Is white privilege real? To what extent?

[Edwardo Piet]

White privilege is prevalent that's why it's called white privilege. It's not very specific circumstances that are required: I am very privileged to have been born white in the UK and that goes for most first world countries.

[RobertE]

Jokes are a good filler between the fallacious arguments, assumptions, insults and pleas to emotion.

Are you serious. This thread has gone on for a million pages. You've said nothing but "wah wah white privilege is real but I don't like it because of dictionaries and plus I don't wanna talk about it." And "All privileges matter" and other such bullshit. Also, it's at least the 3rd or 4th thread of this shit. We get it, you don't like talking about white privilege because not every single white person in the world is overly privileged, and also because Asian people have some privilege. Wanka wanka stop blaming white people for racism. What is there left to do but make jokes?

You lost all credibility by going on a rant I'm afraid, whether it is justified or not. If Paul doesn't want to conform to YOUR or anybody else's standards, then that is his right and he has every damn right to express his opinion instead of being shouted down. I mean, what the hell, you want to debate yet you become like Ken Ham and all the others who will not listen to other peoples arguments.

[The Grand Nudger]

It is clear, however, that you're keenly sensitive to being perceived -as- a racist, and that it forms a significant portion of your objection to the existence of white privilege.  Hence the knee jerk "stop blaming whites, the idea of white privilege is racist" refrain.

[RobertE]

Take a look at the caste system in India and then we can start talking about "brown privilege."

[paulpablo]

Am I typing through a filter where what I say gets reversed at the other end?

Creating a thread about white privilege means I don't want to talk about it.

I say in the first post that I think white privilege exists to an extent and I'm therefore denying the existence of white privilege.

Your whole point, as far as I can tell, in this thread has been to cry about how people shouldn't call it white privilege because it's not only white people or all white people who have privileges. And who cares if white privilege is real because we should be talking about all privilege because God forbid I be made to feel uncomfortable by the fact that my life is or could be demonstrably easier because I was born white.


My favorite one (though not necessarily from you) is "I'm white and I'm not privileged".

People don't need to be privileged for this to matter. You don't have to call it white privilege if you don't want to. Every person in this world who is mentally competent enough to make their own choices is responsible for their own life. While obviously there are unfortunate and unavoidable circumstances that do happen, for the most part everyone (regardless of race) has their own poor life choices to blame for their problems. When I think of white privilege I think of leeway in this area. We have more room to fuck up without landing ourselves in prison or killed or so poor that we can't climb ourselves back out of poverty. Life tends to be easier and more convenient when you're white. People tend to make less assumptions of you based on your skin color if you're white. No one ever says "If you don't like being mistaken for a mass murderer you need to reign in your people and get them to stop mass murdering!"  White people are not to blame. We as a whole are not to blame for white privilege, we are not to blame for the existence of racism, we are not to blame for the plight of minorities, and we are not to blame for any individual PoC's poor life choices or personal problems. If you can get it through your head first and foremost that discussing while privilege is not about laying blame, having a discussion with you will become massively less frustrating.

I decided to stop reading upon the part where you said , the whole point of the thread is to cry about.....

I'm deciding to stop reading fallacious insulting sarcastic posts at the instant they turn that way because there's no need for it.

[Losty]

Are you serious. This thread has gone on for a million pages. You've said nothing but "wah wah white privilege is real but I don't like it because of dictionaries and plus I don't wanna talk about it." And "All privileges matter" and other such bullshit. Also, it's at least the 3rd or 4th thread of this shit. We get it, you don't like talking about white privilege because not every single white person in the world is overly privileged, and also because Asian people have some privilege. Wanka wanka stop blaming white people for racism. What is there left to do but make jokes?

You lost all credibility by going on a rant I'm afraid, whether it is justified or not. If Paul doesn't want to conform to YOUR or anybody else's standards, then that is his right and he has every damn right to express his opinion instead of being shouted down. I mean, what the hell, you want to debate yet you become like Ken Ham and all the others who will not listen to other peoples arguments.

What rant? And when did I say he couldn't express his opinion?

I have had conversation in this thread. I don't have anything against Paul and I don't hate him for disagreeing with me. If he's going to whine about me making a joke, I'm going to point out that the conversation has reached full circle more than once already so there's no reason why I can't make a joke. I have read the arguments. I find them to be lacking...mostly in having any point at all.

I'm inclined to say I don't care if you give me any credibility I don't even know who you are?

[Losty]

---

Your whole point, as far as I can tell, in this thread has been to cry about how people shouldn't call it white privilege because it's not only white people or all white people who have privileges. And who cares if white privilege is real because we should be talking about all privilege because God forbid I be made to feel uncomfortable by the fact that my life is or could be demonstrably easier because I was born white.


My favorite one (though not necessarily from you) is "I'm white and I'm not privileged".

