White Privilege

[The Barbarian]

Barbarian observes:
"White superiority" turns out to be an illusion in the sweep of history. This was our turn to be dominant; it was not always so, nor should we expect it to be always so in the future.

Exactly right.

Of course. And that's why it's so pointless for racists to grant white privilege such as you saw in the resume study. Blacks have to be better than whites to get the same rewards in our society. That's just how it is.

That is also why there is no such thing as "white privilege".

As you now realize, it's very easy to demonstrate. Would you like to see some more cases?

 

[jgarden]

What Scientists Mean When They Say 'Race' Is Not Genetic
02/09/2016

..... For more than a century, natural and social scientists have been arguing about whether race is a useful classificatory tool in the biological sciences -- can it elucidate the relationship between humans and their evolutionary history, between humans and their health. In the wake of the U.S. Human Genome Project, the answer seemed to be a pretty resounding "no."

In 2004, for example, Francis Collins, then head of the National Human Genome Research Institute and now director of the National Institutes of Health, called race a “flawed” and “weak” concept and argued that science needed to move beyond race...

We believe it is time to revisit this century-long debate and bring biologists, social scientists and scholars from the humanities together in a constructive way to find better ways to study the ever-important subject of human diversity.

The race concept should be removed from genetics research for the following reasons: Genetic methods do not support the classification of humans into discrete races, [and] racial assumptions are not good biological guideposts. Races are not genetically homogenous and lack clear-cut genetic boundaries. And because of this, using race as a proxy to make clinical predictions is about probability.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/race-is-not-biological_us_56b8db83e4b04f9b57da89ed

While humans tend to focus on skin color and superficial differences to justify our concept of race, the reality is that genetically, distinct races do not exist.

"Race" is a "cultural construct" - it exists because society has chosen to divide humanity into discrete groups based on a few observable genetic traits.

 

[The Barbarian]

While humans tend to focus on skin color and superficial differences to justify our concept of race, the reality is that genetically, distinct races do not exist.

This is true. However, it is true that while you as likely to be a close genetic match to a Japanese person as you are to be equally close to someone living on your block, there are genetic markers that are found mostly in different populations.

Some of these, like the Tibetan genes that allow survival at high altitudes, evolved fairly recently.

"Race" is a "cultural construct" - it exists because society has chosen to divide humanity into discrete groups based on a few observable genetic traits.

This is true. As the Human Genome Project made clear, there is more variation within any "race" you might define (and the number of "races" depends on what culture you live in) than there is between those "races." In truth, there is only one human race. The last real division between humans and Neandertals which are two races of the species H. sapiens, ended tens of thousands of years ago.

And yet, even within local populations or even just within families, there are genes that can identify one as being part of that group. You might reply that only an idiot would declare families to be races, and you'd be right. This is why it's profoundly ignorant to argue that there is a biological basis for human races.

But, there have been drugs that work particularly well, with people having a specific gene that is commonly found in a certain group culturally defined as a race. So we shouldn't turn our backs on anything that has the potential to improve human life.

We just shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking that such things define biological races.

 

[genuineoriginal]

Other than a name that sounds black.

You thinking a name sounds black shows your racism.

Racism is a cultural bias. And that's the cultural bias at work here, as you know. Why not just admit it?

I have no reason to accept something that is not true.

 

[genuineoriginal]

As you now realize, it's very easy to demonstrate. Would you like to see some more cases?

There is no such thing as "white privilege", since "white privilege" is just another term for "white superiority".

 

[The Barbarian]

There is no such thing as "white privilege", since "white privilege" is just another term for "white superiority".

You know better; why deny what is so obvious? As you learned, the resume project showed that white privilege remains a problem in America. We've come a long way, but it's still around. Instead of making excuses, you would best accept reality.

 

[jgarden]

There is no such thing as "white privilege", since "white privilege" is just another term for "white superiority".

Then how do you explain a disproportionate number of "white" males holding positions of power in both the private and public sectors?

 

[Ktoyou]

Why do idiots use the term "white liberal guilt"?

