privilege as a meme

"tumbles" like it was some kind of blog clown

Otm!

men's rights tumbles

i someone should add the option to vote "tumbles" for the "what to you call your significant other" poll.

We are going to have a little review session now, because it seems like this totally great link has already slipped everyone's mind. YOU MIGHT BE EXPERIENCING SOME UNEARNED ADVANTAGES IF THE FOLLOWING ARE MOSTLY OR FREQUENTLY TRUE FOR YOU.

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford and in which I would want to live.

3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

6. When I am told about our national heritage or about civilization, I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

8. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

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 deal with my hair.

10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

12. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes or not answer letters without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.

13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

16. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color, who constitute the worlds' majority, without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

18. I can be sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge" I will be facing a person of my race.

19. If a traffic cop pulls me over, or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

21. I can go home from most meetings or organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in rather than isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.

22. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.

23. I can choose public accommodations without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

24. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my race will not work against me.

25. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.

26. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in flesh color that more or less matches my skin.

ADVANCED EXERCISE: You may also want to re-read, this time substituting "sex" or "sexual preference" or "gender performance" for the word "race" in some places it appears. If you think of other things to substitute, answers on a 3x5 card at the end of class.

27. the "flesh" colored crayon looks like my uncle dan

oh god, the memories, they're coming back

thank you again, io

"flesh-colored" sounds so macabre.

I don't know if that's a zing or a hi-5 but you're welcome.

hi-5

but really I was referring to your link/list, the DN is just a bonus

Oh, link: http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/ele3600/mcintosh.html AGAIN.

Some of those are really fucking stupid and myopic in their own ways. And some of them can be quite easily flipped around. But in the aggregate, sure, fine.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/0fe8a835da91659fff2bb0e05f09b8d0/tumblr_ml3vzbvkHi1s8gblro1_500.png

what is the "ring ring ring ring patriarchy" comment supposed to be addressing/responding to?

bananaphones

That got away from me in the press but thank you for bringing it back: what LG said is completely bonkers to me. I know a signif number of ppl personally who grew up with welfare, food stamps, etc, who now are professionals, have advanced degrees, and are fully integrated into my work and social circles with everyone else. And I know there are more than a couple of ilxors who grew up poor and disadvantaged in multiple ways and yet are educated, media savvy, internet-using moderns just like everyone else. I do not recognize my own experience anywhere in his account.

Maybe social mobility is more alive in the US, I mean in terms of journalism which is my main area since I grew up, the BBC is most of my career and is relatively diverse in terms of gender, race, religion and sexuality also disability, white men are in the minority in the places I worked, but class wise it's quite skewed towards middle class and up, I think it's probably a lot harder to for positive discrimination to be employed in terms of class, not sure if that's ever been done. I've never seen a form that sought to positively discriminate by class.

Journalism is the field with the least social mobility iirc. It's probably impossible to positively discriminate by class but much more can be done to stop actively discriminating against less wealthy people through the use of internships, etc. Access to good universities is also important and social background can be addressed there.

i answered 'no' to all those questions o_O

lmao @ those poor oppressed misogynist nerds, we need to check our cool privilege and have some empathy for their resentful horniness

internships & public schools

http://gawker.com/5994318/the-knifes-new-album-is-sort-of-the-accidental-racist-of-dark-electro+acoustic-experimental-music

privilege as a meme

more OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

i love the knife. in terms of britain vs. america class mobility etc., i'm not sure that there is more social mobility in america, but belief in its possibility -- in the meritocracy -- is such an ingrained part of the american psyche that we never really have an honest discussion about class here. people in america don't identify with their "class" as closely as they do in england, maybe. that is why reagan was able to slip his neoliberal restructuring policies more or less under the radar, couched in polite platitudes, where in britain people forced margaret thatcher to really go to bat for her policies in a more direct way, which is why there are so many o_0 quotes from her.

these are just my impressions and suspicions, i'd be interested to hear if other people think there is any truth to them.

It's a privilege to make an album; the Knife have make an album.

