So white privilege exists. Why dwell on it? What can we white people do to change the color of our skin?
Our skin color is fine. We don’t have to be guilty or brow-beaten; we’re not “always wrong”; inequalities in the world aren’t our “fault”; but as the discourse widens to include groups that haven’t traditionally had a voice, we can listen with open ears and hearts and make choices and espouse values that contribute to positive social change. “The way things always were” hasn’t been particularly fair and “the good old days” weren’t very good for women and ethnic and sexual minorities.
Here’s to the good new days.
Wow! Seriously? Have you even read half of what people have posted here in a genuine attempt to help you to understand this?
And your response is to make some comment about changing the color of your skin?
You know, I was pretty close to apologizing for being a bit condescending in my earlier post, but I think you’ve forfeited the right to an apology at this point.
“9. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.”
“The music of my race”? Music is universal and open to everybody. Don’t tell me I’ve culturally appropriated because I sing along to Diana Ross in the shower. Don’t dare tell me that we can only listen to music (or enjoy other forms of art) that were made by people of our same race.
BTW, I get confused - do Jewish people have cultural privilege? It’s funny how Orthodox Jews who keep kosher can’t necessarily find “their staple foods” in a lot of places, yet I don’t hear a lot of murmuring about how awful it is that they are underprivileged. Why is that, do you suppose?
“It would be wise for those at the bottom to look up and listen” I guess the minorities just talk too much in your view.
@Pizzagirl - keep reading. My second link addresses one of your questions and my third link addresses another. I’m glad you want to learn, though!
MOM: I tried an explanation but deleted my post because your follow-up really upset me. I am trying to think of how to say this in a non-confrontational way. You are telling my kids, not white or heteronormative, how they “should” experience their own reality. Can you understand why that might be a problem to me? or to them? If not, I really don’t know what to say.
I do think Coates would be useful to you, if you haven’t read him yet.
(It’s increasingly difficult to do a lot of this work–finding links, explaining and re-explaining, teaching–only to be met with “hot takes,” sarcasm, and defensiveness. I think in the interest of good-faith discussion the least I can ask is for people to read my links before responding. Knee-jerk dismissiveness isn’t particularly collegial or respectful of the value of open debate.)
@dfbdfb, since my quote you had at the top of your post referred to “serial attempts to disrupt conservative speakers” I assumed you were responding to both of my points, not just the one.
Thanks, Marvin. I have read all of those before, however. The “unpacking the knapsack” construct in particular came from a professor at my daughter’s LAC, so I was quite familiar with it.
I think it’s really important to understand that some of us who are sympathetic to the U of Chicago letter, etc. are on your side. We are not pretending that the good old days were great for women, minorities, gays, etc or trying to turn the clock back to some imagined Happy Days era. Far from it.
By most reckonings, I’m a fairly classic northern liberal elitist Democrat, voting for HRC in the fall. I grew up being horrified by the knowledge that there were Jim Crow laws in the south keeping black people down, and contempt for attempts to revive the Confederate flag. I’m strongly pro-choice. I’m anti-gun. I’m in favor of affirmative action in a college admissions context. I supported and celebrated the SC ruling enabling gay marriage. I have a good friend whose child is currently transitioning to male. If my S hadn’t recently broken up with his girlfriend, I might have wound up with grandchildren of a different race than my own. Blah blah blah.
I think sometimes the part that you miss is that you want to paint people like me as “SQW” - status quo warriors - when really, such is not the case.
But that doesn’t mean that I have to go whole hog over to the “there are only certain approved points of view that should be heard on a college campus” or “every conservative person is bad, bad, bad and I can learn nothing from them.” And that doesn’t mean I can’t hold the view that while it certainly is perfectly appropriate for a professor to give a heads-up that this piece of literature contains a violent rape scene, that it doesn’t mean that every single possible trigger warning in existence needs to be given at all times, because life doesn’t work like that.
In short, here’s a concept - I hold my views not because I’m white / affluent / straight / whatever, but because I’m a person, with all the nuance that entails. And I really resent how identity politics has made it so that the first thing that people do is identify the race (etc) of a person, as if that lends more or less legitimacy to their views.
I answered no to 6 of the first 10, and stopped there. I fortunately never got the memo that being in a minority automatically means that I am disadvantaged relative to white people. What a horrible mental handicap to place on someone.
Now a real privilege is winning the following lottery:
- Living in a country where the median person’s income is in the top 1% of worldwide income …
- that also happens to have many of the world’s finest educational institutions
- having the intelligence and drive to be admitted to UChicago (or any other top 20 school)
- and the financial support to be able to attend
That alone rules out 99.99% of people, worldwide.