People don't need to be privileged for this to matter. You don't have to call it white privilege if you don't want to. Every person in this world who is mentally competent enough to make their own choices is responsible for their own life. While obviously there are unfortunate and unavoidable circumstances that do happen, for the most part everyone (regardless of race) has their own poor life choices to blame for their problems. When I think of white privilege I think of leeway in this area. We have more room to fuck up without landing ourselves in prison or killed or so poor that we can't climb ourselves back out of poverty. Life tends to be easier and more convenient when you're white. People tend to make less assumptions of you based on your skin color if you're white. No one ever says "If you don't like being mistaken for a mass murderer you need to reign in your people and get them to stop mass murdering!"  White people are not to blame. We as a whole are not to blame for white privilege, we are not to blame for the existence of racism, we are not to blame for the plight of minorities, and we are not to blame for any individual PoC's poor life choices or personal problems. If you can get it through your head first and foremost that discussing while privilege is not about laying blame, having a discussion with you will become massively less frustrating.

---

I decided to stop reading upon the part where you said , the whole point of the thread is to cry about.....

Cool beans! I'll go back to making jokes. Don't ever accuse me of not trying to have a real discussion.

[paulpablo]

You lost all credibility by going on a rant I'm afraid, whether it is justified or not. If Paul doesn't want to conform to YOUR or anybody else's standards, then that is his right and he has every damn right to express his opinion instead of being shouted down. I mean, what the hell, you want to debate yet you become like Ken Ham and all the others who will not listen to other peoples arguments.

What rant? And when did I say he couldn't express his opinion?

I have had conversation in this thread. I don't have anything against Paul and I don't hate him for disagreeing with me. If he's going to whine about me making a joke, I'm going to point out that the conversation has reached full circle more than once already so there's no reason why I can't make a joke. I have read the arguments. I find them to be lacking...mostly in having any point at all.

I'm inclined to say I don't care if you give me any credibility I don't even know who you are?

What you mean is that if I complain about you making sarcastic pointless comments you're going to excuse yourself by claiming it was a joke all along.

[Losty]

What rant? And when did I say he couldn't express his opinion?

I have had conversation in this thread. I don't have anything against Paul and I don't hate him for disagreeing with me. If he's going to whine about me making a joke, I'm going to point out that the conversation has reached full circle more than once already so there's no reason why I can't make a joke. I have read the arguments. I find them to be lacking...mostly in having any point at all.

I'm inclined to say I don't care if you give me any credibility I don't even know who you are?

What you mean is that if I complain about you making sarcastic pointless comments you're going to excuse yourself by claiming it was a joke all along.

That's not even close to what I said. The conversation going full circle means you have points, other people gave points, an agreement was not made so you gave the same points, the same rebuttals were made...still no agreement. Rinse wash repeat. We don't agree on the matter (though I think your views and mine are very very close on this subject) no amount of repeating the same arguments back and forth at each other over and over will change that. Stalemate. And so begins jokes because I got tired of watching the paint on my argument dry after I made it for the 3rd time.

[RobertE]

You lost all credibility by going on a rant I'm afraid, whether it is justified or not. If Paul doesn't want to conform to YOUR or anybody else's standards, then that is his right and he has every damn right to express his opinion instead of being shouted down. I mean, what the hell, you want to debate yet you become like Ken Ham and all the others who will not listen to other peoples arguments.

What rant? And when did I say he couldn't express his opinion?

I have had conversation in this thread. I don't have anything against Paul and I don't hate him for disagreeing with me. If he's going to whine about me making a joke, I'm going to point out that the conversation has reached full circle more than once already so there's no reason why I can't make a joke. I have read the arguments. I find them to be lacking...mostly in having any point at all.

I'm inclined to say I don't care if you give me any credibility I don't even know who you are?

"Are you serious. This thread has gone on for a million pages. You've said nothing but "wah wah white privilege is real but I don't like it because of dictionaries and plus I don't wanna talk about it." And "All privileges matter" and other such bullshit. Also, it's at least the 3rd or 4th thread of this shit. We get it, you don't like talking about white privilege because not every single white person in the world is overly privileged, and also because Asian people have some privilege. Wanka wanka stop blaming white people for racism. What is there left to do but make jokes?"

For me, the above would be considered a rant and nothing else, just like my reply to you earlier. In essence, the message that Paul was trying to get over was that privilege is not just "white", but all skin colours. There are Afro-Caribeans who hate Africans full-stop and Africans think that the Afro-Caribeans are "privileged." All I saw Paul doing was trying to be objective whatever his personal opinions were whereas you were being subjective and thus blinded by your own attitude and own personal feelings in that "white people are privileged, full stop!!!" If you cannot argue from an objective point of view, then it is nigh on impossible to have a debate with you because you will always have some sort of bias, thus anyone who questions yourr opinion will no doubtedly be wrong simply because your own personal opinions goes into the mix. Try and be a little more open-minded....and smile like me...