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Are there any black people on here who think white privilege doesn't exist for the most part?


I got into a fight with a friend of mine. I'm white, he's black. After he accused me and all white people of having white privilege, I told him it was ridiculous to generalize an entire race just because he feels it's part of a "system". I also told him even if it was the case, that it's unfair to criticize people who do because he benefits from privilege himself. When he asked what I meant by that, I told him how there are many disabled people out there, and the world is not made for them. Lack of jobs, lack of income, constant ridicule from people. Even the fact that not every building has ramps works against them. Anyway, he got so mad at me for bringing it up and accused me of trying to deflect from the injustices of black people. I said: why criticize people for privilege they have no choice of, while you benefit from privilege yourself and then get mad when someone calls you out on it?

Of course I believe there are cases of white privilege, I don't believe it doesn't exist, but it's an unfair argument.

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Im black and I don't give a jack

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So when you say you're a Canadian it's more like a "Canadian"😉
Wish I had one of those black thumbs up emojis...racist tablet😠

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👍🏾

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How unbelievably tiresome to have a friend like that...

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It's a love/hate relationship.

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So what does the love consist of???

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He's pretty funny. I'll give him that.

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PRETTY funny or VERY funny? Is he worth the drama?

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Pretty funny. He's a little rough around the edges, but I can tolerate him.

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Well said, sam.


😐

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It's funny, we all talk about equality, then when we get it it suddenly turns into, "you're white, so it's okay to talk trash about you. The other way around is racist!"

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AMEN, Sam!


😎

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As soon as most "Oppressed Minority" groups find out that the average straight, white, Christian man isn't treated very well at all they get upset and start finding new ways to avoid that equality that they formally demanded.

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I agree. The last few years it's almost a sin to be a straight, white man. But they all get criticized constantly and if they complain about being criticized it's "poor you, suck it up."

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If I were to say any of the things that get said to me to a person of colour or a Muslim or a woman etc etc I would be crucified. Yet, it seems totally acceptable in these tolerant times to hate on me.

I have come to the conclusion that society cannot function unless there is someone getting their face pushed into the dirt.

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My mentality is this: I keep my mouth shut about Muslims, homosexuals, racial minorities and people with disabilities and in return I expect them to shut their mouths about me. You can't complain about not having equality and then say that white, straight men are an exception.

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What blows me away is that in the case of immigrants they knowingly choose to live in a different culture and around a different race. Than they want special treatment, what did they think it was going to be like?

Is there such a thing as Japanese privilege in Japan? Do they even have to think about that?

Now for a slightly less aggressive point. When I was in school, we all considered ourselves Aussie. We were from different religions, cultures, different skin colours etc It didn't matter and that was the idea, that was the PC of the time, if you will. But that worked too well so the division started to get pushed, everyone started adding a prefix to Australian.

Long story short, Divide and Conquer. 2 genders was too simple as well.

Like you, I don't actually care as such but it does blow me away at their hypocrisy and lack of logic.

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I knew a guy in college who was from Sri Lanka. He complained about Christmas being celebrated in my country and thought they should stop doing it because he shouldn't be forced to celebrate. I told him no one is stopping you from celebrating what you want to celebrate, so why do you care about what the majority of the country does? I'm not going to go to Sri Lanka and complain about being forced to speak Tamil.

And you're right about Japan. It's not a very racially diverse country. If a white dude like me lives there, do people really think I'm going to be treated fairly? I'm sure most of them would look at me and go: "what's this white guy doing here". Countries like Australia, Russia, Sweden, USA, Canada, Norway and Finland all get accused of not being diverse enough because they're majority white, but people say nothing about Japan, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Ghana. If a country is diverse, it is. If it isn't, then it isn't. None of which are good or bad.

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Yep they can tell me anything they like but it is hard to believe that there isn't some kind of conspiracy against white countries and/or white people. Especially when you have all those Muslim refugees that would be better suited in Islamic countries but those countries, notably the very wealthy Saudi Arabia refuse to accept them. And that seems perfectly ok.

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I don't think he's your friend.

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He is, but man he has an odd way of thinking.

