White Privilege or just Statistics?

a reply to: Terpene

You have runing potable water, electricity, heating, sewer, waste disposal and food, you are the privileged 1%...

So have lots of non-White people.
How is this evidence of White privilege?

And are you seriously trying to say that 99% of the world's population do not have 'running water, electricity, heating, sewers, waste disposal and food'?

Or are you suggesting that only White people have access to all of these and that somehow non-Whites are prevented from having them or are incapable of getting them themselves?

If I was non-White to be honest I'd be more offended by that than some of the imaginary and paranoid, delusional slurs some conjure up today.

originally posted by: Terpene
You have runing potable water, electricity, heating, sewer, waste disposal and food, you are the privileged 1%...

The world is a big place and almost everywhere a # hole and we are the lucky few... Perspective kids...

We would be wise to not forget where on the global ladder we stand... Poverty in first world countries is just snowflakes complaining about their bad commodities... Still around still strong enough to complain...

The only way some of the things uttered in this thread is applicable is when your world ends at your borders... I guess thats the definition of self imposed mental limitations... Ignorance is Bliss....

And all these things were created by forcing white people to dig dangerous tunnels etc, to force white kids up chimneys and to stamp on the basic human rights of generations of white working class people. Not much privilege there I think.

If some hole in a place that ends in stan doesnt have a sewerage system, then that would be the fault of the people who live there, not doing what is needed.
The colonial era was far enough back that trying to hang the failure of modern societies on it is not only unjustifiable, it is wrong too.

Look at the poverty in India, then look at a list of the top 100 richest families in the world, you will see that a fair proportion of them are Indian, why can't the Indian government use some of their fabulous wealth to improve the lives of the lower classes?

a reply to: Freeborn

Just being born in a first world country gives you a head start.

Like i said if your assessment of equal rights and justice ends at the border you're missing the big picture.

I'm pretty sure global systems that are built on injustice can only hold appearance for a while then a major setback on global awareness has to happen or things will go south... Things are going south already, and the internet won't go away... In the end we can only hope the masses never claim their inherent powe, because that would suck for those birn in privileged countries

So in the end we are kind of operating on the same mindset as every elitist society.

They always get what they deserve... So you do deserve your momentary privileges but they are not a god given right... Just alot of luck and well adapted to the society... who cares how sick that societyis, so long we profit. We only ever notice the inherent flaws when we don't profit anymore. Then it goes from denial to bever assuming any responsibility.

The most probable scenario still is that wealth will be moving from the many to the few, and we are the next few to get butchered...

I've got nothing to loose, so I don't sweat what's unfolding, over which so many well adapted citizens are loosing sleep...

a reply to: Terpene

Just being born in a first world country gives you a head start

So, does that apply to all those non-White people born in first world countries, because there are an awful lot of them?

And as Sprocket pointed out, what about the advantages those non-White but obscenely wealthy people born in so-called third world countries have?
That India hasn't addressed the wealth inequalities in its own country, the abject poverty endured by so many whilst an elite minority bask in unimagined wealth, hasn't completely eradicated the caste system that is blatantly prejudiced against some, solved the religious intolerance that is endemic, blah blah blah in the 77 years since it gained independence is more down to them than anything or anyone else.

Exactly the same or similar can be said about almost every other nation on earth.

Or do we assume that they are incapable of resolving these issues themselves?
If I was them I would find that most offensive.....so it begs the question why haven't they done more?
Or are 'we' the evil White people with our inherent privileges somehow preventing them?

You seem to be implying that its more about wealth privilege than White privilege, which is exactly what I stated at the start of this thread....or am I misunderstanding you?

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: Terpene

If you think you deserve it then you also think people deserve to die of hunger....

Deserve what?
I have no idea how you have taken that I 'think people deserve to die of hunger' from anything I have wrote, ever not just in this thread, here on ATS or anywhere else.

Look pal, I'm not the one complaining.
I just find it mildly annoying when people try to tell me I've had some sort of head start in life and have been granted certain privileges simply because I'm White when the reality is I haven't.

I'm quite happy just carrying on living my life the best I can.

But when I see and hear people wowling like wee bairns about how bad they've had it and how easy I've had it or when others try to engage in pseudo-intellectual psychobabble in order to push an agenda or to look somehow mentally superior I sometimes like to point out a few realities.

Are you trying to imply that 'we', White people, are about to face some sort of retribution?
How, When, Why and who from?
No flowery prose or cryptic nonsense which in essence says nothing of substance whatsoever, just straight forward honest answers.

this reminds me of the "it must be nice" comment made to someone driving a nice car and living in a nice house. Sure it "must be nice", but many times, there was a lot of hard work and sacrifices made to be able to get to the point where you CAN have nice things. It's just hard work, and better choices than others made.

a reply to: Freeborn

It has nothing to do with race and everything with elitism...

you have people born in privileged countries that recognize their privileges and you have those that deny them...

