Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege

[Togo]

I am betting this guy is dead on in accurately describing how "check your privilege" is actually used by 99% of the people who say it. It is just the kind of empty headed platitude that people with zero rational argument would resort to in order to blindly dismiss arguments they are intellectually incapable of responding to.

If there is an actual fact the person is overlooking, then you simply point to that fact and explain how it is relevant. When you are incapable of pointing to any actual facts or flaws with a person's argument, then you use their skin color or gender to assume that they must be overlooking important facts due to "privilege", even though you yourself don't know what these "facts" actually are.

Not to mention, he is at Princeton. Most of the minority and female students there also come from relative privilege in the dimension that determines privilege far more than race and gender, wealth.

do you have any proof that 99% of the people who have said check your privilege to this young man mean exactly what this this says they do?

No, you don't.

Which why I asked what it does mean. Although doubtless meant well by those who use it, it doesn't seem to be me to be advice you can actually act upon.

 

[doubtingt]

I am betting this guy is dead on in accurately describing how "check your privilege" is actually used by 99% of the people who say it. It is just the kind of empty headed platitude that people with zero rational argument would resort to in order to blindly dismiss arguments they are intellectually incapable of responding to.

If there is an actual fact the person is overlooking, then you simply point to that fact and explain how it is relevant. When you are incapable of pointing to any actual facts or flaws with a person's argument, then you use their skin color or gender to assume that they must be overlooking important facts due to "privilege", even though you yourself don't know what these "facts" actually are.

Not to mention, he is at Princeton. Most of the minority and female students there also come from relative privilege in the dimension that determines privilege far more than race and gender, wealth.

do you have any proof that 99% of the people who have said check your privilege to this young man mean exactly what this this says they do?

No, you don't.

Do you have any proof that his perception of what people mean when they say it to him is inaccurate? No you don't, yet you attack him based on the assumption that his perception is wrong.

No one who actually had a valid critique of his comments on an issue would use such a shallow platitude. It is the kind of thing that only ideologues with no actual counter-argument would resort to. Such a comment would rightly get an "F" is ever included in any validly judged debate or thesis paper. If the people he is debating with knew of an actual fact this guy is overlooking due to his sheltered experience, they would just say it. Also, the odds are very low that these relative strangers he is referring to know anything about his life, thus they could only be referring to his skin color or gender when assuming he has had too much privilege to grasp the issue. So yes, I have a good basis to infer that nearly any person that would ever use this racist platitude against anyone else is ignorant and incapable of mustering a real argument, so they use this ad hominem attack as a means to use this guy's race to blindly dismiss anything he says that they disagree with. That is the rhetorical strategy that platitudes like "check your privilege" are created for.

 

[laughing dog]

Do you have any proof that his perception of what people mean when they say it to him is inaccurate? No you don't, yet you attack him based on the assumption that his perception is wrong.

No one who actually had a valid critique of his comments on an issue would use such a shallow platitude. It is the kind of thing that only ideologues with no actual counter-argument would resort to. Such a comment would rightly get an "F" is ever included in any validly judged debate or thesis paper. If the people he is debating with knew of an actual fact this guy is overlooking due to his sheltered experience, they would just say it. Also, the odds are very low that these relative strangers he is referring to know anything about his life, thus they could only be referring to his skin color or gender when assuming he has had too much privilege to grasp the issue. So yes, I have a good basis to infer that nearly any person that would ever use this racist platitude against anyone else is ignorant and incapable of mustering a real argument, so they use this ad hominem attack as a means to use this guy's race to blindly dismiss anything he says that they disagree with. That is the rhetorical strategy that platitudes like "check your privilege" are created for.

Your argument is a rhetorical strategy as well, especially since you essentially concede the point in the italicized portion of your response.

I must live a sheltered life, because I rarely encounter the phrase "check your privilege". And, I am not quite sure what that phrase means. It could be taken to mean "look beyond your life experience" or as Atticus Finch explained to his children in To Kill a Mockingbird "Walk a mile in his shoes", which is not inherently racist nor demeaning in any way. In fact, that connotation is excellent advice in general for everyone.

The notion that one would have to know for fact that someone was opining based on a sheltered experience is a rather meaningless standard since it is not possible for anyone to know for fact what is in someone else's mind. In this case, the odds that someone going to Princeton has led a life of "privilege" is not low without reference to any observable genetic or personal characteristic. If one had read this young man's response, his response of ranting pique might very well confirm any reasonable suspicion of "privilege".

All in all, the entire situation is an anthill made into a mole hill. Certainly not much to get riled about.

 

[Togo]

I must live a sheltered life, because I rarely encounter the phrase "check your privilege".

Clearly this is just an expression of your privilege.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I have a butler to check my privilege for me.

 

[repoman]

Best comment: Definitely a Jew. As a Jew myself, this woman embarrasses me. Fuck her.

Maybe that is from Fortgang's handle...

 

[repoman]

This is interesting, but totally lacks all perspective.

