Mr. Scorpio
Mr. Scorpio's Journal
The problem with systems of privilege and powers starts with their own definitions...
The beneficiaries define what's good and moral, usually in ways that are uniquely self-congratulatory and self-aggrandizing, and absolutely lacking in any need to be self-improving. Pretty much a recipe for the arbitrary promotion of mediocrity. Their own centralized reality need not be challenged and all others are relegated to inferior and inconsequential positions. Even the mere mention of unfair distributions of equality and resource is enough to put a stress and strain on the psyche of the privileged... After all, if the system by which they're doing best seems somehow unfair, faulty and inadequate, what does that say about those who both promote it and benefit from it?
Most people aren't emotionally equipped to have their own worldview accurately challenged. When faced with such a dilemma, they in engage in coping behaviors, like denial, bargaining and anger. Anger towards those who have dared to upset the apple cart: ("Such and such people are doing poorly only because they have shortcomings that they can't or won't overcome and I've rightly earned everything that I have."
Of course, that's all bullshit... And the epitome of systemically induced bigotry as well.
Issues are reduced down to the mere feelings of those who are privileged and only to the extent to which they're willing to admit to whatever is deemed 'problematic' by themselves. So, we're only left to talking on THEIR terms and no one else's. ("Hey, I didn't know." Or, "I'm not at fault here." Everything else becomes too hard. The inability to discuss how group dynamics work, the unwillingness or inability to understand the consequences of merely being part of such groups and the legacies of thereof becomes an insurmountable struggle. The irony of denying that a problem exists, yet responding by exacerbating it is lost on them, especially when they refuse to step outside of their own individualist way of looking at the world.
But I don't have to accept it, my self-worth isn't at stake here. Also, only the most callously bigoted, cynical, obtuse and sociopathic are fine, benefiting from systematically unfair distributions of power privilege that they know that they've never earned.
To the privileged, their own sense of what's real and is what not is only acceptable... Even if it's impossible to apply the same rules to others. The inability to discuss alternatives becomes the crux of some conflict.
- We have men telling women that their own understanding of the world is faulty and inadequate.
- Whites in the majority who believe that they know more about living as a person of color than people of color themselves.
- Straights who fail to legitimize the mere existence of anyone who isn't straight.
- The abled who never see common and easily correctable obstacles in the world of the disabled
Frankly... I'm too tired to be constantly dealing with that level of cluelessness and unwillingness to see beyond one's own narrowly defined parameters. Not to mention those who are only in it to promote their own mendacity. I don't plan on giving up and agreeing with their bullshit. However, lately, I've taken to letting them know that I'm not obligated to respect it and I prefer to do that without any regard for their 'feelings'...
Even then, for some reason, that really pisses them off.
As if I really give a fuck that it does.
Leave it to a discussion that involves a black family to make people lose their minds
Summer's here and I'm enjoying the weather too much to needlessly deal with white fragility.
After all, everything is all about them, whether they knew that the child was black or not.
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Member since: 2002Number of posts: 73,631
