Off Topic · White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy Mcintosh (page 2)

BRIGGS wrote:Ive actually always like that green chick on Star Trek myself--perhaps my first crush--anyone remember her? I think they were called Orions

haha! briggs that's hilarious.

i know this is a serious thread, but did you ever see eddie murphy's bit on the green chick?

NSFW:

I'm not white, but i did find it insulting to white people. Why throw any of this in the face of an individual white person. Many white people are not racist and don't deserve this "discussion". Also, what is the provocation for posting this thread? There was none. This was an unprovoked thread that has managed to offend a few people due to the lack of context surrounding it. Threads that are meant to incite are defined as trolling.

martin wrote:

playa2 wrote:NOT ONCE WAS IT MENTIONED I HATE WHITE PEOPLE, why did you bring that up ? If race is not a problem for you sit back and digest some of her points and relax and watch the discussion evolve with out trying to discredit it.

I didn't write the article I'm just astonished that a white women could be so candid about her observations that many are afraid to discuss let alone think about. Some of her points are well thought out and hardly ever talked about.... only ignored. We all can learn what it's like, it's called growth !

playa, if you are going to start a discussion, add your thoughts to the original post, otherwise all you are doing in inciting (especially with some of the more stupid articles)

Martin, you know I'm not trying to get bounced, so this discussion is about little things that minorities had and still deal with in 2010. Have things got better , sure from what they use to be. But these 50 points she made identifies what unnecessary pressures and uncalled for situations people have to deal with not because of the content of one's character but the color of one's skin period.

The point seb made about a friend going to a party and being the only minority around African Americans is something many never have to deal with as a Caucasian in life. Some minorities deal with this every week of their life in some cases.

These are some of the situations that happen to me:

I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. - They were so excited for me because I didn't make mistakes that the last minority made when I was on the job the 1st few months. I was like I'm just doing my job.

I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
I blew their doors of how well I caught on so quickly in a fast paced professional environment and they thought I was the best thing since slice bread...I was just doing my job.

I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and
social. Going to a formal dinner and being the only black couple really make you feel out of place and the party is to have a good time.

I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race. This is why my baby daughter goes to private school. Our older daughter was denied a lead part in a play because of the character being played is white and my could sing and act better than the girl who got the part so she dropped out of the drama team. I could go on.

But when we moved to the burbs the kids suffered more than anything and they had the pressure of trying to fit in each year, again not because of their character, but their skin. When my middle daughter went to Buff St she was so happy to find students who didn't just judge her by the color of her skin. These types of pressures many whites never have to deal with, we have to almost all the time.

Going to the store being watched is still a biggy being a minority in 2010. This stuff is something many of you could not handle everyday. It's not in any way to make you develop any false guilt. It's just our way of life

i don't think playa posted this to incite tension... i think he posted it to ask a legitimate question:

"Having described this, what will we each do to lessen this imbalance of power and privilege? Will we choose to use 'any or our arbitrarily-awarded power to try to re-construct power systems?'

while i do agree with Solace that posting a list of this nature does impose certain stereotypes about white people's attitudes in regards to race, some of the points brought up are legitimate observations & warrant consideration in the context of the question that was asked above... when one lives life with certain privileges and perks that the color of their skin gives them in any certain country (whether that be white people in America, Asians in Asian countries, Latinos in Latin countries, etc., etc.), i think the point of this thread was to ask those whether it is right to use that power & privilege to try & change the power systems in order to effect more equality amongst other lesser privileged groups.

Marv wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Ive actually always like that green chick on Star Trek myself--perhaps my first crush--anyone remember her? I think they were called Orions

haha! briggs that's hilarious.

i know this is a serious thread, but did you ever see eddie murphy's bit on the green chick?

NSFW:

Marv, Now your gonna have green women gettin our asses about not treating green women the same. Bitty gonna now jump on my ass that her great grandmother was green and I have no idea what I am talking about!

