WHERE DID PRIVILEGE COME FROM:
Stifling Julia Fisher!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2014

Part 3—One possible form of excess: As we’ve told you, the concept of privilege is extremely hot.

Only yesterday, Prachi Gupta salonsplained exactly how hot. Warning! The parts of this excerpt which sounds like a joke may be a reading error.

Headlines included:
GUPTA (5/13/14): Students at Harvard’s Kennedy School will now be required to check their privilege/
The course will be called Checking Your Privilege 101


If Tal Fortgang, the Princeton freshman who refused to check his white privilege, ever wants to go to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he’ll have to change his tune significantly—or at least spend some time seriously evaluating it, thanks to a new orientation class requirement called “Checking Your Privilege 101.”

New York Magazine’s the Cut reports that “in response to growing demand from student activists, administrators committed Friday to adding a class in power and privilege to its orientation program for incoming first-year students.”
Will students at the Kennedy School really be taking a course called “Checking Your Privilege 101?”

That purported title seems to have been a joke on the part of Gupta’s source at New York magazine. Gupta reported the course title straight, after playing the Tal Fortgang card.

Whatever! It does seem that the Kennedy School is adding some sort of orientation program in which students will “critically examine power and privilege and what it means to have access to this power.”

In theory, of course, this could be a good thing, depending on what is taught. Then again, as Bogart said, we’ll always have excesses.

Can excesses sometimes occur when we start instructing our neighbors and friends, and people we hate, that they should check their privilege? In a recent piece in the New Republic, Julia Fisher described one such alleged excess.

Warning! As some commenters quickly noted, Yale grad Fisher is highly privileged. Under the circumstances, some commenters weren’t real sure that she should be discussing this topic at all.

For what little it may be worth, this is what Fisher said:

Early in her piece, Fisher described an exercise in which a group of high school freshmen were helped to check their privilege. We’ll be honest—this sounds like a bad idea to us:
FISHER (5/6/14): My freshman year in high school, the administration's diversity czars lined my whole class across the gym and read a series of statements, each accompanied by a command to step forward or backward. “If you are white, take two steps forward.” “If your parents went to college, take one step forward.” “If you are gay, take two steps back.” Before long, we were sorted according to our supposed privilege—and I'm pretty sure all of us, from the children of real estate moguls up front to the mostly black financial aid students in the rear, felt awful about where we stood.

That was almost nine years ago, and the incident upset many students and parents. Today, the phrase “check your privilege”—that is, to acknowledge your relative advantage—is commonplace, as is the tallying of privilege.
As she continued, Fisher described a Buzzfeed “How Privileged Are You?” quiz and a Gawker creation, “The Privilege Tournament,” which was apparently “intended as comedy.”

She mentioned the recent flap about Fortgang, noting the problems with his perspective. She then described some possible pitfalls with the “privilege” craze.

Was the high school exercise described by Fisher a good idea? Did the exercise even happen?

One commenter seemed to confirm that it did. In the process, this commenter almost seemed to extend the exercise.

Allegedly, the anonymous commenter is the parent of one of Fisher’s classmates. Fisher should have defined her own privilege further, this anonymous commenter said:
COMMENTER (5/7/14): I'm a parent of a classmate of Ms. Fisher's. She should identify herself and the school to which she refers. (It's Georgetown Day School in the District of Columbia, which justly prides itself on a very early and sustained engagement with civil rights.) Her calling the Upper School a "high school" is a bit of a misdirect since it suggests that she didn't herself attend an elite school (and benefit from a rate of admission to Ivy League institutions that's off the charts). Her mocking of the GDS diversity directors as czars, when they have no real power, is unfortunate. Her reference to a line up in a piece that gratuitously refers to the Holocaust is misplaced. Her claim that many were offended should be supported with evidence—or she should just speak for herself and her parents. It's fine to disagree with the methods used in that event, and perhaps even with its goals, but the tone of this piece (preening moral superiority) is completely off.
According to the anonymous commenter, Fisher had committed an array of sins in her piece. This included “her reference to a line up in a piece that gratuitously refers to the Holocaust.”

