Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Culture War: Dreams of a Better World
 
  • Locked thread
FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Guy Goodbody posted:

If you seriously think that white people would be worse off in a less racist society, then isn't it logical for white people to support racism?
I wrote about this in the feminism thread, but basically the benefits of privilege/racial bias for members of the majority aren't that clear-cut. I wrote these in the context of feminism, but the argument applies to racial issues.

FactsAreUseless posted:

Aside from the moral argument: Because not everyone in your life is going to be in the same race/gender/socioeconomic bracket. So even if you benefit from your privilege, people you care about are affected negatively by it. This has two immediate impacts: 1. The lives of people who care about are worse and 2. you will end up having to help care for those people. If a friend of yours can't find a place to live because they're black and gay, and they crash on your couch, that has a direct impact (economic and otherwise) on your life. If your wife or girlfriend can't get good medical care because her insurance doesn't cover an issue specific to women, that has a direct economic impact on your life. If your mother or daughter or sister makes less money because of her gender, that will have an economic impact on your life, direct or indirect. Privilege is only unequivocally beneficial if you surround yourself ONLY with others in your demographic: hence the rise of movements like Men Going Their Own Way, who seek to do that.

You also have to deal with the costs of accessing that privilege. Men lose access to male privilege, in whole or in part, if they don't act in the ways that men are supposed to act, under the same societal rules that enforce their privilege. If a man chooses to take a traditionally female job, like teaching, he loses economic power and privilege. Just as one example. But fighting back against the systems that enforce that privilege also fights back against the costs associated with accessing that privilege.
You can pretty much just change the nouns around. Basically, it only works if you never, ever interact with a member of a different race, and even then you have to deal with all the economic problems of having a population that has more unemployment/crime/etc.

* # ¿ Jan 10, 2017 17:07
  • Quote
Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 03:14
  • Quote
FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Guy Goodbody posted:

I disagree with the notion that there are downsides to anti-racism for white people. I am not materially harmed if cops shoot fewer black people. I do not lose "privilege" if black people aren't imprisoned at a disproportionately higher rate.
I agree? I think this is the point I just made.

* # ¿ Jan 10, 2017 18:06
  • Quote
  • Locked thread
The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Culture War: Dreams of a Better World