Stupid Firefox ate my last response
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
The bigot doing the hiring isn't in awe of my pale skin, they've got an irrational dislike/hatred of people with a certain skin colour.
You're making it out to be a direct 'benefit' when it isn't, it's just cause and effect.
Of course it's a benefit. You are being viewed as superior to someone else. In large part, that's the reason why others are viewed as inferior, so that your own group is superior by contrast. It's not a coincidence that most people that hate group X are in some other group they feel is superior.
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
If I were to hypothetically agree that your definition of privilege is correct for a moment, would privilege even be a bad thing? Would it even matter at all?
Yes. If nothing else, it would still be unfair.
More to the point, though, privilege isn't a one off thing, it's something that pops up again and again and again, and tends to have a big impact on people with privilege. Spend your whole life being told that you are superior to another group of people, and consciously or not, you are likely to start believing it. Even if you are aware of the problem, it's still likely to be an issue.
Even if that isn't a problem, or at least not a large one, it is going to view the way you view certain things. For example, during the Occupy protests, white New Yorkers were (rightfully) upset at being harassed by police. Only, it was pointed out that black New Yorkers had been harassed by police for years. Police harassment just hadn't seemed a problem to many white people until they were getting a taste of it. They had the privilege of being white, so police harassment wasn't a thing they had to deal with the way black people did. So they didn't see it as that big a problem, but expected people to care when it happened to them.
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
This particular idea of privilege centers solely around bigoted people.
Why. Privilege doesn't exist without the privileged.
Also, define "bigoted people". Most (I'd say 100% but can't prove it) people are bigoted to some extent about some issues.
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
You're holding them as some sort of arbiters of who gets privilege and who doesn't.
Who does or doesn't get privilege is arbitrarily decided by society.
g3ko said:
I mean no disrespect to but into this discussion at this point, but the problem i have is your answer to this, particularly that "undeserved" word and where you chose to insert it into your response. I'd say it's undeserved for someone not to be listened to in a job, or whatever, everyone deserves to be heard out.
It seems that everyone is still focusing on the better that others have instead of getting it for themselves, they want the other group to not have it anymore. That neighbours goat quote comes to mind. I'd rather my neighbour not have a goat because i don't have one instead of going out and getting one myself.
The grass always seems greener on the other side, but this isn't the way to do it.
Privilege is relative. You can't gain more without someone else losing. By comparison, not everyone can be a millionaire without being a millionaire becoming meaningless. You have to have lots of people with less for it to mean anything. It's not a privilege to have a goat unless there are other people that can't have one.
You have to take away privilege in order for there to be equality.
The other problem is that people who've lived their life with a privilege tend to see it as normal, just the way things are. Worse, the way things should be...after all, it's fine for them, why change it?
The Western world is mostly run by straight white guys. Imagine there was a series of elections tomorrow, and for some strange reason, it was mostly black lesbians that got in. There's plenty of people who'd totally say (and believe) that they aren't racist or sexist or homophobic who would freak the hell out over that. Hell, even just an equal proportion, with half women, single digits percentages of LGBT people and what proportion of those nations weren't white...that'd pose a massive problem for people who don't see equality as normal.