That said, we were struck by the commenter’s claim that Fisher had disguised her privilege in her multiply bungled piece. She shouldn’t have called Georgetown Day School a “high school,” the commenter said. For a reason which wasn’t explained, the commenter said that Fisher should have provided more detail about her own privilege!

(Note: Fisher did attend Georgetown Day School, according to her on-line profile.)

Should Fisher have specified that she was discussing a prep school? We don’t really know why. The reference to “financial aid students” seems to imply that this was a private school with students from an array of backgrounds. But Fisher’s description of the exercise would seem to stand or fall on its own, as does her analysis of the possible problems with privilege-checking gone wild.

Fisher’s piece strikes us as basically sane-and-balanced. In this passage, she describes one possible problem—in her view, the most serious problem—with the culture of checking-your-privilege:
FISHER: The real problem with the phrase "check your privilege"—aside from the fact that it reduces people to the sum of their characteristics—is that it has become a handicapping device. White male? Then what could you possibly know about racism or sexism? Calling out privilege often isn't intended to make someone consider his advantages in life so much as to dismiss his perspective. But I want to be able to discuss sexism or feminism with men, and I think their opinions are no less worthy or relevant for the fact that they are male. Similarly, anyone should be able to participate in a conversation about racism without being discounted or silenced on account of race.

That’s why I find Fortgang’s reaction not wholly out of place. Told to check your privilege, it’s pretty easy to feel shut out of conversation; an advantage in life might be turned into a disadvantage in debate. “Check your privilege” can come across as an expectation that a person be repentant for sins he has not committed. In its most generous usage, of course, “check your privilege” isn’t meant to make anyone feel guilty—only to make them recognize their privileged position. But it has the effect of invoking guilt, in large part because the phrase is so often used ungenerously, as a weapon rather than a gentle reminder. This is partly what outraged Fortgang, who refers to the phrase as a reprimand that "threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them."
According to Fisher, the phrase, “Check your privilege,” is often used “as a weapon.” In Fortgang’s formulation, the phrase can be used “to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them.”

Might this be a possible pitfall when we start privilegesplaining? Can this sort of thing actually happen? Can arguments be struck down “without regard for their merits?”

Of course they can! If you doubt that, you need only examine the comments to Fisher’s piece.

Can privilege be used as a weapon, as a way to stifle dissent? In the sixth comment to the piece, an anonymous reader engages in the very approach Fisher had just described:
COMMENTER 6 (5/7/14): Yes, Julia Fisher, who went to a 30k a year private school k thru 12 and then Yale, please lecture to everyone about why people should cool it with “check your privilege.” Are you kidding me?
The commenter didn’t examine the merits of anything Fisher said. He simply rejected the notion that someone like Fisher should be discussing the topic.

The next commenter pretty much took the same line:
COMMENTER 7 (5/7/14): You have got to be kidding!

Such trivial topics are used to advance the careers of privileged individuals such as Julia Fisher, fomenting rage and resentment among those lacking in privilege, and distracting them from building the skills and contacts that can potentially have some material impact on their lives.

Meanwhile, other privileged individuals such as the self-righteous T. Fortgang are further padding their already privileged status and likely setting themselves up for jobs that rely on connections and social familiarity...
The substance of Fisher’s arguments was ignored. In essence, the commenter said that someone like Fisher should stifle herself on this topic.

The previous anonymous commenter had taken a slightly more nuanced position. Some of what follows is perfectly accurate, but the desire to stifle discussion is very near:
COMMENTER 5 (5/7/14): “Told to check your privilege, it’s pretty easy to feel shut out of conversation; an advantage in life might be turned into a disadvantage in debate.”

Ummm... good. As a straight white male, most of us should shut the eff up more often and listen rather than trying to make sure our voices are heard. Trust me guys, there is no lack of prominent voices speaking up for straight white males in our culture.

It's amazing how upset some of us get when we're forced to experience in even the most trivial way what actually disadvantaged people put up with on a daily basis. Oh boohoo, I was made to feel uncomfortable about my race or gender one time in a college class, that's definitely a problem we need to address right away.
Depending on the situation and topic, it may be true that some straight white males might benefit from “shutting up more” and listening to others. But what if the gay black female is wrong on some point and the straight white male has noticed? What does the straight fellow do then?

