privilege as a meme

Posted this profile in the New Yorker thread but realized it could go here. It's a quintessential mid-2010s story from hashtag/disruption protests to a Colbert appearance:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/05/something-borrowed-wilkinson

cathy hong park's response was a useful corrective imo

Science again tells us what we know:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/study-white-people-react-to-evidence-of-white-privilege-by-claiming-greater-personal-hardships/

hmmph. i don't see an issue with survey respondents acknowledging privilege while pointing out that race is not the only axis. e.g. to imagine an extreme case: "poor, uneducated, white transman with disability acknowledges white privilege while claiming personal hardships" does not strike me as cause to rush to the barricades.

study design seems willfully obtuse wrt intersectionality but hey full disclosure i'm nominally white

wouldn't intersectionality be recognizing "hey, I'm poor so I have hardships, but poor black people (intersection!) have it harder"?

hey black people might have it hard but I have depression!

cool convo. deep

Amazing that people get defensive if you suggest they have it easy. Science.

it's about time we left defensive people alone, definitely

wouldn't intersectionality be recognizing "hey, I'm poor so I have hardships, but poor black people (intersection!) have it harder"?

― μpright mammal (mh), Saturday, October 3, 2015

this would be one example, yes

no it's not

haha j not beating around the bush

2015

and everybody's free

I thought this was (mostly) a nice essay, wasn't really sure where to put it:

http://therumpus.net/2015/11/la-boheme-portlandia/

There were a few groaners -- the black ladies playing poker as hamfisted counterpoint, the immediate jump to "gang violence" when talking about the black neighborhood, but a lot of good stuff in there too

im like so far out in front of the academy its not even funny http://tressiemc.com/2016/01/06/when-your-curriculum-has-been-tumblrized/

Franchesca Ramsey
‏@chescaleigh
using “ghetto” to negatively describe something is seeped in anti-blackness. also Tarantino. a man who LOVES saying the n-word @keeltyc

"seeped in"?

"steeped in," maybe?

yeah not knowing how to spell was a sure tell but i posted it more because i thought it was a good example of an insta-take, "seeped" in some academic language the user half-understands, without really thinking about the issue at hand

anyway i've been noticing a new meme is "(it’s always a man)"

xp 100%

May not have thought much about the issue at hand, but seems to have lucked out on a correct analysis

yeah not knowing how to spell was a sure tell but i posted it more because i thought it was a good example of an insta-take, "seeped" in some academic language the user half-understands, without really thinking about the issue at hand

― k3vin k., Tuesday, January 19, 2016 7:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My brain flags this all the time but otoh I'm not here for gatekeeping everyone's exact command of grammar every time they want to express an idea they're just having. People say and write things wrong ALL THE TIME. ALL OF IT. That doesn't mean they're stupid or incapable of seeing something that's true.

definitely "steeped in". the only google results for steeped in anti-blackness are for that tweet and this thread

i agree about grammar - grammar is so often used as a way to ignore what someone's saying.

but that tweet isn't grammatically wrong, it's someone attempting to use a word when they don't actually know what the word they want to use is. that doesn't speak that well of anyone.

actually,

also could just be a typo

unforgivable

i agree about grammar - grammar is so often used as a way to ignore what someone's saying.

but that tweet isn't grammatically wrong, it's someone attempting to use a word when they don't actually know what the word they want to use is. that doesn't speak that well of anyone.

― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Wednesday, January 20, 2016 3:25 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is not different from using grammar to discredit ppl. Lots of people don't know what the words they want to use are, a lot of the time. You know what they're going for, just fill in the blanks and let's all move on without spraining our arms patting ourselves on the back.

I wasn't sure why the tweet was originally posted here-- just seemed like someone saying some pretty standard stuff. Seems like the writer is maybe a famous twitter persona?

yeah not knowing how to spell was a sure tell but i posted it more because i thought it was a good example of an insta-take, "seeped" in some academic language the user half-understands, without really thinking about the issue at hand

― k3vin k., Tuesday, January 19, 2016 7:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My brain flags this all the time but otoh I'm not here for gatekeeping everyone's exact command of grammar every time they want to express an idea they're just having. People say and write things wrong ALL THE TIME. ALL OF IT. That doesn't mean they're stupid or incapable of seeing something that's true.

― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Wednesday, January 20, 2016 8:33 AM (3 hours ago)

fwiw my comment on the spelling was just in response to hoos, that's not why i posted it. i agree spelling things wrong is ok sometimes

what is going on why are you guys talking so much about a typo in the privilege thread

Sure! Spelling, using the wrong word, not being sure how to say what you're saying...it's all fine. People still need to be listened to (or at least if you're gonna rule them out it shouldn't be for these reasons).

Everyone wants for their words to matter and to change something; I don't think this is, like, news to anyone? And they perceive that those terms etc are in some way a language of power. That people who can talk like that get listened to. So it's natural for those who don't have power to try to adopt signaling words that they think will help them be heard. It's not something bad they're doing, it's pretty normal and smart. They're just not doing it seamlessly enough for you/me/us not to notice, and I think we often resent that? It's a response I try/am trying to lose.

what academic language is that tweet supposed to be aping again

I believe the objection was to the use of "seeped in" where it should have been "steeped in."

I get where the error is, I don't get the reference to "academic language the user half-understands"

"Steeped in" is not academic language and "white ppl who use ghetto as a pejorative & love saying the n word are prob racist" is not a concept that originates in academia

Unless my ability to read has completely failed me, I don't think that's in orbit you should be addressing there?

It has, I wasn't

i just said the spelling wasn't the point!

i made that post a couple of weeks ago. the tweet showed up on my timeline in response to a drunken tarantino acceptance speech in which the word "ghetto" was used in one of the few ways that would actually not be racially problematic. i just found it emblematic of a certain trend.

anyway the point wasn't to ridicule that particular person; it was one of many such tweets. it just struck me as the kind of take you see in the twittersphere where getting your feelings out on something takes priority over actually thinking it through, and reminded me of this thread

I believe the objection was to the use of "seeped in" where it should have been "steeped in."

― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Wednesday, January 20, 2016 5:07 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just in the interest of clarity i wasn't questioning her point at all, just confused about whether or not "seeped in" was a thing people said or not irl

so uh did Macklemore kill the whole privilege thing for good, or just for a while

or maybe in like a year everyone will think he came up with it

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/03/29/sfsu-investigating-video-of-black-woman-confronting-white-man-for-wearing-dreads/

I know not to expect better from YouTube comments but fucking hell that last para :(

Two takes on a similar topic:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/earning-the-woke-badge.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/28/when-white-people-admit-white-privilege-theyre-really-just-congratulating-themselves/

kind of tired of the privilege terminology, it started as a sarcastic way to address the fact non-white ppl get denied basic rights and people who take it at face value and don't believe there's difference in how people are treated think the goal is to have white people treated like everyone else, to negate the "privilege" and it fucks up the dialogue

like getting rid of "white privilege", if you take it at face value and not as a sarcastic statement, would mean white people getting pulled over or searched for no reason, discriminated against when it comes to housing, etc.

"i'm white and people treat me like garbage, too! what kind of privilege is that?"

yeah well it's not because of the color of your skin, and that's the sole determining factor a bunch of ppl use to judge