Go figure...

because redneck bigots have no problem oppressing minorities, they are proud of it and brag about it, in the good ole South, they have no guilt.

I think Roy Moore did abuse the women, but I know he is a peckerwood, meaning a character like Boss Hogg in Ducks of Hazard.

 

[Danoh]

The alt-right doesn't understand the concept of white privilege. It's not about being ashamed of being born white, and no one is looking for any white princesses to apologize for being white - that's an alt-right straw man, and they do love to pummel that straw man. Feels good to take their aggressions out on it, I guess.

White privilege is institutional. There are a number of ways to refine the definition, but it's about possessing a cultural advantage in one sense, wearing a cultural immunity in another sense. Most important, it's an all but invisible advantage to those who possess it because they've rarely thought about their societal advantages. And for those who protest the most loudly about refusing to "apologize for being white" - for them it is the most invisible, and they would benefit the most from even a small amount of understanding of what it's like to move through our society as a person of color, both in the past and in the present.

Excellent observation.

And as a rule of thumb, the same is found to be the case within any dominant group.

Be it what the person new to a job encounters for a time because he or she is the new kid on the block; be it on a forum where some have gotten used to rationalizing their double-standard as a group - until some fool like me comes along - of their own number - to assert that yes, the other side has been reading their hypocrisy right.

You name it "_____ privilege" is a blinding principle found at work within all sorts of groups wherein the one group is predominate over others (if but for a time - thank goodness).

But we are dealing with some VERY narrow minded people in SOME, on here.

There is...no reasoning with such.

None.

All one can do is talk past such to those few souls who actually regularly manifest some sort of common sense objectivity.

No one is perfect in that.

And then there are supporters of admitted Sexual Predator "things in common with my daughter Ivanka - sex!" - Donald Trump - man o man talk about a self-deluded bunch who have sold out what ever sense of moral decency they may have ever claimed standing for.

It is what it is...

 

[jgarden]

The number of CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies 2000 - 2014

The number of CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2000 - 2014)
*************************************************************************
- remained relatively static for African-Americans
- increased then fell back for Asian Americans
- increased then leveled off for Latino Americans
- increase for White American Women

Racial Diversity on Fortune 500 Boards - 2011
*************************************************************************
White Americans
1. % of population - 74.6% (36.8% males) (37.8% females)
2. % on 500 boards - 87.7% (74.3%% males) (13.3%% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 474 (450 males) (24 females)

Black Americans
1. % of population - 13.6%
2. % on 500 boards - 6.8% (5.3% males) (1.5% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 6

Latino Americans
1. % of population - 16.3%
2. % on 500 boards - 3.1% (2.4% males) (0.7% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 10

Asian Americans
1. % of population - 5.6%
2. % on 500 boards - 2.4% (2.0% males) (0.4% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 10

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/diversity_among_ceos.html

 

[Ktoyou]

OK, you know what it is? I used to be very nice t all black people, in fact, at the grocery store, and preferred a black lady as a checker. When I needed to find something in a store, I always asked a black lady over a white lady. Why did I do this, because I as kind? Partly true, but the real reason, I did not realize until I was in my 30s, was they I felt the black ladies owed me something, like extra attention and help.

This is also institutional racism and it is breed into anyone from the South who is my age and even some years younger. White guilt is a reaction to this attitude by the children of my generation, and their children.

Now you know what it is all about. So, thank me

 

[Danoh]

OK, you know what it is? I used to be very nice t all black people, in fact, at the grocery store, and preferred a black lady as a checker. When I needed to find something in a store, I always asked a black lady over a white lady. Why did I do this, because I as kind? Partly true, but the real reason, I did not realize until I was in my 30s, was they I felt the black ladies owed me something, like extra attention and help.

This is also institutional racism and it is breed into anyone from the South who is my age and even some years younger. White guilt is a reaction to this attitude by the children of my generation, and their children.

Now you know what it is all about. So, thank me

Yep. I recall once talking with someone over the phone who's high intelligence was obvious.

When we met for the first time, I found myself thinking "oh...they're...black..."