Can “Check your privilege” sometimes be used as an ad hominem attack, as a way to stifle dissent against one’s own preferred position? Of course it can!

Quickly, people arrived in comments looking for ways to stifle Fisher. Soon, that classmate’s parent arrived.

She didn’t defend that privilege exercise on the merits as much as she argued that Fisher should have more fully disclosed her own privilege. How can we evaluate arguments unless we have full disclosure of the privilege lying behind them?

Babel lies down that dull-witted road. If you doubt that, read Fisher’s comments.

Tomorrow: The glorious uses of guilt

63 comments:

  1. Privilege 201: Second Year Disorientation

    Students are required to write an essay comparing and contrasting having a beer with Tal Montgang and Reetu Mody.

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  2. This exercise is routine in social psychology and sociology courses. I have seen it many times in the hallways of the college where I teach. It is done exactly as described.

    There is a big difference between a prep school and a high school. The avowed purpose of a prep school is to prepare students for admission to a competitive college. The reputation and success of such schools rests on their ability to get students in. They are modeled on the German gymnasiums of the 18 & 1900's. They are competitive to get into, frequently require teachers to have doctorates, and include a single-minded focus on college prep curriculum with rigorous demands on students. In contrast, a high school does not have admission requirements, educates a broad spectrum of the student population, includes a vocational curriculum and remedial courses, does not expect most graduates to attend college, has minimal staff charged with helping students get admitted, and its reputation more often rests with its sports teams, not its academic standing. Teachers need teaching credentials and a B.A. and get paid more if they have more education, but it is not expected or required for anyone except administrators. These are big differences with consequences for the students.

    While the lofty goal of checking privilege might be to encourage a widening of perspective, it is more often used to attack people, so I strongly agree with Fisher. A student coming from a privileged background is no more responsible for that than a child who is poor. Expecting students to struggle with white guilt unaided produces some very poor results.

    Business schools have tried to add ethics courses to their curriculum to address the same problems raised by privilege. It doesn't work because the minute graduates enter the work world, they are socialized into the existing values of that environment. I know that Wolf of Wall Street is just a movie (based loosely on fact) but notice how quickly the main character abandons his principles in the face of temptation. The problem isn't with school, it is with the lack of oversight on Wall Street and that is the problem that needs to be addressed head on.

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    1. So what kind of aid should we provide poor privileged students to help them in their struggles with white guilt, Professor?

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    2. Since no one here has expressed a shred of empathy for white students trying to find their place in a multicultural society, I think your question is probably facetious. Depends on whether you want them throwing bombs or becoming fascists. That's what the confused privileged kids of the 60s did.

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    3. Yep. Some of my best friend's parents were bomb throwers. Most were fascists. In a few rare case an Aunt or Uncle, I am told, rose above it and were mere simpletons like you.

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    4. Breivik -- need I say more?

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  3. For the math inclined and/or sports fans:

    Salon 8 - Howler 6

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  4. I remember a time when Harvard was the leading American university because it excelled in academic studies.

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    1. I noticed you were the first to pick up on this Harvard class in yesterday's comments, DinC. I notice Soemrby did not give you any credit.

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    2. I don't think he reads the comments. I occasionally e-mail him when I have something I want him to see.

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    3. How to you explain him writing a whole post based on comments?

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    4. Does he write back?

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    5. Never has to me (I am not David).

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    6. He sometimes writes back, more often not. I've been communicating with him for quite a few years.

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  5. First tip: don't spam other blogs to advertise your own.

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    1. who the f#@k cast a spell on you, white boy?

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    2. I'm not sure. Perhaps it was a hallucination, but I swear I saw a comment from someone touting his blog "phen375reviews." Which actually exists, something about diet pills.

      I blame it on all the drugs in the '60s.

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    3. Didn't drugs in the 60's cause Reagan in the 80's?

      I saw a comment about that. No. A post. Several of them.

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    4. Dude! Don't bogart that number. Pass it!

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    5. Drugs didn't cause Reagan. Leaded gasoline caused Reagan.

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  6. I attended a corporate affirmative action program led by a man of Chinese ancestry (third generation American, if I recall). There were about 200 of us in a large conference room at a local hotel. In one exercise, our facilitator called out various ethnic and racial categories and asked those of the appropriate class to stand. During the break, I asked him whether he thought there was a difference between the leader of a crowd asking Jews to identify themselves and asking those with German ancestry to do so. He said that those with German ancestry might feel a bit guilty about the Nazis but that he didn't think it was a big problem.

