No, I'm sorry. As a white male you are directly responsible for all the evil ever committed in the world.
If you are white (especially male) you were born with privilege. And your white male ancestors were probably responsible for a lot of the evil committed at least in the USA. You may not be overtly racist, but by default you are racially ignorant because you are white.
The simple fact of the matter is that your culture is, in fact, built on a history of rabid and systemic racism and sexism, and that whether you choose to embrace racist and sexist ideas or not, you, as a white male, benefit from that history of systemic racism and sexism. If you can't acknowledge that the status quo is rooted in racism and sexism, if you can't acknowledge that you've had benefits handed to you that you in no way earned or deserved, if you stick your fingers in your ears and stop listening at the mere mention of systemic bigotry and how it might benefit you, then whatever you believe, whatever your personal bigotries, you act to promote the enshrinement of a status quo built on bigotries that work to your advantage and you are the problem.
Well we had to base our society on racism and sexism, because only racism and sexism would put food on the table, win wars, and build strong industries and... Oh wait... That's not quite right, and did the Norse even know what another race looked like? Instead we built our societies on prejudice against witches and midgets. Witch hating is what made the assembly line possible, while anti-dwarfism gave us modern medicine. Yes, it's all about witches and midgets - and maybe albinos.
Who's asking you to do that? The request is that people understand there is a system in place that benefits them unfairly, even though they aren't personally responsible. If you think that the system doesn't favor whites both historically and even now, then you aren't seeing the whole system. The article points out reasons why we might not, and asks us to consider how a less privileged life might feel. What would you think if you were frequently followed by security in stores? How would you feel if you were pulled over several times a year (see Chris Rock's twitter feed). Because we aren't aware of these things, there is a tendency to reject the idea that racism remains structurally ingrained in our society. It's not your fault that it's there, but we all need to step out of the defensive shell, that gives us a desire to not see it.
And what about the effect of having crime structurally ingrained in our society? Why, that would produce the effects you describe.
If I'm privileged for being a white male, as the claim goes, why is in my interest to give up this privilege? Because I'm such a nice guy? Isn't power something worth holding onto? A better sales pitch is needed. And what exactly could I do? Invite black people over for dinner? Support slave reparations? Visit a Native American reservation? Learn to speak better Spanish? Paint my skin dark and live on on the street for a month? I don't see how any of that is going to do anything to change society.
It's so cute how the SJWs keep trying to reframe the argument so that it's ALL white people just because they're white. Again, they are their own worst enemy.
No one's asking you to give up that privilege because the whole point is that you can't give it up: it's yours, whether you want it or not. You're being asked to acknowledge your privilege, to acknowledge the corollary that the status quo is not some manifestation of perfect fairness, to acknowledge that people without your racial and gender privileges have legitimate grievances about the roles of race and gender in society, and to not be a dismissive ass who ignores or shouts down anyone who points out your privilege.
I am interested in concrete policy measures. But we've yet to see any introduced in this stupid thread. It's all about my "mentality." How do people seriously push this feel-good bullshit with a straight face?
Oh no, you do a fine job speaking for yourself. Tell me, if there isn't a structure in place to favor whites, why do minorities make less, have less wealth, make up a disproportionately high share of the prison population and a disproportionately low share of the board room population? How do you explain that, given your claim that there is no white privilege?
Why would I bother replying to you or the other SJWs? Anything that isn't agreeing all white people (except SJWs of course) are racist and everything is the white mans fault is just going to be branded as racist itself. I could just as easily point out how many aspects of black "culture" account for those things. But again, that would just be labeled as racist because that's more convenient than refuting it.
I think it's a mixture of structural problems and a culture of sloth and disregard for law and order among minority communities. But we're not allowed to talk about the latter. That's racist and not politically correct.
I'd like to see Gul's take on the systemic racism and sexism in government and military jobs. A racist and sexist system that will see a female or minority hired or promoted ahead of an equally (often better) qualified white male.
Oh no you di-int! Don't get me started on preferential promotions in the military/government jobs. You do not want to go down that road because with 22+ years active duty military & 9 years as a government contractor I'm about as much of a "subject matter expert" as you will find. And I would say things that liberals do not want to hear - well, from a white male anyway.
LOL...I figured that would be like the Mewa signal to you. I have 10 years active and another 11 as a gov't employee...I know which way the wind blows. EDIT: Those government policies, both official and unofficial show what the SJWs really want though. They don't want equality, they want a system that is against white males...to make them atone for the sins of their fathers.
You think we can get concrete policies in place when people laugh at the very idea that we need them? The kind of discussion in this "stupid thread" is the first step. We actually do have to change the discussion first, before we can fix the problem.
Yeah, but *why* do blacks not trust the police? I've said many times here that the black population as a whole needs to stop pushing blame and start taking action, but the Jim Crow protests and civil rights riots are still in living memory for a lot of people. but I do agree that there's no way to police the privilege that white males are born into, and punishing people for something they didn't choose is just the same cycle of never-ending bullshit.
Yeah, that's a shit way to approach the problem. Sorry for any negative consequences you suffered. Wanna know why that brute force method takes hold in places that can do it? Because people like you don't believe there's a problem in the first place.
A necessary first step leading to what exactly? On the contrary, I think it's precisely the lack of substance that makes people laugh at this sort of discussion.
The only purposes writings like your OP contain serve are to talk down to people and to serve as vindication for like-minded people such as yourself. There is nothing constructive about it in any way.
And by change the discussion Gul means white people all need to admit to guilt and proceed from there.
How many ways do I need to say that today's white people aren't guilty? I've said it up thread, the article I linked to said it. Stop focusing on your feelings of guilt.
They deny it up and down, engage in the most rigorous game of semantics you'll ever read, but it's really hard to see what else they're looking for, exactly.
