Is it rude to ask someone to keep their privilege in check if they're white?

Hello there everyone, since this is the political opinions subforum I figured I'd start a thread for change.

Is it wrong or disrespectful to ask a white person to check their privilege? For context, "white privilege" is basically defined as someone who presumes to think they are perfectly fit and capable of understanding and solving any situation, especially one that is racially or ethnically driven, without trying to actually educate themselves to understand any racial context involved.

Example: a white person telling a black person that everyone in America is and always has been treated the same, and not bothering to do any research on that.



Note: The reason I ask is to sorta level the playing field here, because I've only been here a few months but I've noticed a theme of how a lot of threads seem to have an anti-black or anti-Latino or anti-minority slant in general towards them and I'm not sure why that is.

 

It would be easier to answer if there was some more context, or even better, a video example.
But lets go with yours
"Example: a white person telling a black person that everyone in America is and always has been treated the same, and not bothering to do any research on that."
Of course its wrong, Slavery, Jim Crow, and all of those things from the PAST invalidate that statement so if someone actually said that to any person of any color they'd be making themselves look educated and uninformed
Edit - my answer is with regards to the past tense part of it "always has been treated the same", but I guess it applies now because things like affirmative action are the opposite of equality

 

Should there be any remaining question as to whether racism is alive and well in these United States of America, the posts on this forum which touch upon it, either directly or tangentially, stand in mute evidence.

Regards, stay safe 'n well.

 

never seen any white privilege. Can someone describe the privilege? Is there something that prevents a person who isn’t white from getting the same privilege?

is math something only privileged people can use successfully?

 

You will notice that a popular deflection technique with some people when confronted with certain issues is to blame non-whites. Some of these people are explicitly racist, others have just been conditioned to do this because it is a way to avoid answers they may not like. Others have become gripped by the idea that white people are 'victims', so posting thread after thread attacking non-whites is some form of 'balance' in their minds. Many more similar examples, but you get the idea.

You will find a significant overlap between these people and the ones who are caught up in the current attacks on drag queens/trans people. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I'm not sure asking them to 'check their privilege' is going to get very far. I'm not sure what actually will. People whose views are either driven by ingrained bigotry or profound emotional responses tend to cling fairly tightly to those views and people who reinforce them - that tends to describe these people.

 

Your example is more of someone who is ignorant at best, stupid at worst. I wouldn't call that a privilege, of any kind.

Now, is it disrespectful to tell someone to "check their privilege"? Yep.

Is it wrong to tell someone to "check their privilege"? Not necessarily. Depends on context.

Speaking of context, the context for your "check their privilege" is specifically "white" privilege. So I'll now speak to that. "White privilege" does not exist. There is "class" privilege. As in a rich person is going to have more opportunities open to them than a poor person. Or when someone is nicely dressed vs dressed like a hobo. But in today's society there is nothing "privileged" about being "white".

 

With things like Affirmative Action it goes to re-affirm there isn't really such thing as white privilege. With things like POC only college spaces, I wouldn't say there is such thing as white privilege. We actually had equality before the left started with this equity thing. If they start making laws and policies that only benefit whites then I will definitely acknowledge it. Maybe there are some that I don't know about? For example, white racial quotas for jobs? I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but if it does, can you please let us know what they are?

 

See, that there is exactly what I mean, and a perfect example that actually is closely tied to my example in the OP. If you actually really think equality existed at ANY point in our history, you're kidding yourself because there has never been equality in this nation, not once. Sure everyone says that but if it were true, men and women would be getting paid equally all across the board, prison populations would be lower and even everywhere, cocaine arrests would've been the same, rich and poor neighborhoods wouldn't exist, and so on.

 

No. That is not the definition of white privilege. What you describe would be the "Tucker Carlson" definition. But we all now know the guy is a professional liar and made a living of being a white supremacist.

White privilege is systemic. Which means it's the fact that, if you're white, you won't be stopped by cops as often, your car is less likely to be searched for drugs, you run less risk of falsely being charged with a crime, or falsely being convicted.... you will have less trouble getting a job, or getting into some schools, or getting a loan... too many privileges to list.