    The facilitator later complained that white people stole his power by mispronouncing his last name. I don't recall his name, but the complaint was something along the lines that people called him "chăn" (short a), when the proper pronunciation of his name was closer to "chĕn" (short e). I thought it likely that the error arose from the fact that he spelled his name "Chan," but that might just have been my white privilege.

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    1. If you've seen the new Holocaust Memorial in Berlin you will understand that the Germans still have a problem with the Nazis. Originally proposed was a series of roadside statues of the victims of the Holocaust. That was nixed. Instead, the memorial is a maze of gigantic stone blocks of different sizes. There is nothing identifying what the memorial is about or what it commemorates. To find that out, you must go downstairs into a separate area beneath the slabs where there are names of those who were victims and an explanation of what happened. It is the least informative memorial I've ever seen, with maximum effort required for the casual visitor to discover what it is about. It is very much a non-memorial memorial and I believe the people of Berlin wanted it that way. Personally, I found it offensive and my reaction is shared by others, based on the reviews of it when it was unveiled. The walking-tour guide was defensive about it, touchy. So, I think the Germans do have a problem with the Nazis and I don't think it is guilt.

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    2. Go back and read my comment, this time for comprehension. Not only will you be delighted again with my graceful pose, but you'll figure out that no actual Germans were harmed in the event I describe. That's because no actual Germans were in attendance.

      To be fair, nobody else was much more than mildly annoyed.

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    3. I was commenting on this:

      "He said that those with German ancestry might feel a bit guilty about the Nazis but that he didn't think it was a big problem."

      I realize you didn't say it. I didn't say you did.

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    4. Fercryanoutloud, those Americans in the room with German ancestry. Do I have to explain why someone whose great-great-howevermany-great granfather came to this country in 1850 from Bavaria probably didn't feel any guilt about the Third Reich, but that some Jews in the room may have been uneasy at hearing "Juden, aufstehen!"?

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    5. If you are feeling misunderstood, try writing more clearly. Not everything you think or intend is obvious to others.

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    6. I try to be sympathetic to those who fail to understand what I write, and I actually believe it's better to check the transmitter before blaming the receiver, but really now. Native speakers of English do not refer to German citizens living in Germany as "people with German ancestry." We simply call them "Germans."

      Was it really unclear to you that I was talking to the facilitator about his "stand-up-and-identify-yourself" exercise? Why would guilty Bavarians and Berliners be part of that discussion? OK, so you were so eager to tell about your taking offense at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial that you weren't paying that close attention to tales from my biography. That's fine. I'll even grant that your life is more interesting than mine.

      But even after I told you something you should have understood -- that my anecdote did not reference anyone from the country of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial -- you still thought your comment apt.

      Sometimes the loose connection is in the receiver.

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    7. "Why would guilty Bavarians and Berliners be part of that discussion?"

      Why did he mentioned them? I didn't inject that into the discussion. It was part of your story.

      You were there and you know what happened. If what you wrote does not accurately describe that, it is not my fault. Perhaps the fault is that you talked about Germans instead of German-Americans or people of German ancestry in your first post on the topic. Germans live in Germany, the country where there is a Berlin Holocaust Memorial and where people DO still have strong feelings about that time period.

      Less vitriol and more patience would be helpful when dealing with other people outside the confines of your own mind.

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    8. Less vitriol and more patience would be helpful when dealing with other people outside the confines of your own mind.

      Point taken. I don't suffer fools gladly, and I have no cybercensor like the one that operates when I talk to people face to face.

      But it's not my fault that in my first comment I talked about Germans instead of those with German ancestry. That's because I didn't. I wrote that the facilitator and I talked about those in attendance who had identified themselves as having German ancestry. That's why I suggested you go back and re-read what I'd written, something you evidently declined to do.

      In no part of my little story did anybody mention Germans. It was you who injected guilty Bavarians and Berliners into the discussion. Thanks for sharing by the way, and I hope everything is clear now.