In any event, this is for TMS............He may be a well endowed Asian (Self proclaimed) but I think this hottie is looking for the Jolly Green Giant!

all right, so for a serious response:

i think white privilege exists on a huge scale. and i think if you care about people, you care about helping everyone have access to the same privileges and the same opportunities for health, happiness and success.

i had a conversation with killa a few years back about parenthood and our anxieties about raising our kids. i told him that when one of my kids got in trouble when he was younger, i went with him to court and the judge motioned me to approach the bench. he said to me, "what do you want me to do here?" and i said, "give him the strongest consequences you can so we can teach him a lesson." killa told me 1st thing that conversation's not happening if you’re black. second thing you’re not gonna look at the judge as someone who actually wants to help your family. He’s not on your side." bang! i think he hit what it's like to be able to assume or not assume majority privilege right there. Again the point isn’t whether you can predict exactly what one particular individual is gonna do – it’s what the accumulation of your experiences has taught you to expect about how you’re being looked at and responded to.

i can ask myself the question - would my life be the same if I were black? Would I have the same things, accesses, responses from people? No way.

I remember ray charles being asked about how his blindness affected his life. He said his blindness wasn’t anywhere near the handicap that being black was.

So for me the question is do I want to try to be as aware as I can of how people are treated in this world and do whatever I can to help people be treated right – hell yea. As the motto for the house of blues goes – “help ever – hurt never.”

i keep reiterating this but let's not make racism out to be strictly a black & white issue... it effects all minorities, & sometimes white people are the victim of reverse discrimination... the point of this thread seems to me to be that those who are privileged should not take those privileges for granted & should be fully aware that many people in this country don't enjoy those same privileges because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background.

TMS wrote:i keep reiterating this but let's not make racism out to be strictly a black & white issue... it effects all minorities, & sometimes white people are the victim of reverse discrimination... the point of this thread seems to me to be that those who are privileged should not take those privileges for granted & should be fully aware that many people in this country don't enjoy those same privileges because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background.

From that point, I think most people here agree. But, there's no need to jam it down our throats with a battering ram. The presentation was all I had an issue with. Nothing that was mentioned in the "50 points" list is a universal truth by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, these things happen from time to time, but they should be discouraged and frowned upon. I just don't want to sit here with the impression given that every white person's goal is to hold everyone else down, because nothing could be farther from the truth. Of course, there are people who do such and it crosses many cultures. Taking that into account, let me just say, they're no friends of mine either. I don't tolerate racism of any kind and don't associate with people who I feel are racists. I think most of my friends feel the same way.

I mean, think about it, what if you went onto a woman's message board and came up with a list of the "50 privileges women have that men don't". Expect to be flamed and flamed hard. If instead, you came there to have a mutual discussion, then you would have that instead. That's all I'm saying.

Solace wrote:

TMS wrote:i keep reiterating this but let's not make racism out to be strictly a black & white issue... it effects all minorities, & sometimes white people are the victim of reverse discrimination... the point of this thread seems to me to be that those who are privileged should not take those privileges for granted & should be fully aware that many people in this country don't enjoy those same privileges because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background.

From that point, I think most people here agree. But, there's no need to jam it down our throats with a battering ram. The presentation was all I had an issue with. Nothing that was mentioned in the "50 points" list is a universal truth by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, these things happen from time to time, but they should be discouraged and frowned upon. I just don't want to sit here with the impression given that every white person's goal is to hold everyone else down, because nothing could be farther from the truth. Of course, there are people who do such and it crosses many cultures. Taking that into account, let me just say, they're no friends of mine either. I don't tolerate racism of any kind and don't associate with people who I feel are racists. I think most of my friends feel the same way.

I mean, think about it, what if you went onto a woman's message board and came up with a list of the "50 privileges women have that men don't". Expect to be flamed and flamed hard. If instead, you came there to have a mutual discussion, then you would have that instead. That's all I'm saying.

i agree with you, there's always a fine line between spurring debate & giving the impression of pointing an accusing finger at the people reading the thread... i think the question raised at the end could have been developed on more... & of course, that list is not a universal truth to all white people, i wasn't trying to infer that stereotype... i think this article was a list of a specific individual's realizations about the privileges that her race affords them in this country, & those privileges, whether people acknowledge them or experience them in daily life, do in fact exist for many & don't exist for others based on their racial background... i think that is the main point here, not that all white people take advantage of a pro-white system in this country.

Thank you TMS that's exactly what my purpose was in bringing this to discussion.

The white man is privileged? Every time I took a shower after football practice I didn't feel to privileged next to my black friends and that is the bottom line my friends---lets not make this rocket science--we all have our gifts and I certainly would've gladly traded some of my gifts for some of those gifts can I get an amen????