But what you mostly have is those that draw the line of justice along a boarder and they just fail to acknowledge their privileges when looking at the big picture because inside that bubble it is sort of just until it isn't.
funnily they are the first to complain and cry foul.
then you have thise that saw it coming a mile away they just laugh at the poor privileged kids crying discrimination when the grinder doesn't stop at their door...

India Whataboutism is not gonna cut it, especially when you factor in the heavy east Indian company hand, which repercussions aren't straightened out to thid day ...

How many of those indian elite families got there by doing business with the east Indian company?

a reply to: Terpene

So you agree, White privilege is nonsense.
Black/Asian people born in my country have been given the same 'privileges' as I have - I fail to see what they exactly are - and that Black/Asian people from more affluent backgrounds have actually been granted more privileges than I, a White person of humble origins, have been 'given'?

India isn't a 'whataboutism', they have had 77 years to start to redress the situation, they have done very, very little - if anything.

No White privilege - which is the topic of the thread.

originally posted by: strongfp

I gotta point out for one, 'white people' are a minority on this planet, yet have historically held a ridiculous amount of "wealth" comparative to other "races" of people. I went over as to why earlier in this thread, but seems to go ignored. Europeans literally created their wealth out of thin air, and then forced it on each other Europeans to go do the bidding of other rich Europeans, that created their wealth via religious persecution, lordships, monarchies etc, etc.

You are talking empires and there have been a lot of them non-white too, many more. The difference is the White Empires are the most recent looking at 1500 moving forward and much of that is because their technology was better. What made their technology better has much to do with their religion which pushed education at a massive level over other civilizations.

originally posted by: Shoshanna
Just more losers trying to make themselves feel superior. Do you feel superior? You should not.

I think you hit the main reason here. It's a way to feel superior by degrading Black people to suggest White people have privileges they do not have. Then they go down some self-deprecation path to make themselves feel better, but boy if they saw a Black man in their yard, they would call 911 in an instant. Most are upper middle class, and they tend to look down at all they feel are below them, color doesn't matter.

White privilege in itself is a racist idea because it claims that others cannot get ahead because we are not white. Which is a just a lie because I am far ahead of most whites I see both financially and otherwise.

I think it is also a form of White Supremacy.

That is what we should work on. Skin color doesn't matter at all and anyone who is any color who says it does is an idiot.

We were heading down a nice path of color blindness and then 2012 hit where the liberals went all woke in 10 different ways. I will tell anyone if their life sucks today they need to do some self-reflection and see what they did in their life that caused them to be where they are today. Life is very hard for the vast majority and just one or two mistakes can change it all making anything successful 10 harder than what is already hard.

The other part is people need to understand they need to work for their success. The poorest group in America and the one most subsidized by the government is the American Indian. The second poorest group and the second most government-subsidized are Blacks. Asians get nothing and they are the richest by race... I think there is a correlation there, I'm sure Peterson could talk on it.

originally posted by: Freeborn

No White privilege - which is the topic of the thread.

When was the last time a straight White male got anything? 50% of all Americans make less than 70k, that is a lot of straight White males too who get nothing. When I look at my kids they go to college because they are using my VA disability as I did 28 years in the service. They also received good grades because their mom is Asian and she started at age 2 with reading, spelling, and simple math. One is an EE working, and the other is in premed. People would look at them and say oh you had privileges to get where you are today, and starting life as an E1 in the military I really didn't have anything. Their privileges were they had two parents who invested a lot of time and effort into them with very little money for many years.

a reply to: Freeborn

The only nonsense is making it about race.

Being born white, at least in my country gives me more leeway when it comes to how I'm treated by the dominant Caucasian population. it's just racism really, which when boiled down, amounts to xenophobia. It's practiced in every country by the predominant population...

And it's mostly the conservatives that suffer from those phobic tendencies...

a reply to: Xtrozero

So I'm betting everything i have that there are people in less fortunate countries that did all you did and more actually much more and get nowhere close... Why do you deserve it and why do they not?

Is being born somewhere something you earned?
You're just lucky to be born with the privileges you were born with... Let's see how you not being privileged turns out in, let's say India.

originally posted by: Freeborn

And are you seriously trying to say that 99% of the world's population do not have 'running water, electricity, heating, sewers, waste disposal and food'?