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  7. Poor Ms. Fisher. Stifled by an online comment. I believe, First Amendments or not, we need to register blog commenters.

    CYP is such a weapon. Look what it has done:

    http://gawker.com/the-new-republic-the-white-house-is-a-snake-pit-of-ivy-1385620644

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    1. Shall we go back to staffing the administration with graduates of Liberty University?

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    2. I can't believe you played the Bush card on me. Another example of comment stifling gone wild.

      That said, the torture memo's weren't written by a Liberty U. grad.

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  8. Tuscaloosa has still not been solved.

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  9. "Privilegesplaining" made my day.

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  10. I'd be happy is some of these young un's knew how to Check Their Oil as well as Their Privilege.

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  11. We have a black president, a member of a hugely outnumbered minority in this country, which has a history of slavery. This country is post-racial, public schools are free, and access to higher education is easily available. No one need for any American to check his privilege in 2014. I won't be checking mine.

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    1. Fine. I'd be checking what neighborhood you walk through at night in post-racial America instead.

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    2. Any intelligent person will check the neighborhoods they walk through and avoid those populated by socially unmoored individuals with a propensity for crime. However, no one should concern himself with those inhabitants' imagined privilege deficit.

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    3. We have a President with a white mother and a Kenyan father (who was an international student visiting the US) who subsequently lived in Indonesia and Hawaii and had no connection whatsoever with black America other than through reading and hanging around with an aging Communist black poet in high school, who decided to become African American after college. He did that by engaging in community politics, joining a liberation theology church, and marrying into the community. It is unclear to me whether he felt he had to do that in order to pursue a career in politics (otherwise his background might be too confusing to voters) or whether he felt he couldn't tolerate being such a unique person in a multicultural society increasingly defining itself by membership in diverse groups. Either way, it is troubling when someone cannot be who they are but must adopt such an explicitly constructed persona. Obama has no connection with American slavery because his father is from Kenya, a place that didn't even supply slaves to the US earlier in time. He has not lived in a slave state or attended a largely segregated black high school. His grandma was a bank executive and he attended a fancy private school in Hawaii, followed by several fancy private universities. He is a child of privilege who has adopted the facade of disadvantage. He is neither a racial nor a post-racial example of anything except political expediency. There are so many black leaders more deserving of his position than he is. But, racial politics reward those who play the game, and he has done it expertly.

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    4. 2:51 You wrote:

      "Any intelligent person will check the neighborhoods they walk through and avoid those populated by socially unmoored individuals with a propensity for crime."

      How do you do that on the way back from the convenience store with some Skittles and an Arizona Ice Tea? Especially when the socially unmoored individual is the Neighborhood Watch Captain who is armed and lookingh for other socially unmoored indivduals of your basic hue?

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    5. So Obama had no connection with "black America" and can't tolerate being a "unique person" because he had no connection with slavery because his father was from Kenya, which didn't supply slaves to the US. And his grandmother was a bank executive.

      If you don't realize that this is all inside your own skull, get help. If you won't do that, at least figure out what a bank VP does.

      Whatever you think of the President, he got the only important credential -- a majority of the electoral votes -- and he got it twice. And he did that with a majority of the popular vote both times.

      Time to get over it.

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    6. Obama walked through life with black skin. The argument goes that this made him "underprivileged" in America. Obama is president. Argument fails. No need to check your privilege, at least as defined by your race. Just as Mr. Fortgang wrote.

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    7. Obama walked through life with brown skin, not black (compare with his father, for example). He did that in Hawaii and Indonesia where nearly everyone has brown skin. Then he did it in several elite universities where having brown skin and privilege is a good thing, not a bad thing. He looked desperately for some racism to call his own and wound up calling his Grandma a racist because she occasionally worried in bad neighborhoods. He just doesn't qualify as someone who has suffered, as opposed to benefitted, from his skin color. As I said, he cannot claim any legacy of suffering from the darkest eras of racial injustice in American because he WASN'T THERE -- he grew up in some of the most racially mixed and tolerant areas of the country. He missed it. Being brown doesn't automatically make you disadvantaged or unprivileged in our society -- not any more. There is an African American elite, an African American upper class, an African American celebrity class, an African American aristocracy. If you don't believe me, read Eugene Robinson's book -- he is black and he says it, so you won't have to ask him to check his race.