So I'm afraid your question makes no sense. You are basically asking if it would be ok to tell a judge "Hey! It's ok if you falsely convict me of a crime, because I've decided to keep my white privilege of being less likely to be falsely convicted in check"

 

You meant "uneducated and uninformed" right?

 

Mind your victimhood.

 

Yes

 

Could you provide even one example of someone making this claim?

I suspect that you cannot and that you are really just making this grand implication that is 100% detached from reality.

Prove me wrong, if you can.

 

So they are privileged because of math? The math says a certain group commits 50% of homicides but are only like 13% of the population. I'm sure that isn't a contributing factor at all, lol

That isn't true AT ALL. Affirmative action and racial quotas do not benefits white at all so how is it a privilege? I know many job recruiters and one of them is black and she always complains about how she's pressured to find black applicants for certain positions when there aren't enough in the candidate pool. Also, "too many privileges to list"? thats funny. Please, list all of them. I'd love to see them but the ones you listed so far? Sorry, they don't make the cut!

 

If anyone tells me to check my privilege I just tell them to mind their victimhood. No sense in getting offended as offensive as it may be.

If a person wants to play social cripple they got issues.

 

Touche. But in all fairness I was trying to give my own description and not what seemed like a copy-and-pasted one.

 

Poster in post #7 did it just there.

 

'a white person telling a black person that everyone in America is and always has been treated the same' is a simple -and easily debunked- fallacy. Have you seen anyone on this forum take that position? Theres nothing wrong with debunking fallacies. But if you want to do so 'respectfully', calling it 'priviledge' may not be the best approach. Anyone who would take such a position has clearly been deprived of an accurate portrayal of early American history, not 'priviledged' with it.

 

No, because I'm not just talking about the forum, I'm talking about people in general.

 

I see NOTHING in post number 7 that even remotely matched your statement.

Please cut and paste the words from that post that you think equates to " a white person telling a black person that everyone in America is and always has been treated the same" so that we can all grasp what makes you think those are saying the same thing.

If someone were to say that some people eat two chicken wings and a thousand shrimp for dinner and I asked them to give me an example of such... giving an example of someone eating 2 chicken wings does not suffice. It is the thousand shrimp that is in question. In your example, it is the "always has been" part that I am calling out as unmitigated BS.

 

More than anything you actually proved his point. What you described here is equity. Not equality. Equity can NEVER be achieved. Especially with peoples individual Rights intact. Equality however can be achieved.

The wage gap between men and women is a myth in the sense that men are purposely paid more than women. There IS a wage gap, but its due to personal choices and circumstances. For example of personal choice.. women do not ask for raises near as much as men. And when they do they are not as aggressive about it as men are. IE: a man will continually ask or even demand a raise where as women either will not ask for a raise or if they do they'll simply ask once, maybe twice and then leave it at that for a year. For an example of circumstances, women in women's sports often get paid less than men in mens sports. Why does this happen? Because women's sports are not as watched or supported by the general populace as mens sports. In fact if it wasn't for the NBA paying for the NWBA the NWBA would go bankrupt. The WNBA makes roughly 60 Million in revenue per year. Whereas the NBA makes roughly 10 BILLION.



LINK: NBA vs WNBA: Revenue, Salaries, Attendance, Ratings (wsn.com)

 

I don't speak for OP but I think he's just trying to say "IF" someone said that is it rude.

 

People of all races can be racist, generally.

People that condone race based accusations of "privilege" are perpetuating racism. There is no way of saying a group is privileged without saying another group is disadvantaged. Is that really the class you want to put a demographic into? Generally disadvantaged?

Like they are handicapped as a race?

 

You ARE speaking for the OP, and aside from his bizarre definition for white privilege, he is clearly implying that his example is realistic. It is not. Anyone that would ever say everyone has always been treated equal would have to be a complete moron. I have never witnessed anyone making that claim, nor has he. He now has tried to say that YOU made that claim in post 7.

There is nothing to be gained by being nonsensically bombastic with your implications, and that is the perfect description of the example he provided.

 

As @Golem put it earlier in this thread, it's a systemic thing, not just on the individual level.