What the Fuck is Going On with Perceptions of Racism by the Left These Days?

[mongers]

This "check your privilege" stuff is just nuts, agreed on that. I guess it works, sort of, at some colleges but I have to think it's just pissing many people off and the overbearing of it probably tends to turn them off to real race issues.

Never heard that expression until opening this thread.

I look forward to soon hearing it in the wild over here.   

[Ideologue]

What is really annoying about privilege crusaders--aside from the fact the vast majority of them have great masses of unexamined privilege themselves--is that they use the moral righteousness of their framework to avoid intellectual analysis and often even intellectual honesty.  You can't talk about advantages and disadvantages except in the most oblique, tongue-in-cheek ways--if you suggest there are real advantages that arise from being female or homosexual, you get laughed out of town.

That said, when it comes to race, there are overwhelming advantages society gives one for being white--or, more accurately, not black--and the fervor is more appropriate.  And "checking" class privilege is probably even more important--though God knows what material difference it actually makes if a rich kid with a Harvard degree concedes that his happy position in life is a result of the genetic lottery or not.  Still, the advantages of being male and straight are far more ambiguous, but these aren't topics of discussion, even though they should be.

It doesn't help, admittedly, that those who recognize disadvantages to being male or straight also have a tendency to completely discount the disadvantages of being female or gay, and have the exact same monomaniacal stridency in addition to being basically on the wrong side of history.  The entire debate is an intellectual wasteland.

[Gups]

This "check your privilege" stuff is just nuts, agreed on that. I guess it works, sort of, at some colleges but I have to think it's just pissing many people off and the overbearing of it probably tends to turn them off to real race issues.

Never heard that expression until opening this thread.

I look forward to soon hearing it in the wild over here.   

It's been a taple on left-wing forums etc for a coupla years now. It's a great way to avoid engaging in an argument. The negative version of the familiar "As a ....[black person/lesbian/whatever]

[Gups]

What is really annoying about privilege crusaders--aside from the fact the vast majority of them have great masses of unexamined privilege themselves--is that they use the moral righteousness of their framework to avoid intellectual analysis and often even intellectual honesty.  You can't talk about advantages and disadvantages except in the most oblique, tongue-in-cheek ways--if you suggest there are real advantages that arise from being female or homosexual, you get laughed out of town.

That said, when it comes to race, there are overwhelming advantages society gives one for being white--or, more accurately, not black--and the fervor is more appropriate.  And "checking" class privilege is probably even more important--though God knows what material difference it actually makes if a rich kid with a Harvard degree concedes that his happy position in life is a result of the genetic lottery or not.  Still, the advantages of being male and straight are far more ambiguous, but these aren't topics of discussion, even though they should be.

It doesn't help, admittedly, that those who recognize disadvantages to being male or straight also have a tendency to completely discount the disadvantages of being female or gay, and have the exact same monomaniacal stridency in addition to being basically on the wrong side of history.  The entire debate is an intellectual wasteland.

Agree with all of this. Being encouraged to examine your unconsious biases and prejudices is one thing (and applies to everyone - being underprividged gives you no particualr insight into the truth). Discounting an opinion on the basis of who holds it is just a childish debating tactic.

[derspiess]

Speaking of debating:

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/traditional-college-debate-white-privilege/360746/

On March 24, 2014 at the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Championships at Indiana University, two Towson University students, Ameena Ruffin and Korey Johnson, became the first African-American women to win a national college debate tournament, for which the resolution asked whether the U.S. president's war powers should be restricted. Rather than address the resolution straight on, Ruffin and Johnson, along with other teams of African-Americans, attacked its premise. The more pressing issue, they argued, is how the U.S. government is at war with poor black communities.

In the final round, Ruffin and Johnson squared off against Rashid Campbell and George Lee from the University of Oklahoma, two highly accomplished African-American debaters with distinctive dreadlocks and dashikis. Over four hours, the two teams engaged in a heated discussion of concepts like "nigga authenticity" and performed hip-hop and spoken-word poetry in the traditional timed format. At one point during Lee's rebuttal, the clock ran out but he refused to yield the floor. "Fuck the time!" he yelled. 

[Tamas]

Discounting an opinion on the basis of who holds it is just a childish debating tactic.

It is also popular on Languish.

[Valmy]

Discounting an opinion on the basis of who holds it is just a childish debating tactic.

It is also popular on Languish.

Well that sort of proves his point doesn't it?

[Valmy]

On March 24, 2014 at the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Championships at Indiana University, two Towson University students, Ameena Ruffin and Korey Johnson, became the first African-American women to win a national college debate tournament, for which the resolution asked whether the U.S. president’s war powers should be restricted. Rather than address the resolution straight on, Ruffin and Johnson, along with other teams of African-Americans, attacked its premise. The more pressing issue, they argued, is how the U.S. government is at war with poor black communities.

Huh.  Well I guess that explains why political debates always go the useless way they do.

'That is a very interesting question...but I am going to ignore that and just say my prepared statement on another issue.'

[garbon]

I did that cross the line activity for the first time in high school. At one point, a girl stated that she didn't realism that racism still occurred, she thought it was just a historical thing.

[derspiess]

On March 24, 2014 at the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Championships at Indiana University, two Towson University students, Ameena Ruffin and Korey Johnson, became the first African-American women to win a national college debate tournament, for which the resolution asked whether the U.S. president’s war powers should be restricted. Rather than address the resolution straight on, Ruffin and Johnson, along with other teams of African-Americans, attacked its premise. The more pressing issue, they argued, is how the U.S. government is at war with poor black communities.

Huh.  Well I guess that explains why political debates always go the useless way they do.

'That is a very interesting question...but I am going to ignore that and just say my prepared statement on another issue.'

Also her speaking style is: interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFbQftMe6qY

She starts around 1:03:00 but *really* gets going around 1:07:00.

[Queequeg]

I did that cross the line activity for the first time in high school. At one point, a girl stated that she didn't realism that racism still occurred, she thought it was just a historical thing.

You aren't accusing me of saying this?

[Valmy]

I did that cross the line activity for the first time in high school. At one point, a girl stated that she didn't realism that racism still occurred, she thought it was just a historical thing.

Teenagers always think things like this.  Or at least I would read something like how corrupt politics was in early 20th century Texas and automatically think 'whew so glad we are so much more enlightened and do not have this problem at all now'.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I've no time for this 'check your privilege' bollocks I see on the American left.

"Check Your Privilege" is Actually Just a Lousy Argument

The expected reaction by left-libertarian Hacker News.  HN is one of the worst sites I peruse for this "check your privilege" bullshit.  We can't have a discussion about the very real issues women face in the tech industry without this self-effacing shit coming up from white dudes.  In fact, there was a thread within the past few days where multiple people posted shit like the the blogger bio quote above about their own "privilege".

[Valmy]

What Margaret Cho quote? 

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

You weren't supposed to see that.