      People like you @6:41, who think race defines everything, are as surely racist as any white supremacist. You just have different values attached to the skin colors.

      Deadrat -- if you want to check my facts just read Obama's books. I won't debate his Grandma's income -- he went to the most prestigious prep school in Hawaii, the place where upper class kids of important people went, Punajou. It is the school shown in the Clooney movie, The Descendents (who owned all that land). I'm not saying he isn't president -- I'm saying he had no share in the racial disadvantage suffered by kids who grow up in Tuscaloosa, for example. That he claims it is ridiculous, in my opinion. And I am entitled to my opinion.

      And American slaves didn't come from Kenya. It is on the other side of the African continent from the Atlantic ocean and America, if you have access to a map. If you read Eugene Robinson's book, you will hear that children of African immigrants are outperforming Asian immigrants in the US academically. It is a different life experience, despite sharing skin color. It does however raise the question of how deterministic skin color really us these days, that African immigrant kids are apparently not suffering from their racial stigma in the ways they ought to be (if the dark skin is sufficient all by itself to determine lack of privilege claims are correct).

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    8. @3:54

      How do you do that with Skittles? I suggest staying on the sidewalk and out of people's yards.

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    9. Anonymous @7:22P,

      As far as I know, Obama doesn't claim "any legacy of suffering" from the Jim Crow era. My contempt is for your psychobiography of him, from your estimate of his connection to other black people to his inability to "tolerate" being a unique person. I hope you write and tell him about himself. I'm sure he'll be thrilled with the insights. But wait until after 1/20/17; he's kinda busy right now.

      Being black doesn't automatically make you disadvantaged in this country? Well, thank you Captain Obvious. Too bad that's irrelevant since nobody claims otherwise, and the phrase CYP doesn't imply that it does.

      I'll just bet you won't debate Obama's grandmother's income. It would make your "bank executive" crack look silly. Just for your information, everybody working at a bank but the tellers and the janitor is an "executive," actually a vice president. That's because states require that only bank officers approve loans.

      Of course you're entitled to your own opinion, no matter how benighted. Who says you're not? You're just not entitled to your own facts, and when your opinions are based on your fantasies, others are entitled to point that out.

      Fair enough?

      And yes, I know where Kenya is. As though it would make any difference if Obama's father came from Nigeria.

      And, hey! Anonymous @6:41P is on your side. and Fortgang's.

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    10. I don't have to tell Obama, he told us in his bios. His quest for identity is his theme -- not my interpretation.

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    11. Maybe you should read Dreams from my Father again, this time putting aside your preconceptions. Maybe you'll be able to read the story of a boy whose father is absent from his life; maybe you'll be able to believe that in the 1960s a mixed-race couple and their family might have faced some prejudice even in Hawaii.

      I'm not holding out much hope though.

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    12. Obama never lived in a mixed race family that included his father. His father left when Obama was an infant. He does have a sense of racial grievance but it is obvious that he is displacing his ambivalent feelings toward his mother, who abandoned him several times in his life. Race is the least of his problems.

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    13. He failed in his quest for identity. His identity is anything it needs to be to maintain the adoration of the simpleminded tribal rubes.

      Delete
    14. But he did live in a mixed race family that included his mother and grandmother.

      As I say, I'm sure the President will be thrilled with the analyses of his racial grievances, ambivalent feelings toward his mother, and his failed quest for identity. Make an appointment with him for 2017.

      Perhaps before then you could discuss your animus toward him with your own therapist.

      Delete
  12. That's the great thing about having privilege: it's there whether you check it or not.

    The President is free, and public schools are black! And it's easy to get a college education. Wahoo! And I hear the pot is stronger than it used to be and legal in Colorado.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone can take out loans and attend college these days, but to get a college education you have to actually go to class and read the books. That remains as difficult as it always was.

      If you had empathy, you might worry about all those students racking up huge debt without attention to the quality of learning, whether at for-profit schools that never intended to teach anything, at public universities so underfunded that students are receiving less and less attention, or the selective private universities that are willing to let you in and just as happy to say goodbye when you flunk out in a year or two.

      But hey, pot is legal in CO.

      Delete
    2. It looks like you're talking at me.

