The cure for privilege.

[BainsBane]

74. I don't assume it had to do with mine

It is about the same subject. I said your assumption that it is about excoriating you is wrong. That is not what people mean when they use the term white privilege. I figured you had probably seen the thread because it had so many views, but I at no point thought your thread was about mine.

Here is the problem, if you refuse to acknowledge the myriad of ways racism affects society, there is no way to combat the problem. Acknowledging white privilege is one way of starting to think about the ways in which African Americans are subject to daily discrimination that we are not, and that we may even play an unconscious role in perpetuation it. Racism is more than the Klan, the GOP, and the police. We all are influenced by racist messages that teach us to devalue people of color. Racism does not exist entirely outside of us. That is not to say you are responsible for a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, but you are responsible for your own actions. If you refuse to consider they can be influenced by racism in anyway, how can you address them? Nothing goes away by ignoring it.

If you insist on making these discussions about your feelings rather than the experiences of those subject to racism, it signals to people of color that you don't value them. They of course are used to it. They experience it every single day. But why must they experience it on a site that is supposed to be for liberals? Why is it that so many members of color have felt they were unwelcome here? Don't you think that is problematic?

Diversity is not simply accepting members of subaltern groups as long as they act and think like you. It's accepting them as they are, including the ways in which they see the world differently from white people. Ultimately, it's about respect and not expecting people to conform to your goals, understanding that their experiences may mean they see the world somewhat differently from you. Rather than maligning those ideas, read them, reflect on them, and seek to understand what those members are talking about. You might want to read some threads in the African American group, though the most active posters there have been participating in these GD threads as well. Try to understand how racism feels to them rather than insisting those feelings are "social plumage." Those views come as a result of their daily lives, lives filled with a continual experience of racism that you and I have never experienced. That bullshit we don't have to deal with makes a big difference in our lives, just as the discrimination they face makes a huge difference in theirs.