this in my sig for you people. I grew up working poor in newark NJ, and the lower east side of NYC in the 70's and 80's.


Nobody is angry here but the whole concept is bunk. you claim no skin color was mentioned.


1. Two parents- big issue in the black community.
2. no father figure -same

That in and of itself lends a clue.

3. "athletic scholarships" by limiting it to that you are securing that you mean "white privilege".
4. at the end of the video, you can see they divided white people from black people, words did not have to be spoken.


You and the video fancy yourself clever. you are not.

This thread and your posts are proof that you don't have to even mention race to make racists angry. The privileges in the video are not color-specific, and relate more to poverty, but they did a great job of drawing you out. The worst part is your not smart enough to see it.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

This thread and your posts are proof that you don't have to even mention race to make racists angry. The privileges in the video are not color-specific, and relate more to poverty, but they did a great job of drawing you out. The worst part is your not smart enough to see it.

I am far less racist than you, guy.

 

[Lovebug]

Then call it by another name... an advantage, a leg up, a head start. To say it’s “their culture” so it doesn’t count is to ignore the situation and blame the person in the race.

I must say, though, Rev, I didn’t pay attention to the skin color of those left behind. I was too busy absorbing not the powerful message. I did think the question about athletic ability was confusing.

It is unfortunate that a people’s culture often adds a DISadvantage. But it does. And until we can fix that? It’ll be the same old same old.

People see the word privilege and immediately think inequality and race. Sad really.
Since when has 'doing what's right' become such a cultural no no?