{"id":51834,"date":"2015-07-24T14:04:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T20:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/24\/on-the-disadvantage-of-privilege-and-what-a-small-disadvantage-that-is.html"},"modified":"2015-07-25T09:46:20","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T15:46:20","slug":"on-the-disadvantage-of-privilege-and-what-a-small-disadvantage-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/24\/on-the-disadvantage-of-privilege-and-what-a-small-disadvantage-that-is.html","title":{"rendered":"On the disadvantage of privilege, and what a small disadvantage that is"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nice essay below from +<\/span>Paul Hartzer<\/a><\/span>. I, too, can check most of the boxes of privilege, and I certainly get tired of, despite my efforts to avoid unfairly acting on that privilege, being a target for people lashing out.<\/p>\n

But that said, yeah, the punishment of being assumed to be a racist (or potential racist) vs. being actually discriminated against by racism is pretty mild. The down side of being presumed a sexist vs suffering sexual discrimination, harassment, rape and the like is pretty weak tea. The injustice of being lumped in with Christian bigots isn't all that great compared to being the target of such bigotry.<\/p>\n

So I will continue to try and watch my own personal actions and assumptions to guard against those privileged assumptions leaking through, and I'll try through example<\/i> (not protest) to demonstrate that the #notallwhatever<\/a> thing has some validity. But I'll also try not to get too<\/i> defensive or whiny about it, because, at the end of the day, I have had a relatively easy road of it, and being unjustly lumped in with the bad actors in my various cohorts may be unfair and aggravating, but it's less unfair and aggravating than what those bad actors have done in the first place to draw such ire. If I have a bone to pick, it should be with them first.<\/p>\n

Originally shared by +Paul Hartzer<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Rocking the Suburbs<\/b><\/p>\n

There's something I've been meaning to say about privilege. Sort of. Sort of about privilege, that is.<\/p>\n

I'm a white male American. I'm cis enough to count, and while I'm not Christian, I have the t-shirt. I can check off a few boxes on the ADA checklist if I squint, but other than that, I'm pretty damned high up on the privileged hierarchy, as far as that goes.<\/p>\n

Oh, and before anyone says I'm saying what I'm about to say to get laid (because, seriously, that's what I've been told), I'm married and not on the prowl in the slightest. And if I were, my strategy wouldn't be "say feminist things on the Internet and see how it goes".<\/p>\n

So, now that that's all out of the way and I've established some level of credibility, here goes:<\/p>\n

Guys, grow up. By "guys", I mean specifically the whites and the men and especially and particularly the white men. And if what follows doesn't apply to you, then good for you, move on.<\/p>\n

You sure are a fragile group. We can't talk about privilege without someone patting you on the head and scritching you under the chin and telling you, yes, dear, white lives matter, too. Yes, dear, men get raped, too.<\/p>\n

Look, I used to be like you. I know the feeling. Which is why I say, again, and with conviction:<\/p>\n

Grow up, guys.<\/p>\n

Stop derailing, stop whining, stop making us stop our mature adult conversations in order to explain to you, once again, that we know you work hard, we know you're really and truly good inside, we know that it's not you, it's the system, we know, we know, we know.<\/p>\n

For a group of people who want the freedom to say what you want, who whine about Political Correctness ruining your opportunity to tell a joke about a Chink, a Polack, and a Wetback without people shaking their heads… you sure do need to have your feelings taken into account an awful lot.<\/p>\n

What's wrong, buttercup? You don't like being cast into a big bucket based on the color of your skin? Neither do I. But see, as a white person, when I get judged, it's in the form of people on the Internet saying rude things about me. When black people get judged, it's in the form of not getting jobs they deserve, or being followed around when they try to shop, or being thrown to the concrete by a cop because they didn't instantly comply with a "lawful order".<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, there would be no judgments based on skin. But since this isn't a perfect world, I know which judgment I'd rather suffer.<\/p>\n