Good–nobody here is espousing those views, and I’m sure you can understand that mischaracterizing others’ views in such a way isn’t particularly helpful or collegial.
Well said @Pizzagirl (except for the anti gun part 
)
You should keep reading. And read the second link I posted as well–it expresses a similar initial reaction.
Actually, it’s more along the lines of “Unless you’ve walked a mile in the shoes of the ones who actually experienced life as a member of marginalized group, sit down and let those who’ve actually had the experience speak and spend more time listening and considering what they’ve had to say without interrupting them or acting defensive.”
Not too different from some conversations I’ve had in the IT/tech context where someone who believes he/she knows it all because he/she was trained on Microsoft Windows operating systems(OS) proceeds to make assumptions about the inferiority of other operating systems such as Mac OSX, Linux, or other Unix operating systems, monopolizing the conversation, and telegraphing he/she doesn’t know what he/she’s talking about in a group filled with those with more experience/experts in those OSes because he/she never had exposure/experience in using/configuring them.
Only difference is that most IT/tech folks would be far less polite about it and actually be so harsh that the Windows blowhard above would be very lucky if all he/she received was “Shut the %&#$ up”.
^^^ Check your privilege, cobrat 
I’m truly terrified imagining what someone would have to be like for you to consider them a Windows “blowhard”
al2simon,
Which ones?
I should add that I chose Microsoft Windows as the example for the “blowhard” as it has been and is still the dominant OS in use on the vast majority of consumer and corporate desktop/laptop computers around the world.
Even with Mac OSX making some inroads and having some admittedly obnoxious fans…it’s still a bit under 10% worldwide as of this year.
The problem isn’t that this phrase is being used in the context of telling white people that “you don’t know what it’s like to grow up in the ghetto so stop pretending that you do.” It is being used to say “shut up” in the context of ANY opinion that they may have, on anything.
@Pizzagirl #740
Oh, come on, really? Getting shut down all the time for any opinion?
If that is remotely true and not just ridiculous hyperbole, then perhaps you should take a look at how you express your opinions. Earlier today, you made a post here where you started off by immediately portraying the Rutgers anti-Condi Rice protesters as “babies throwing a tantrum” and I almost posted a response along the lines of “If this is the style of rhetoric you use when trying to persuade other people, it’s no wonder you have people shutting you down by citing your privilege” but it seemed like kind of personal attack so I didn’t post it.
This latest post made me regret not posting it then, so here you go. I’m sure you are just going to take this as personal slam, but seriously, if that post honestly reflects your experience, the odds are the problem is you.
Or you are wildly exaggerating.
I read this powerful letter from a UCh alumni who is a queer POC - I hope many of you will take the time to read her perspective.
http://chicagoist.com/2016/08/26/a_uchicago_alum_tells_us_why_trigge.php
some highlights
“As a graduate of the University of Chicago who is a queer woman of color, I find this letter disgusting, but sadly not surprising. The university is under federal investigation over claims it violated Title IX, has had a speaker openly insult and mock a trans student, and has seen The University of Chicago Police Department arrest a black student under questionable circumstances in the library, among other issues. It boggles the mind that this institution’s administration can’t seem to conceive of people who have experienced trauma existing—or why it does those people a disservice to condemn the practices of providing a trigger warning or safe space.”
“Although the university’s stance is hypocritical and perplexing, it’s not shocking or new—it already jives with my experience as a recent student and the experiences of many other students on campus. As a woman who has experienced sexual assault, I was denied help and services by the university’s own student counseling center while a student. As a black student, I have watched the university largely ignore its police department’s racial biases. As a person who struggled with mental health, I’ve seen the administration force students into long hospitalizations and leaves of absence from school. As a queer student, I’ve sat through class discussions that ignored or openly demeaned my and my friends’ identities. I am, however, saddened and angry nonetheless, because the tone-deaf declarations in this letter actually jeopardize student safety.”
“There’s a backlash against a perceived culture of “political correctness”, and part of the problem is that people do not understand what intellectual safe spaces and trigger warnings are supposed to be. (That, or they simply don’t care about their fellow human beings.) So let me explain what I am defending here: I am defending basic human decency. I am defending the idea that if we wish to be a functioning, forward-thinking society, we have to at least demonstrate some empathy for other people …”
“…These rules make that class feel comfortable. They make me want to have open discourse even if I disagree with my cohort or professor. They create just the kind of intellectual safe space where we can feel ready to dig into uncomfortable, tough subjects. They let us know that malicious intent is not OK, but that personal biases, thoughtful dissent and mistakes will be met with understanding, compassion and respectful dialogue.”
"That is what an intellectual safe space is supposed to do. This is what a trigger warning is. That is what the University of Chicago’s deans of students are saying they don’t condone. "