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Privilege


Bosco-d-gama

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Privilege exists. I attended high school with Eddie Albert jr. Like myself Eddie lettered in gymnastics but he never once did a handstand, practiced or competed. In fact we never once saw him at the gym. But his dad, Eddie Albert sr. bought the school a state of the art video system that somehow made his son captain of the gymnastics team, and so on. You get this picture. 
 

I thought little about Eddie jr and his connected life. Did like nor dislike him. I did not know him. It has always been obvious that some people in life had advantages that others simply had no access to. That’s the way it was and is. As a mtg loan rep I knew I’d see no business from a real estate firm owned by an Indian couple. They catered to their culture and they preferred to sustain that in who oversaw their loans, title insurance.... all of their business favored their particular culture. My own cousin was far more privileged than myself.

 

So privilege is the foundation of discrimination. People are too often afforded accommodation not because of their value but because of their association, their family, their gender, and their race. Sometimes this accommodation comes in the form of forgiveness. A store owner of one race will prosecute a 1st time shoplifter sometimes and let them go other times. Certainly that’s their choice but how is that choice made? In kids sports the coaches kids get to be pitchers and quarterbacks despite having zero skills to do so. Privilege is pervasive.

 

I have no solutions. I just understand the situations. I do know that demanding it to end is more of a tantrum than an effective route to change. But I do not know how to change it either. It has to be infuriating. It is maddening to watch celebrities buy their kids favors and direct them to coveted acting jobs that many dream about. It happened when I was young and it happens today. I am sure it happens everywhere. I am sure it has happened to most of you, sometimes in your favor and sometimes not. I guess my idea here is like alcoholism. Admitting there’s a ‘privilege’ problem is a good and maybe constructive 1st step?

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Privilege  exists today and will always.

Those that deride it will use it when it's in their favor.

We have all been victims of privilege and have benefited from it. Some more than others

Life isn't fair. Do the best you can with what you have.

 

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When my older son attended a high tech school in Florida, the folks in the career development office told those who applied and who studied there that they would KNOW how to apply what they learned. Then added that it will still come down to who you know, not what you know for your career. Who you know may be because of race, culture, simply family friends, etc.

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Nice segue from the closed Purge thread to this. Rather than the upcoming back/forth let’s just take bets on how many pages until closure? 
And to get my shock at white privilege CBS showed a pole that near 60% of whites thought they had privilege. Nearly fell off my chair. It’s nice to see poles that are so obvious and could have been taken decades ago actually make it into conversation today. 

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8 minutes ago, Bosco-d-gama said:

And I do not see this thread as a segue from the now cancelled purge thread.

Mmmmmmmmmk.

 

8 minutes ago, Bosco-d-gama said:

This is about the tenor of preferred social structures and how it impacts all of us, but certainly ‘some’ more often and more profoundly.

 

8 minutes ago, Bosco-d-gama said:

but it does impact certain groups worse.

 

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53 minutes ago, John Chi-town said:

The US is till the only place in the world where you have the best chance to do well in life.

 

Maybe not the ONLY place, but we are certainly up there at the top...

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3 hours ago, richieb said:

Nice segue from the closed Purge thread to this. Rather than the upcoming back/forth let’s just take bets on how many pages until closure? 
And to get my shock at white privilege CBS showed a pole that near 60% of whites thought they had privilege. Nearly fell off my chair. It’s nice to see poles that are so obvious and could have been taken decades ago actually make it into conversation today. 

Oh, I would say it was right at about this post here.

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Responding to Billy Bob's "confused" reaction: Where on earth can the conversation go (and if fact did, from there)?

 

Cannot speak for the other moderators, but when I see posters begin in the first 4 posts that a thread is sure to go off the tracks, it typically does. I hid several subsequent responses.

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