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Originally Posted by JinnKai
This is actually a very good question, and a pretty good demonstrator of the "unearned privilege" that people talk about. Two years ago, before meeting my current girlfriend, I would've dismissed this list as a pandering excuse for poor people and women to complain about how bad their lives were. Now I see it as a very serious indictment of privilege in America.
And actually, despite my answers being nearly identical to yours, spinelust, I must admit that because of my "media" answer, and the fact that I'm a straight white male, my 'unearned privilege' is much greater than yours. I've become more and more aware of how media really shapes 'privilege.' I don't think these questions are all equal, and certain answers weight much more strongly on the end result.
In college I remember doing a similar exercise, but you all lined up and stepped back if No, forward if Yes. It was really sobering at the end to see the physical distance between members of the same class, and this was in a college. Random people off the street would've been far more disparate.
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So your girlfriend made you feel guilty for being a white male? Not the first time I've seen it happen, hope it works better for you in the long run then it did for my friend. I'm still trying to figure out my white male 'privilege'. I had to have better grades to get into college, better grades to get into dental school, better grades to get into my specialty, received no extra help in money or tutoring(like I would have if I were female or better yet a non-Asian minority, or god bless me a non-asian minority female.), and yet here I am, all privileged.
I'm not going to get all whiny about it and claim its a horrible injustice, I'll leave that for the people who didn't get in but would have if they were non-white males, but outside of old people being more comfortable with me, and cops being less suspicious I don't feel overly privileged.