Thread: White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election

It seems that Mr. Wise is not living up to his name for some reason?

Thanks for the post to a blog rant, now can we get back to the real issue?

It's all about the GREEN privilege and last I heard, that was gold!

Honestly it's just the bent rant of some guy posting on the internet. Not even worth posting. It's people like this that serve to divide this nation.

awesome article

Originally Posted by Frixxxx

Thanks for the post to a blog rant, now can we get back to the real issue?

It's all about the GREEN privilege and last I heard, that was gold!

That's why I put it in the Lounge.

Besides, it can be profitable to stir people up early in the morning.

what specific points in the article do people have a problem with? Ones that hit too close to home (based on honest self-assessment), or ones that are not an issue for them personally?

Originally Posted by alevin

what specific points in the article do people have a problem with? Ones that hit too close to home (based on honest self-assessment), or ones that are not an issue for them personally?

I think much of the article hits pretty well with many people, but I just hate the generalizing of "white people." I grew up a poor white boy in a black neighborhood. My manners didn't mesh well with many middle class white people, so I often felt like some foreigner or I was looked down upon because of my way, not because of my color.

Plenty of white people fall into the unprivileged category.

"Poor white trash"
"Trailer trash"
"Hicks"
"Honkey"

Besides that, poor white people living among poor blacks often get serious beat downs because the blacks look at the whites and blame them for their problems. I'm always like, "Hey, I'm living in this hell-hole with you. How am I keeping you down?"

My brother just went to the hospital a couple weeks ago, because he got jumped for being white in his own neighborhood that he's lived in his entire life - longer than the people who beat him down.

Then you have some blacks who are not "black enough." They "sold out." I know plenty of blacks who think that about Obama. They've got a tough battle to fight on both sides.

And forget mixed races in the poor areas. They're defending themselves against all sides.

I would change the article to "Socio-economical privilege" no matter what color they are. Name calling and accusations are flying in all directions from all kinds of people. Nobody's innocent.

Well I give you credit for bringing the subject up, fabijo on this raging Republican site.
I think there are many nuggets of truth in what the article tries to address.

Originally Posted by fabijo

I think much of the article hits pretty well with many people, but I just hate the generalizing of "white people." I grew up a poor white boy in a black neighborhood. My manners didn't mesh well with many middle class white people, so I often felt like some foreigner or I was looked down upon because of my way, not because of my color.

I would change the article to "Socio-economical privilege" no matter what color they are. Name calling and accusations are flying in all directions from all kinds of people. Nobody's innocent.

Thanks for sharing, Fab. My take on the article was that there are double standards being used probably completely unconciously by most people, regardless of the motivation.

I have to say I was on the receiving end of reverse racism as a minority white in a majority black work setting back in my college years for several months. It was a work setting I was familiar and experienced with, but affirmative action experiment brought in mostly fresh inexperienced minority blood that that year for the first time, including the supervisory staff.

It was extremely unpleasant in that I did not exist for people who didn't absolutely have to deal with me. We'd walk past each other, I'd greet them, they wouldn't look at me, much less acknowledge my existance. We were all college students, but they were from black colleges in the days of "black power", I was going to a state landgrant college in another state and had had limited exposure to blacks my age up to that point. The people I actually worked with daily as a peer, I got along fine with, my boss however, did not ask my opinion or value my experience (even tho I was the old hand in that setting and it was completely new situation for her). That lack of interest and experience on her part got us crossways partway through the summer when I had to confront her hardcore about some really thoughtless and inappropriate "fun" activities with regard to other peoples kids we were responsible for, that were destined to scare the bewhosis out of gradeschool aged kids in the middle of the night in a strange place. Lot of tension between her and me the rest of the summer, it was work-related for me, but triggered by background differences in life experience.

it was a long summer, but it let me feel what many of them have probably felt in the majority society at some point in their lives. I hated it, I try not to put it on other people today, but I probably do it to some degree anyway without fully realizing, despite my best intentions and my upbringing which taught me to live and let live to the extent possible.

Raging Republican site???

"I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two? Where were you when he was twelve? Where were you when he was eighteen, and how come you don't know he had a pistol?"

"Those people are not Africans, they don't know a damned thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Shaliqua, Mohammed and all that crap and all of them are in jail."

"50 percent drop out rate, I'm telling you, and people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men. Under what excuse? I want somebody to love me. And as soon as you have it, you forget to parent. Grandmother, mother, and great grandmother in the same room, raising children, and the child knows nothing about love or respect of any one of the three of them. All this child knows is "gimme, gimme, gimme."
"The city and all these people have to pick up the tab on them because they don't want to accept that they have to study to get an education."

It's not what they're doing to us. It's what we're not doing. 50 percent drop out. Look, we're raising our own ingrown immigrants. These people are fighting hard to be ignorant. There's no English being spoken, and they're walking and they're angry. Oh God, they're angry and they have pistols and they shoot and they do stupid things. And after they kill somebody, they don't have a plan. Just murder somebody. Boom. Over what? A pizza? And then run to the poor cousin's house.
"You can't keep asking that God will find a way. God is tired of you."

Bill Cosby

Originally Posted by fabijo

I can't say I agree with this article, but it does have some interesting points:

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1755

I would say it confirms some underlying truths:

1. Gossip and slandering are highly desirable - somehow it's a trap that draws our curiosity - and we are all eager to "get in on the news"

2. The rich and famous (wealthy and powerful) - are somehow expected to be more than human and are always targets

When it comes to articles like this - when someone goes out of their way to trash someone else - I simply realize deep down we're all pretty much the same...and if anyone could honestly know the author of the article...we'd find he/she has their flaws too.