      Why?

      Delete
    3. Because you said "Wahoo" about how easy it is to rack up a bunch of college debt. I pointed out that it is increasingly harder to get a college education because of the forces attacking public education in our society. More people are going but fewer are being well educated. It is now a cash cow for the bankers.

      Delete
    4. Do I have to mark these things as ironic? 'Cause I will. It's just not as much fun for me. Here the clue: "The President is free, and public schools are black." You see, it's actually the other way around, so, ....

      Oh, never mind.

      Delete
  13. Here is (neanderthal) white (male) privilege in action

    '

    Cliven Bundy has not gone away

    Donald Sterling stole the spotlight, but the menace from Bundy's supporters continues -- and might be getting worse

    Paul Rosenberg

    '
    [Salon]

    Blogger more or less finds Bundy cute - but what we are witnessing is the atavistic Southern White Male genetic tendency to take arms against imaginary Federal oppression and this is not going to end well.

    Blogger should issue a public mea culpa if and when something bad happens, quit blogging and spend his remaining years helping black kids.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love the southern colloquialism of "your slip is showing" when we women have gotten a bit too emotional and transparent via hormones or booze.

    I think a softer exhortation such as "lower your pinkie finger" or "or loosen your ascot" might be the answer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. That is a lot better than "shut up you white racist".

      Delete

  15. How To Stop A Divorce And Save Your Marriage?(Dr Brave).


    Hello to every one out here, am here to share the unexpected miracle that happened to me three days ago, My name is Jeffrey Dowling,i live in TEXAS,USA.and I`m happily married to a lovely and caring wife,with two kids A very big problem occurred in my family seven months ago,between me and my wife so terrible that she took the case to court for a divorce she said that she never wanted to stay with me again,and that she did not love me anymore So she packed out of my house and made me and my children passed through severe pain. I tried all my possible means to get her back,after much begging,but all to no avail and she confirmed it that she has made her decision,and she never wanted to see me again. So on one evening,as i was coming back from work,i met an old friend of mine who asked of my wife So i explained every thing to her,so she told me that the only way i can get my wife back,is to visit a spell caster,because it has really worked for her too So i never believed in spell,but i had no other choice,than to follow her advice. Then she gave me the email address of the spell caster whom she visited.(bravespellcaster@gmail.com}, So the next morning,i sent a mail to the address she gave to me,and the spell caster assured me that i will get my wife back the next day what an amazing statement!! I never believed,so he spoke with me,and told me everything that i need to do. Then the next morning, So surprisingly, my wife who did not call me for the past seven {7}months,gave me a call to inform me that she was coming back So Amazing!! So that was how she came back that same day,with lots of love and joy,and she apologized for her mistake,and for the pain she caused me and my children. Then from that day,our relationship was now stronger than how it were before,by the help of a spell caster . So, i will advice you out there to kindly email this wonderful man {bravespellcaster@gmail.com},i f you are in any condition like this,or you have any problem related to "bringing your ex back. So thanks to Dr Brave for bringing back my wife,and brought great joy to my family once again.{bravespellcaster@gmail.com}, Thanks..

    ReplyDelete
  16. My name is Sophia from usa,i never believe in spell until i contacted this great man of spirit called DR ABIZA.Me and my husband have been married for three years and we had a baby boy,before we got married we dated for two years and we love each other so much.But i never knew that he was having an affair with one of my closest friend and they have been seen each other for about four months.One day he came home and raise up an unnecessary argument with me and we had a quarrel so he threaten to live the house which he did the following day and he left me and the kid to be with my so called friend,so in the course of my distress i was reading some pages on the internet on how to get back a lost husband,then i saw a testimony by Jessica on how DR ABIZA help her to get back her ex boy friend,so i also contacted the DR via the email address provided by Jessica and he told me that my friend cast a spell on my husband that made him to leave me and the kid to be with her.To cut the story short,DR ABIZA also told me what to do which i did and my friend hated my husband so much that she never wanted to see him again and after three days my husband came back to me begging for my forgiveness.Today am happy with my husband again.If you are having any problem like this you can email him through this address:{DRABIZASPELLTEMPLE20@HOTMAIL.COM},and you can count on him for a great help.

    ReplyDelete