Fortunately, I caught that in myself right then and there.

And reflected on it, and learned from it.

But few people I have met or dealt with, have ever displayed that kind of both self-awareness and willingness to confront oneself head on and in a positively resulting manner.

I was fortunate. Coming up, I stumbled into various writers heavily into self-reflection and as a result theirs eventually became my own automatic habit "by reason of use."

But that is not a habit one often finds in most people - especially in many within many within the so called "religious right."

If anything, it is more often a habit in many Liberals; Libertarians, and so on.

Which is why so many on the so called "right" are ever so perplexed by the sense of fair play of such towards "God forbid" anyone who is "not like them."

The history of conquest of other peoples in the supposed name of Christ is that.

As is the history of rationalizing such, by their "own."

At the same time, it is one thing to see that in such, but totally another to at the same time not only observe it oneself, but confront it head on.

One ends up really intolerant of...intolerance - including...one's own.

As it should be.

 

[genuineoriginal]

You know better; why deny what is so obvious?

"white privilege" is just another term to describe "white superiority". Why do you deny this obvious fact?

As you learned, the resume project showed that white privilege remains a problem in America.

I already proved to you that the resume project was based on a false interpretation of the results by the bigoted researchers.
Why do you keep trying to say that white superiority is a problem in the USA?

 

[genuineoriginal]

Then how do you explain a disproportionate number of "white" males holding positions of power in both the private and public sectors?

Do you think it is a problem that the number of "white" males holding positions of power has become disproportionately low?
What has caused this to happen?
Have whites lost their "white privilege"/"white superiority"?

 

[genuineoriginal]

You name it "_____ privilege" is a blinding principle found at work within all sorts of groups wherein the one group is predominate over others (if but for a time - thank goodness).

Right now we have a problem of "liberal privilege" in the North American universities (Canada and USA).

 

[genuineoriginal]

The number of CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies 2000 - 2014

The number of CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2000 - 2014)
*************************************************************************
- remained relatively static for African-Americans
- increased then fell back for Asian Americans
- increased then leveled off for Latino Americans
- increase for White American Women

Racial Diversity on Fortune 500 Boards - 2011
*************************************************************************
White Americans
1. % of population - 74.6% (36.8% males) (37.8% females)
2. % on 500 boards - 87.7% (74.3%% males) (13.3%% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 474 (450 males) (24 females)

Black Americans
1. % of population - 13.6%
2. % on 500 boards - 6.8% (5.3% males) (1.5% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 6

Latino Americans
1. % of population - 16.3%
2. % on 500 boards - 3.1% (2.4% males) (0.7% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 10

Asian Americans
1. % of population - 5.6%
2. % on 500 boards - 2.4% (2.0% males) (0.4% females)
3. CEO's for Fortune 500 Companies (2014) - 10

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/diversity_among_ceos.html

Interesting statistics.
Are you using them to prove "white superiority"?

 

[genuineoriginal]

Yep. I recall once talking with someone over the phone who's high intelligence was obvious.

When we met for the first time, I found myself thinking "oh...they're...black..."

It must have been a shock when you found out that your ideals of "white superiority" was a fiction.

 

[WatchmanOnTheWall]

We are all one family. Satan uses skin shade (and many other differences) to divide and rule. I can't feel guilty because of an accident/destiny of birth.

 

[SUTG]

We are all one family. Satan uses skin shade (and many other differences) to divide and rule.

So do a lot of politicians and many members of the media.

I can't feel guilty because of an accident/destiny of birth.

Warren Buffet often calls this "the ovarian lottery".

 

[SUTG]

The alt-right doesn't understand the concept of white privilege. It's not about being ashamed of being born white, and no one is looking for any white princesses to apologize for being white - that's an alt-right straw man, and they do love to pummel that straw man.

Actually, there are a lot of people that think white people should be ashamed for being white. Nowadays, they're usually called "professors".

White privilege is institutional. There are a number of ways to refine the definition, but it's about possessing a cultural advantage in one sense, wearing a cultural immunity in another sense.

Cultural privilege or racial privelege?