The sentence heroically sabotaging itself.

that knife article is trollgaze.

missed most of this thread thankfully. i've seen invoking the idea of 'privilege' used as a way to shut conversations down, and i've even seen actual honest-to-god young activisty types pulling the "you have nothing to say because you are X" thing. but the issue is that like any effective rhetorical device, it can be used to multiple ends and bluntly and dumbly or effectively.

i've also ended up throwing up my hands at certain discussions and resorted to linking to http://derailingfordummies.info/ on occasion because there's some people and some arguments where you just want to say 'go figure this out for yourself and stop being so terrible'.

there was one v. clusterfucky covo i was involved in at some point over whether someone had sad something offensive in this community and how dare ppl raise the issue and 'you misunderstood the joke' and the usual stuff, and months and months later someone who had been v. obtuse actually came out of the closet and talked about how people arguing with him over this stuff had helped him to think through and come to terms with admitting who he was, especially in the context of being a mormon in salt lake city, etc.

so sometimes these maddening discussions do have ultimately positive effects, at least on an individual level.

and that's the other thing i think -- privilege is a v. much individual concept, and it's useful in people thinking about where they're coming from. but it isn't useful at all as a structural analysis, i think, where the issue is not who is privileged, but who is screwed over. so that's the rhetorical retreat in the concept as well.

ring ring ring ring patriarchy
LOL

there should be a raffi thread, he was the first act i ever saw live, at age 5 or something. i'm glad to see he won this poll: Cannibal Corpse vs. Raffi

but yeah, i think the thread ended on a fairly positive consensus: the concept of privilege is indispensable, but it is misused sometimes, but in this it is no different than any other concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPm8InJmgUE

lock thread

i feel ya man, and like i said upthread we don't really talk about class in america, so maybe privilege is one way of getting at that. but let me point out again that even 'underprivileged straight white dudes' accrue benefits just by being a straight white dude - they don't have to think too hard about going home alone from a late-night party, for example, they can assume that the vast majority of media and advertising is aimed at them, they can shop at their local convenience store without being followed by store personnel, etc. these seem like small things, but when youre on the other side and not privy just by virtue of who you are, they can seem very big. and they dont go away even for poor straight white dudes. now, if you'll excuse me, i'm gonna be lighting a candle for underprivileged straight white dudes

― 乒乓, Thursday, 11 April 2013 11:48 (Yesterday) Permalink

i liked where u were going with this post. the friend of mine who is the most resistant to being called out on privilege is also the friend who comes from the poorest family, and i can understand that from his pov. like, why is he privileged when he had to go straight to working an awful job full time after high school because his parents couldn't afford to pay his tuition while we (including many non-male, non-straight, non-white among us) all went to college? a lot of ppl incl myself have tried to explain to him the types of ways including those you listed, & as i said he's pretty resistant. obv they're all good points and he is being obdurate, but i see where his frustrations are coming from. idk maybe because it's not something you can immediately read off of someone (well, neither is straight) but it does seem like poverty/class is a big dimension of privilege that gets left out when focus is primarily in straight-white-male space.

also i don't get why so many ppl showing up in this thread were like "awful thread." these threads are some of ilx at its best

yeah, i agree that this is a good thread. i think the issue is intersectionality: like, he is privileged over a hypothetical college graduate woman in terms of gender, but she may be privileged over him economically and educationally which are, i mean, real privileges too. so you can be both privileged and underprivileged at the same time.

so in certain instances, like walking the streets without fear, he is privileged by being male. in other instances, like having financial autonomy, he is less privileged than many, many women out there. and both things can be true at the same time. sorry if all of this is too obvious.

lock thread.

not until we determine who has privilege ito shouting down other posters in ilx threads about privilege (ie the real issue here)

we need a conch

we need to kill piggy

its because he's white, isn't it?

I think it's a great thread but I also think it's beaten the odds.

Nobody stands up for the odds.

THE KNIFE HAVE MAKE AN ALBUM

WHAT ARE IT NAME

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

I wonder why this is the number example of unacknowledged privilege. Given the segregation of communities, many non-white people could arrange this as well, if they wished.

i imagine the point is that to be a member of a significant majority is necessarily to enjoy some measure of privilege. i disagree, though it is often the case. there are examples of minorities being the more privileged group, e.g. south africa.

honestly, that list has a lot of problems, but it's a decent starting 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 deal with my hair.

ppft i wish re point no 3