BRIGGS wrote:The white man is privileged? Every time I took a shower after football practice I didn't feel to privileged next to my black friends and that is the bottom line my friends---lets not make this rocket science--we all have our gifts and I certainly would've gladly traded some of my gifts for some of those gifts can I get an amen????

Wow. I don't think peggy mcIntosh envisioned THIS tumbling out of the invisible knapsack.

BRIGGS wrote:The white man is privileged? Every time I took a shower after football practice I didn't feel to privileged next to my black friends and that is the bottom line my friends---lets not make this rocket science--we all have our gifts and I certainly would've gladly traded some of my gifts for some of those gifts can I get an amen????

Speak for yourself on that one. Funny way of putting things in perspective, though.

Solace wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:The white man is privileged? Every time I took a shower after football practice I didn't feel to privileged next to my black friends and that is the bottom line my friends---lets not make this rocket science--we all have our gifts and I certainly would've gladly traded some of my gifts for some of those gifts can I get an amen????

Speak for yourself on that one. Funny way of putting things in perspective, though.

Green women like moderately sized males

BRIGGS wrote:

Solace wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:The white man is privileged? Every time I took a shower after football practice I didn't feel to privileged next to my black friends and that is the bottom line my friends---lets not make this rocket science--we all have our gifts and I certainly would've gladly traded some of my gifts for some of those gifts can I get an amen????

Speak for yourself on that one. Funny way of putting things in perspective, though.

Green women like moderately sized males

TMS wrote:i don't think playa posted this to incite tension... i think he posted it to ask a legitimate question:

"Having described this, what will we each do to lessen this imbalance of power and privilege? Will we choose to use 'any or our arbitrarily-awarded power to try to re-construct power systems?'

while i do agree with Solace that posting a list of this nature does impose certain stereotypes about white people's attitudes in regards to race, some of the points brought up are legitimate observations & warrant consideration in the context of the question that was asked above... when one lives life with certain privileges and perks that the color of their skin gives them in any certain country (whether that be white people in America, Asians in Asian countries, Latinos in Latin countries, etc., etc.), i think the point of this thread was to ask those whether it is right to use that power & privilege to try & change the power systems in order to effect more equality amongst other lesser privileged groups.

I noticed TMS when you shared this , some tried to make the thread into a comic strip and dumb down the content. Why are we afraid to talk, Marv and yourself outside of seb and I sound like you understand what I'm talking about, the rest get defensive . My question too many is this

Would you be where you are today in life if you weren't white? If so what guaranteed that response knowing the history of affirmative action needing to be put in place a while back.

This stuff is something many of you could not handle everyday. It's not in any way to make you develop any false guilt. It's just our way of life

"many of you could not handle"
"our way of life"

these blanket statements are STEREOTYPICAL. Also offensive,

Not really, could you go to work everyday and work around African Americans all day long and be the only minority there. LOL

THE CULTURE OF THE OFFICE WOULD BE SO FOREIGN TO YOU THAT YOU WOULD STRUGGLE TO BE YOURSELF.

I'd like to redirect some of the listed comments.... the Prof pointed out all of the injustices. I think most people on this board, and other people know about the injustices and inequalities but don't think about them enough. This is a BIG reminder.

Now, what can be done to raise up the Black,African American in the U.S and elsewhere, instead of just putting down white people. I am sort of white. In the US I am classified Caucasian. In Europe, when I applied for a Residency permit a few years ago, the official took one look at me and said, "You're Jewish, right?" I guess I wasn't really Caucasian in the Germanic countries, even though my grandparents were all from Eastern Europe and Russia.

Playa, since you have brought up the problem, what can we do to change this?....To raise the status the average, "typical" Black person so everyone is equal? I am always big on education. What are your ideas?

playa2 wrote:Not really, could you go to work everyday and work around African Americans all day long and be the only minority there. LOL

THE CULTURE OF THE OFFICE WOULD BE SO FOREIGN TO YOU THAT YOU WOULD STRUGGLE TO BE YOURSELF.

I attended PS 145 in manhattan, in a mixed neighborhood, with Terrell to my left and LeVon to my right so check your assumptions at the door playa.

What do you know about the 'self'? You only seem to be able to identify with your GROUP. You struggle to be yourself because you identify too strongly with your GROUP.

Playa, I know your ex-military, but what is your current occupation?