Or, maybe, sunshine, your frustration is at being seen as a potential rapist. Yeah, I hate that, too. I'm serious, here. It's absolutely appalling that, if I go to a party where there's alcohol and women, I have to be aware of the possibility that my getting drunk and having sex with someone could result in rape accusations. That sucks. It's completely ludicrous that, if I'm walking at night and see a woman walking alone at night, she might get tense and not want to talk to me. Poor me.<\/p>\n

Boo-hoo.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, women have to worry far more about actually being raped.<\/p>\n

So, again, perfect world, sure. But I have to live in this world, and if I have to choose between "being seen as a rapist" and "being raped", well, I know which one I'd choose.<\/p>\n

Or maybe you're pissy because some other privilege you have leads to people questioning your success or lack of being homeless, beaten, or otherwise victimized.<\/p>\n

It doesn't matter. Stop making it about you, you, you. Stop making people tiptoe around your feelings.<\/p>\n

Because it's gotten to the point of being beyond tiring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nice essay below from +Paul Hartzer. I, too, can check most of the boxes of privilege, and I certainly get tired of, despite my efforts to avoid unfairly acting on that privilege, being a target for people lashing out. But that said, yeah, the punishment of being assumed to be a racist (or potential … Continue reading “On the disadvantage of privilege, and what a small disadvantage that is”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,740,348],"tags":[882],"class_list":["post-51834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-race-racism","category-women","tag-notallwhatever"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135545,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/05\/apparently-referring-white-privilege-can-get-suspended-job.html","url_meta":{"origin":51834,"position":0},"title":"Apparently, referring to “white privilege” can get you suspended from your job","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Dec-17 1:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because suggesting that white people have intrinsic advantages in our society, and so also have blinders to problems that non-white (non-male, non-cis, non-straight) people have, is apparently, a racist and sexist thing to say in the eyes of certain, as they say, \"snowflakes.\" Heroic Cop Suspended When Officers Complain After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/unnamed-6.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40825,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/18\/middle-earthers-of-color.html","url_meta":{"origin":51834,"position":1},"title":"Middle-Earthers of Color","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 18-Jan-14 2:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So while there's a thread of \"Tolkien was a racist who only wrote about white guys and all the dark guys are bad\" out in the world, I don't usually subscribe to it. \u00a0I mean, while he was born in South Africa, he returned to the UK when he was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50032,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/09\/the-invisibility-of-white-privilege.html","url_meta":{"origin":51834,"position":2},"title":"The Invisibility of White Privilege","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Apr-15 8:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a thousand variables in every equation, of course, and every individual is unique and in unique circumstances -- but the basic forces are there, largely unseen and, just as largely, unacknowledged.(h\/t +Les Jenkins) This simple comic strip concisely explains the complexities of white privilege A new comic from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":660,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/05\/red_of_tooth_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":51834,"position":3},"title":"Red of tooth and claw","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-01 8:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write, we have Israeli military forces firing frickin' missiles into buildings where they think Palestinian leaders or security forces are. And if a few bystanders get killed, c'est...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135681,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/16\/a-name-to-conjure-by.html","url_meta":{"origin":51834,"position":4},"title":"A Name to Conjure By","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 16-Dec-17 2:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently some folk -- the white folk who make racist comments against people who aren't white -- have decided the current president's name makes for a great racist taunt in and of itself, or an authority to invoke alongside other racist taunts. Can't imagine how that became a thing. \u2018Trump,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/unnamed-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50214,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/29\/the-most-racist-places-in-america-for-certain-values-of-racist.html","url_meta":{"origin":51834,"position":5},"title":"The most racist places in America (for certain values of racist)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Apr-15 11:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Using Google searches that include the word \"nigger\" as a proxy for racism (though particularly against blacks) is an interesting idea. Noting correlation to mortality rates for blacks is even more interesting.Again, this is looking at just racism toward one group, and has a slight fuzziness around it in trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51883,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51834\/revisions\/51883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}