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Thank you! I just discussed this in the media forum, here's what I said:
"It's interesting that they think as a white man I've had privilege my entire life. But wealth has always alluded me. Nor have I lucked out in any other ways. No lottery winnings. No affluent relatives mentioning me in their wills. Nobody to pull strings and get me a high paying union job. And I was nowhere near the minimum test score requirement to get into a fancy college because they are always higher for whites.
So where is all this privilege?
I've been questioned by police just because I happened to be waiting for a bus or walking through a neighborhood late at night, I know what that feels like. And I was just as angry about it as anyone else.
So where is my privilege?
I've lived in many large cities and almost every African American I knew had it better than I did. My minority peers would apply at the largest companies and government agencies and get hired on the spot! I'd have to submit 15 years of work history and provide multiple references and then I'd be lucky to even get an interview.
So how am I privileged?
To get back on topic: CNN and the like can find plenty of people that don't fit the song their singing, hell I can sing the whole opera, but that's as likely to happen as I am to win the lottery, smh."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheepie2000
Do you really believe that if you were black under the same circumstances with the same obstacles and you took the exact same actions and put in the exact same effort that the outcome would be the same? Would you have been offered the same jobs and opportunities?
Absolutely, I can't begin to tell you the people I know who were up for positions but they were given to someone else due to race or gender. My son's company just did it because they needed a certain person to fulfill the PC requirement. The other son took the NYC police exam and it was thrown out because not enough blacks had applied so they were redoing it.
I'm all for giving the job, school spot, raise to the best person - but not due to race, gender or religious beliefs so the company looks PC.
The term "white privilege" has always rubbed me the wrong way. I am white, but I was very poor growing up. Neither of my parents finished high school, and my education was not a great concern of theirs. As a teenager, when I first mentioned my interest in college, my parents said, "We don't understand why a girl would want to go to college, and you know we can't pay for it." Despite all of that, I had a hunger for learning, always did well in school, and worked multiple jobs to pay my own way through college over 7 difficult years.
I have worked hard my whole life, and I am now a comfortable, high upper class retiree. None of my siblings went to college, so I don't believe there was some "privilege" within my family that I did not recognize. I feel the only "privilege" I had was an innate desire to learn, work hard, and make something of myself.
I'm curious, do you think it's wrong that I believe, "If I could lift myself out of poverty, so can anyone else?"
The term remains. Imagine if you were from a poor family and did the same things you had to do to "make something" of yourself, but you were black.
You would have a even harder time than what you went through.
In America, you were still better off being White even if coming from a poor family.
Because a Black girl coming from a poor family and living in a ghetto simply wouldn't be able to get the jobs that you've had to support herself *while going to college.*
But you don't understand this part I suppose.
That was true at some point, but it is no longer true and we all know it.
The term "white privilege" has always rubbed me the wrong way. I am white, but I was very poor growing up. Neither of my parents finished high school, and my education was not a great concern of theirs. As a teenager, when I first mentioned my interest in college, my parents said, "We don't understand why a girl would want to go to college, and you know we can't pay for it." Despite all of that, I had a hunger for learning, always did well in school, and worked multiple jobs to pay my own way through college over 7 difficult years.
I have worked hard my whole life, and I am now a comfortable, high upper class retiree. None of my siblings went to college, so I don't believe there was some "privilege" within my family that I did not recognize. I feel the only "privilege" I had was an innate desire to learn, work hard, and make something of myself.
I'm curious, do you think it's wrong that I believe, "If I could lift myself out of poverty, so can anyone else?"
You had the "privilege" of being raised by 2 parents. Children from 2 parent families are more educated, make more money, and commit much less crime than children raised in single parent families.
If you finish high school, work a full time job, and wait until you're 21 to get married and have kids you'll only have a 2% chance of being permanently poor and a 75% chance of being middle class or higher.
I'm all for giving the job, school spot, raise to the best person - but not due to race, gender or religious beliefs so the company looks PC.
That's why I left my last corporation which was ultra liberal. Years ago a friend who worked in HR told me not to bother applying for a position I wanted because it was 'set aside' for minorities. Since then I've noticed many HR departments have minority recruiters which tips the scale in favor of minorities
What a ridiculous post.. If Africans had fled from Africa and ran the Native Americans out and started dominating here and had white men as slaves.. They'd still likely be the "dominant" race here.. But the reverse is true and you are acting like its from "hard work" FYI I am a white male
And you are acting like we have done it ourselves. I never inherited a thing, and it sounds like the OP didn’t either. So there goes that argument. I also never had slaves or benefited from slavery. And I never dominated anyone. So F off. So freaking sick of this argument.
Great post, and well done. America is the land of opportunity, anyone can be successful if they persevere, be smart, and put in the work.
Which is why African American entertainers and athletes have done well. What was their boost up if they had no advantages? Many of them did not come from wealth with Whoopi Goldberg coming to mind as an example. I doubt she had much monetary wealth in the projects.
You'd think African Americans are still out there scrubbing floors and serving iced tea and mint juleps to plantation owners the way the MSM are talking.
You're not saying it's easy. Are you saying it's equally easy or harder for a black person than for a white person?
Neither. I'm saying it's not impossible if you have brains, talent, ability, ambition, drive, luck, etc --regardless of skin color.
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