@ARE_you_kidding_me “I certainly experienced it in public school, nor did I feel like I had any special privilege.”
No one ever feels like they have privilege. That’s the thing about privilege: it is largely an ability not to think or worry about something. That’s why having it taken away often feels like oppression (since it has been taken for granted).
“My folks moved around quite a bit so I went to like six or seven different public schools so there were more than just a couple of data points to go on.”
The plural of anecdote is not data. Studies on this topic were done during that same time period using hundreds of schools. So even if your experiences were genuine and are not being filtered through the haze of memory coupled with accumulated political beliefs—and I am willing to believe you when you say these were your experiences—then it remains the case that those experiences were quite outside the norm (which make them unfortunate, but not representative).
“Whatever gender/race privileges I had were gone before my generation could take advantage of them…but we still take the shit for it and we get tired of hearing it.”
Or perhaps you’ve just failed to notice it (not least because privilege tends to become subtle before it goes away). I’m younger than you and went through the school system a little bit later than you did, yet I’ve still seen the effects of privilege (though vastly diminished from how it used to be). Again, I’m willing to accept that you may have had a statistically anomalous experience. I’ll also concede that that my own experience is no more definitive than yours (again, it’s just one anecdote among many). But the data bears out the fact that my experience was more representative than yours (though again, it’s the data that matters more than my personal experience).
“Seriously shut up already, we know. I’m sorry my ancestors fucked you over. Can we move on and open things up to everyone now including us…please?”
Moving on is what we do when the problem is over. The legacy of bias, however, is still very much with us (as is bias itself, though admittedly less so). No one objects to the children of Jews asking the children of Nazis for their parents’ possessions back. Yet somehow it is unreasonable for those whose ancestors were dispossessed in the United States to make similar requests that their losses be rectified. It is perfectly reasonable, I think, to argue over what sort of rectification is appropriate. The idea that we should just say “well, I didn’t do it” and move on, however, does not seem reasonable at all. (And interestingly, two of the most important modern political philosophers—the libertarian Robert Nozick and the liberal John Rawls—ultimately agreed on this issue.)
“if you are going to say ‘you don’t know what privileges you have’ then explain to me what they are.”
Sure. The classic introductory piece on this can be found here. But listing things out like that doesn’t work for everybody, so you might want to start with this article. Again, these are just introductory pieces. They are meant to educate, not convert. But we can go from there afterwards. Now, I would certainly agree that there is an element of the (typically younger) population that tends to overplay these issues. But we should never judge a theory or a movement by its worst representatives.
“to say there is no bias against white males is simply not facing up to reality.”
Sure. It doesn’t tend to by institutional bias (at least, not in mainstream institutions), but I would never deny that there is plenty of individual bias against white males to be found (especially on the internet, and especially among that younger element that I mentioned above). This kind of bias is typically less detrimental in the long run, however, and thus tends to be seen as less pressing (we plug the big holes in the boat before the small holes). It’s certainly something that needs to be addressed. But it may be that one important way of addressing it is removing the underlying impetus for it (which is the legacy of past injustices and the ongoing, even if lesser, harms that it brings).
“Is this you’re course of study? You genuinely seem to know your way around it.”
I specialize in moral and political philosophy, with most of my recent work being done in political philosophy. So this is in my general area, though it is not the specific topic of any of my formal work. I’m glad that there are people who have done formal work on this topic, but I also recognize that it’s not a problem that will be solved in academic journals. It’s the kind of thing that has to get hashed out among individuals (with plenty of awkward conversations, miscommunications, and disagreements along the way).
Composing members:
0