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I’m white. I think it’s unfair for you to have such a strong opinion on how your black friend feels about white privilege. Just because you haven’t experienced the injustices your friend speaks of, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I used to live in the dirty south. Racism is real there. Your argument about disabled folk doesn’t hold up in my experience. I worked for the government, and the majority of people I worked with were disabled veterans. Disabled Veterans applications got a bump in the hiring process. Only a few black people worked there even though they were a majority of the population in that area.

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I think you missed my point. I'm not denying the existence of white privilege, I'm saying it's unfair to say that every white person benefits from it. I'm not denying he's experienced things, but what I'm saying is, as a white man, don't tell me that I have a privilege and criticize me for it when he has privileges of his own and then get upset when someone mentions it.

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So, as a white man who may or may not have benefited from white privilege, your point is your black friend shouldn’t criticize you for it? I would’ve had to been there for the conversation, but I’m guessing your friend was more irritated by being told about white privilege by a white man.

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My friend is also rich. Not filthy rich, but his family has nice cars and a nice house. I think his immediate family get money from a relative. I find it weird that he's bringing up privilege I may or not have just for being born that way. He's got money, I don't, or at least to the extent he does. It's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

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you seem to be equating privalidge with how much money him or you or others have.
Its more about how easy it was to get that money / opportunities / lifestyle / RIGHTS
You being white is an advantage in a lot of situations, like not getting shot at by the police more chance of winning a job interview against a non white etc

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I know and I agree. But in my original post, I told my friend that because he isn't disabled, he has his own privileges. Let's just say his house catches fire, he has a good chance to make it out alive whereas someone who is disabled, who may even be home alone, would have a more difficult time doing so. Really, everyone has a privilege over someone else. Someone may be in a wheelchair but someone else may not be, but they could be blind. What's worse? Does it matter what's worse? To me, criticizing someone for having a privilege seems hypocritical. I don't call others out for theirs, but why do it to me?

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Of course everyone will have some sort of privilege over others but that doesn't mean to say we shouldn't acknowledge our white privilege and work towards making all races equal and not having any privilege based on skin colour.

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I agree, but if that's the case, when I told my friend that he had a privilege of not being disabled, he should have just agreed instead of getting mad about it. I'm not disabled or black myself, so I don't know what either are going through, which is the very reason my friend should have just agreed and moved on seeing how he is not disabled.

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Does that mean no Affirmative Action, or more Affirmative Action?

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I've always thought that things should happen organically. I have a friend who is in a wheelchair. She sent in an application for a job and when she went in for the interview, the person who interviewed her said that the place had a diversity policy. She said she turned it down because she didn't want to feel like she was there to meet a quota. She would have felt embarrassed sitting in the office thinking that people would have assumed she was there because of the policy. I get the policy, but if I could understand why she would feel a little insulted.

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[deleted]

one teeny aspect of white privilege is never being called the n-word.

quite possibly, never having had a close family member/ancestor lynched/burnt out of house/disrespected as a matter of course, kept out of a neighborhood, viewed with automatic suspicion, prevented from many/most jobs, joining a union/club/lodge/religion, etc.

but far be it from me to deny anyone their sense of privilege to maintain a grievance against the grievances of others.

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I don't disagree, but I just think it's wrong for someone to say "I'm black and feel oppressed and everyone from this race is oppressing me" and then get mad at someone for saying "I'm disabled and feel oppressed and everyone who isn't disabled is oppressing me." Your last sentence says it all. How can you call out someone without knowing what it's like for them? For someone black to say they have it worse than someone who is disabled, is not a fact. It's an opinion. If you're not that person, how do you know who's getting it worse? If a friend comes up to you and says they were raped, would you say: "yeah that's bad, but at least you weren't murdered"? I feel that sometimes people make it seem like a competition of who can be more oppressed.

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i agree with that, basically.

the other side of the problem with grievance mongering is folks who use the scorning of grievances as weapons for yet more suppression, such as in voting, such as in georgia, as in most of the south, other places as well.

whites were instructed, a few months back, not to 'monkey around' with voting for a black candidate for governor.

that wasn't a slip of the tongue.

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I think your sentence says it all. “How can you call out someone without knowing what it’s like for them?” This, I agree with. Isn’t that what you’re doing, being neither black or disabled?

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No, because I'm not saying either black or disabled people are not oppressed. Who am I to say no? I'm saying don't generalize an entire race or demographic and put that on me because I'm not the one oppressing you.

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