I have said many times that just being born in America you have won the lottery. Our poor is upper middle class in many other countries by comparison. The world standard for the middle class is a family has a roof over their head, non-dirt floors, they eat every day at least one or two meals, all the kids go to school, have water and electricity, and have some small form of transportation like a scooter.


The funny part is everyone in America is privileged at birth, it's what they do with it that determines their future.

originally posted by: Terpene

So I'm betting everything i have that there are people in less fortunate countries that did all you did and more actually much more and get nowhere close... Why do you deserve it and why do they not?

Is being born somewhere something you earned?
You're just lucky to be born with the privileges you were born with... Let's see how you not being privileged turns out in, let's say India.

How do you measure privilege? If you were born in Afghanistan and your dad has 20 goats you are now privileged, so is it even a thing? You want to make it a point, but I don't see it as a point other than people want to apply some form of measurement that doesn't even work. Go to Egypt and a huge graveyard houses millions of people. Back in the past it took days to travel, so graveyards had small rooms attached to where the graves were for the family. Today people have moved into those small rooms and are seen as well-off, so are they privileged too? They think they are...

I agree billions of people are living a hard life just to survive with no way out and work just to eat each day and have a place to sleep and one day they die. So what is your point?

originally posted by: Terpene

Being born white, at least in my country gives me more leeway when it comes to how I'm treated by the dominant Caucasian population. it's just racism really, which when boiled down, amounts to xenophobia. It's practiced in every country by the predominant population...

And it's mostly the conservatives that suffer from those phobic tendencies...

The problem in Europe is they immigrated too fast and too much and from areas with extreme cultural differences. So, the negative way people react is mainly due to that. What you call racism is in all people, White people tend to be more tolerant but are seen as the worse in some Self-Deprecating way.

Go into England in some heavy Muslim neighborhood and see how you are treated and viewed being a White guy there. As far as racism goes, Asians and Middle Easterns are by far the worst at it.

originally posted by: Terpene

Oh so because it's not the only problem you want to wash your hand in innocents? Sounds a little discriminatory...

Groups....?!... How do you group humans?
way to plaster your menatlity, well you tried to hide, kuddos for trying

The OP is about whether White privilege is a thing or not. Maybe you need to create a post about all humans on the planet thing. My point is the term White Privilege is used mainly in America, but when we look at someone not White here what is their success based on that I have, and they don't? Anyone born in the 1st World is privileged because their life path is based on their personal choices good or bad, and White has nothing to do with it.

I am really lost with the direction you are trying to take your point here.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Yeah well, everything you said, all heavily biased by racism...

I get it others are worse, still doesn't make it right or justifies being backwards morons like them... Well unless you are....

It's like saying we started it "but they hit harder" so they are worse, kind of how the hamas apologetics argue...
As compared to the otherside that argues "but they started" so now everything they have coming is deserved.
It's kindergarten rhetorics on serious issues and the kids just jump on their favorite bandwagon...

originally posted by: Terpene

Yeah well, everything you said, all heavily biased by racism...

I get it others are worse, still doesn't make it right or justifies being backwards morons like them... Well unless you are....

I don't understand your point. What you call racism are actually extremely different cultures. Why is it only White countries that want to protect one's heritage and culture is called racism? Who talks about a country in Africa and says this country is too Black we need more White people here? It would be basically impossible for you to become a citizen of China or Japan, and many other countries and many more countries where if you pushed your white culture on them, they would imprison you or just outright kill you.

You need to stop hating your own country and don't blame Conservatives as liberals are worse. They hide behind a mask of tolerance but are intolerant inside. Liberals judge people by the color of their skin and not by their character which conservatives do. MLK would roll over in his grave if he saw liberals today.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Cultures are not stagnant and the modern western culture has been much more exposed to racial tensions due to their global expansions. We have like a 500 years head start, and slowly coming to terms that racism sucks and we were no saints when it comes to it...

I've always said liberals practice dishonest honesty while conservative practice honest dishonesty. Potatoes tomatoes, but i actually hate the later less, at least you know what you're dealing with...

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Xtrozero

Cultures are not stagnant and the modern western culture has been much more exposed to racial tensions due to their global expansions. We have like a 500 years head start, and slowly coming to terms that racism sucks and we were no saints when it comes to it...

I've always said liberals practice dishonest honesty while conservative practice honest dishonesty. Potatoes tomatoes, but i actually hate the later less, at least you know what you're dealing with...

Why is it racism? That is the part I do not understand from you. That term is just an easy button for you to use as your explanation of anything human related.

Also, who is the racist? Is it the people in a country that do not want to change their culture to one that is introduced to them without a say, or a culture unwilling to change to their new nation's culture where they now live?