A taste of Prager U

[_EAllusion]

So what should people think if they are staying in a hotel in China and they aren't Asian? What if they are staying in the hotel but they are Mexican - or white - or black - etc. Is this an example of "Asian privilege?"

Yes.

[_Lemmie]

The idea is that because white privilege is so pervasive and unacknowledged, people who enjoy those privileges can start think of it as a default state they are entitled to. This in turn can breed defensiveness about those entitlements.

For example:

In my mind, these examples (silly as I find them) [defensiveness] have everything to do with marketing and business decisions based on targeting the majority of their potential customers[a default state]. The reason that hotels provide the kind of shampoo that they do is based on the majority of people who use the shampoo in their hotels. The decision rests on marketing and bottom line costs to run a business -[entitled to] They have nothing to do with "white privilege."

So what should people think if they are staying in a hotel in China and they aren't Asian?

The question, then, is what should Americans think if they are staying in a hotel in America, but they aren't the privileged type of American?

[_honorentheos]

So, let's say I go to China..........."

God, stop it ceebs! You're killing me! It's like you were asked to be a stereotypical dumb out-of-touch white older male conservative and said, "Here, hold my beer."

I don't know what is more stereotypical dumb conservative: Talking like all Chinese are essentially the same carbon copy of one another with a one-size-fits-all genetic background? Or that assuming White and American are equally synonymous?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

How does one quantify how much White privilege I was allotted versus, say, how disadvantaged a black male who was born to goodly parents and enjoys the excesses of money and structure? Is there a scale I can refer to when figuring out why my dad, who was born into abject poverty and had the everliving crap beat out of him on a regular basis should vote Democrat so minorities can enjoy government sanctioned privilege?

Or is White privilege so abstract and so ingrained into our country that I, as a White male, should just accept that whatever opinion, position, and thought I have is just a guilty verdict I should happily accept when ceding over this societal power I enjoy?

In fact, if I do enjoy this status why in the world would I want to give it up? What naturalistic moral imperative do I have to willingly cede over my animal claim to stuff?

- Doc

[_EAllusion]

I don't know Doc. It's been explained to you on multiple occasions that white privilege does not mean that every individual white person has benefited equally nor does it mean that every white person has in aggregate enjoyed more social advantages than every non-white person. And, of course, no one would claim that something like societal advantages can be reduced into an easily quantifieable score for comparitive purposes. It's tempting to suggest you find a freshman primer on the subject, but that would mistakenly presume your arguments are offered in good faith.

[_canpakes]

How does one quantify how much White privilege I was allotted versus, say, how disadvantaged a black male who was born to goodly parents and enjoys the excesses of money and structure? Is there a scale I can refer to when figuring out why my dad, who was born into abject poverty and had the everliving crap beat out of him on a regular basis should vote Democrat so minorities can enjoy government sanctioned privilege?

Or is White privilege so abstract and so ingrained into our country that I, as a White male, should just accept that whatever opinion, position, and thought I have is just a guilty verdict I should happily accept when ceding over this societal power I enjoy?

In fact, if I do enjoy this status why in the world would I want to give it up? What naturalistic moral imperative do I have to willingly cede over my animal claim to stuff?

- Doc

There need not be choices situated only in the extremes.

It’s not as if folks that point out the existence of white privilege are all expecting 40 acres and a mule. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, simply because we elected a black president once does not mean that we live in a post-racial society and that certain social and economic advantages for the predominant demographic no longer exist.

Prager would have his viewers believing the latter.

[_EAllusion]

The Prager video on white privilege is just capturing granola types on the street saying silly things and letting viewers who never would bother to understand a concept they have instictive disdain for assume its a representative sample to mock or be alarmed by. There's a whole genre of this type of rhetorical move that functions as a video form of strawman argument. It should have its own name.

[_Ceeboo]

While I have very little interest in engaging you on the board, I feel forced to reply to this. Hopefully, if I can manage to keep bitting my tongue when I read your posts to me, it will be a very rare reply.

So, let's say I go to China..........."

God, stop it ceebs! You're killing me! It's like you were asked to be a stereotypical dumb out-of-touch white older male conservative and said, "Here, hold my beer."

I suspect that your limited sight doesn't allow you to see any stereotyping in your comment. But it sure is.

I don't know what is more stereotypical dumb conservative: Talking like all Chinese are essentially the same carbon copy of one another with a one-size-fits-all genetic background?

I never said that. I used Asian ethnicity to describe the majority of people who live in China - because Asian ethnicity is the ethnicity of the majority of people who live in China. And I was relating it to shampoo in a hotel.

Or that assuming White and American are equally synonymous?

I never said that either. (You're 0 for 2)

I said the white ethnicity is the ethnicity found among the majority of Americans. Again, the context was in relation to why hotels provide the shampoo that they do. "Assuming white and America are equally synonymous" are your words - As unfortunate as that is.

[_EAllusion]

How does one quantify how much White privilege I was allotted versus, say, how disadvantaged a black male who was born to goodly parents and enjoys the excesses of money and structure? Is there a scale I can refer to when figuring out why my dad, who was born into abject poverty and had the everliving ____ beat out of him on a regular basis should vote Democrat so minorities can enjoy government sanctioned privilege?

Or is White privilege so abstract and so ingrained into our country that I, as a White male, should just accept that whatever opinion, position, and thought I have is just a guilty verdict I should happily accept when ceding over this societal power I enjoy?

In fact, if I do enjoy this status why in the world would I want to give it up? What naturalistic moral imperative do I have to willingly cede over my animal claim to stuff?

- Doc

There need not be choices situated only in the extremes.

It’s not as if folks that point out the existence of white privilege are all expecting 40 acres and a mule. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, simply because we elected a black president once does not mean that we live in a post-racial society and that certain social and economic advantages for the predominant demographic no longer exist.

Prager would have his viewers believing the latter.

More to the point, acknowledging white privilege doesn't commit you to any particular policy remedy for it.

You don't need to understand the ins and outs of contemporary commentary on white privilege to get this. Our society still has plenty of examples of overt racism. Does acknowledging this commit you to an exorbitant reparations scheme or whatever strawman we might want to come up with? Of course not.

[_EAllusion]

"White" and "Asian" aren't ethnicities Ceeboo. I figured I'd overlook that to get to your point.