 

[Mumbles]

Do you have any proof that his perception of what people mean when they say it to him is inaccurate? No you don't, yet you attack him based on the assumption that his perception is wrong.

I view this the same as the people who say "Whenever I talk about black people, folks call me a racist!" Whenever I hear someone say this, or any similar statement, I put my shields up around them, because that person invariably turns out to be a racist.

Similarly,, Fortgangs's essay is an amazing display of unchecked privilege, that begins by whining that people always tell him to check his privilege. Which again, is fine, he's a teenaged freshman in Princeton, whatever. He's white, male, of sound body, presumably straight, wealthy, probably sheltered, in the US. Maybe he'll learn later. But again, it's shameful that he was given a national platform for his idiotic essay, and I hold the people who looked at it and said "This will get us money!" To blame.

 

[Trausti]

. . . unchecked privilege . . .

Could there be a dumber phrase?

 

[laughing dog]

. . . unchecked privilege . . .

Could there be a dumber phrase?

There can always be a dumber phrase, so your question is ironic.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I have heard this kid's story so many times, hundreds if not thousands of times. And everytime I've heard it (I think they teach it somewhere) it has come from some guy (and usually it is a guy) who thinks anytime race or privilege or gender or sexuality or class or anyway that we stratify each other, the mere topic is a personal attack on them. They worked hard and they did the right things and nobody gave them anything ever. Except of course all kinds of people have given each of us all kinds of things all our lives and will until the day we die. Except none of us live outside of history and beyond its reach.

I am sorry, but the truth is white men in this country spent a great deal of history being dicks, murderers, rapists and thieves. And they built and justified this behavior on racism, sexism, and any other kind of ism they could. Now mind you, and thank goodness for them, many white men throughout this history called bullshit on oppression and cast their lots with the oppressed. But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with. In most cases, they don't even know such men have existed.

Which leave us with trying to explain water to a fish, or privilege to a person who has never stepped back from it or out of it long enough to see it.

 

[Mumbles]

. . . unchecked privilege . . .

Could there be a dumber phrase?

You missed my point, entirely.

 

[Togo]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

 

[laughing dog]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

I would guess that if that young man identified with men AA described, he would not have written such an clueless but revealing complaint.

 

[Togo]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

I would guess that if that young man identified with men AA described, he would not have written such an clueless but revealing complaint.

How do you distinguish between a perceptive young man identifying with sexist oppressors, and a clueless idiot identifying with saints? That someone with unfortunate opinions idolises someone doesn't tell you much about their idol. Unless you're assuming this guy is unusually perceptive?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

a degree in BA concentration in human resource management.
bachelor's degree in sociology, concentration social stratification
Seven years as diversity consultant, EEOC arbitration and reconcilation, and I have given expert testimony on diversity and outreach programs in the private sector in civil court and before committees in the state houses of NC and SC.

not to mention having worked the planet in a black skin and carrying a set of ovaries.

Thats how I know. I have seen this before. I have heard this before. And after years of training, study, research and life, I'll stand what i observe against what a teenage boy thinks he knows any day of the week.

 

[laughing dog]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

I would guess that if that young man identified with men AA described, he would not have written such an clueless but revealing complaint.

How do you distinguish between a perceptive young man identifying with sexist oppressors, and a clueless idiot identifying with saints? That someone with unfortunate opinions idolises someone doesn't tell you much about their idol. Unless you're assuming this guy is unusually perceptive?

I do not follow your line your reasoning. But I would say that I would not consider anyone identifying with sexist oppressors as "perceptive" in any positive connotation of the term.

 

[repoman]

Interestingly, he actually concedes that the very basic aspects of white privilege are true and are ok to talk about to students.

 

[Togo]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

I would guess that if that young man identified with men AA described, he would not have written such an clueless but revealing complaint.

How do you distinguish between a perceptive young man identifying with sexist oppressors, and a clueless idiot identifying with saints? That someone with unfortunate opinions idolises someone doesn't tell you much about their idol. Unless you're assuming this guy is unusually perceptive?

I do not follow your line your reasoning. But I would say that I would not consider anyone identifying with sexist oppressors as "perceptive" in any positive connotation of the term.

You're judging potential role model X purely on the basis that they have the approval of someone you acknowledge to be an idiot.

 

[laughing dog]

...But these men are typically not the men people like the boy who wrote the OP identify with....

How do you know? Or to put it another way, how on earth could you know?

I would guess that if that young man identified with men AA described, he would not have written such an clueless but revealing complaint.

How do you distinguish between a perceptive young man identifying with sexist oppressors, and a clueless idiot identifying with saints? That someone with unfortunate opinions idolises someone doesn't tell you much about their idol. Unless you're assuming this guy is unusually perceptive?

I do not follow your line your reasoning. But I would say that I would not consider anyone identifying with sexist oppressors as "perceptive" in any positive connotation of the term.

You're judging potential role model X purely on the basis that they have the approval of someone you acknowledge to be an idiot.

I still do not follow your line of reasoning.