If you replace white men with white people then yes. Probably. It's hard to understand privilege when you're working 40+ hours a week and living paycheck to paycheck without any savings. Or when you're a single mom grinding to put food on the table. Or when your ex has the kids and 27% of your paycheck goes her way and you're wondering how the bell you're going to pay rent. Or when the transmission goes out and you've no idea how to pay to get it fixed. The idea of being "privileged" seems far fetched in those realities. I know it was to me. Things really do seem as simple as "just do what the cops say and it'll be fine", and "he's gonna bring back our jobs!" They really believe those things and haven't a reason to shake that perspective.
All of those things are economic anxiety. Perhaps I should have phrased it better, does anyone feel like they're under attack for being white in any meaningful way?
I read in an article that I need to find that people appreciated the plan talk way he spoke about things that mattered to people. It was wholly without nuance or even facts, but that is something that blue-collar type folks appreciate(the straight talk, not the lying). People tend to hate the way politicians beat around the bush or not really answer questions because it comes across as dishonest.
Whenever any kind of discussion around race happens around here, like the Black Lives Matter, it basically boils down to "you're white so you don't know what you're talking about". There were even some PM's floating around shitting on the fact that I was a "stupid white guy that had no idea what the real world was like". So yeah, it feels like voicing your opinion when white opens you up for attack by some people on here. I've had more than a few PM's from people saying that they don't even start because they don't want to be the target of the "discussion". So yeah... only around here do I feel "under attack" for being white.
It actually comes down to something similar, but is the reason there are no black voices on this board or thread anymore. They used to post their experiences but were met with "if you just listen to the police..." or other such nonsense; essentially, what you're saying is happening to you because you're white, absolutely did happen to the African Americans on this very board when discussing BLM. A bunch of white dudes ganged up, ignored their experiences and ran them off. Perhaps, and I could be crazy here, but perhaps the entire BLM movement comes down to a group trying to make people understand, for even a minute, what it feels like to have their entire world view dismissed out of hand by people who have never had those experiences and therefore lack any and all empathy for their situation. Maybe they're just looking for someone to take five seconds to say "I'm trying to understand" rather than "just do what the police say and don't be criminals." At the end of the day, 90% of white people will have no idea what it is like to get angry stares for walking into a store due to their skin color. They won't know what it is like to be followed around because they "might steal." White peoples don't see the scary symbology of a noose hanging in a tree, to them it's "all in good fun." They'll have zero clue what it is like to feel that lump in the back of your throats when you see a cop car, even though you know you're not now and have never broken a single law; because at any moment it could go horribly wrong, even if you do "just listen to the police." White guys don't know what it's like to be randomly stopped because they "fit the discription" which is usually some vague shit like "about 6 feet, African American." I know I'll never know what that feels like, but I also won't dismiss their experiences out of hand as exaggerations because their life experience didn't match mine. But maybe I'm crazy.
Bull fucking shit. We were PREACHED to, not educated. I made that point many, many times... don't TELL me what to think, educate me on the situation. And I was repeatedly ignored. I asked what the plan was to fix things... and not a single fucking thing was offered. There was just this big hard-on to get us white folks to accept the blame for their situation, and admit to the institutional "white privilege" that we all enjoy, they stopped posting. Which was too bad. But that was their choice. We didn't run them off... they left.
There's no black voices on this board anymore because some of us dared to question premises that they demanded everyone accept as the basis for conversation, including but not limited to, "White people are automatically racist until proven otherwise." There's no conversing with someone who refuses to see perspective when they demand you unequivocally accept theirs. They chalked it up to white people ganging up on them.
No, you felt attacked. You felt threatened based on your skin color. For a few fleeting minutes you might've felt what they get all the time, and you handled it about as well as could be expected. They said "this is what is happening." And you responded with solutions that only work if you're white or with the standard line of "BULLSHIT!" So they left. Big shock.
I never felt threatened because of my skin colour... I refused to accept blame or hostility because of my skin colour. In the same way that people are up in arms for Trump calling all Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, I felt that way about being called a racist because I am white.
As in I don't feel attacked because of my skin colour, except by people on this board... which is not that big of a deal. This is the ONLY place I personally get hated or accused of stuff because of my race.
I get this perspective, and to a large degree I agree with it, but in the end I feel like it's such a "so what?" issue. Racism is real, a lot of non-white people have gotten, and continue to get, a great deal of very poor treatment, and if some of them are unfair or overzealous when expressing their frustration and anger about that, I can hold that line easily without having to respond as if I'm under attack. I don't need to start digging trenches and adding it to my big list o' presidential concerns.
I believe you, which is why I've been doubting the whole "people voted for Trump because they hate PC Culture" narrative.
I don't feel any of those things. I felt frustration trying to have an earnest, objective conversation with individuals who refuse to remove the emotion and myopia on the particular topic. Premise not accepted? They ran away, presumably to their safe space for validation. I don't have enough time for that mentality to give a shit.