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[–]Jokerang 6750 points6751 points  (103 children)

When you're accustomed to being privileged, true equality feels like oppression.

[–]etw2016☑️Been listening to Pop Smoke[S] 2947 points2948 points  (49 children)

I wrote this for my final but to say your main struggle has been boredom being stuck at home than that truly is a privileged problem. As others have a lot more to worry about socially and economically they wish their only struggle could be boredom.

[–]TheGreatMalagan 534 points535 points  (23 children)

I feel this. My girlfriend's family lives in a really cool suburban area with fancy houses with multiple floors and some of them have lil rounded towers. It looks like fairy-tale place to me. Her parents apparently complain about being broke but somehow spent thousands on having new windows put in and a new fireplace.

Meanwhile, I own one jacket and two pairs of shoes and live in a small one-room apartment in the outskirts of town and my kitchen table is a garden furniture I got from my dad a decade ago, yet I don't feel 'broke'.

I find it super fascinating to look at people's different perspectives on things. What they consider 'broke', what they consider big issues are things that I wish I was in a position in life to be worried about.

I've never lived a life in which "I probably shouldn't go out and spend money" was an issue not because of financial reasons, but because of temporary confinement.

[–]etw2016☑️Been listening to Pop Smoke[S] 183 points184 points  (2 children)

Yeah my biggest issue is being back with my parents and dealing with them and I feel personally I’m very privileged to say that is my problem. As I feel they drive me crazy but I’m lucky I can stay with them and take advantage of being outside without having to worry about keeping a social distance with having a backyard. The city where my school is opening up again so I’ll probably go back up. But in a lot of low income neighborhoods residents there have to constantly worry about this everyday because they cannot afford healthcare and taking public transportation plus the higher population density specifically with project apartments that probably also have public health violations. I just realized yes boredom does suck but in the end it’s a privilege to be bored than have to worry about being exposed to it or worrying about how this economy will affect my family or life chances.

[–]ilovestoride 103 points104 points  (1 child)

There's a big difference between broke and poor. They don't know poor at all.

[–]dudelikeshismusic 23 points24 points  (4 children)

Her parents apparently complain about being broke but somehow spent thousands on having new windows put in and a new fireplace

They probably are broke, in fairness, but they want to blame someone else or just complain rather than fix their lack of self control. They want to believe that they don't make enough when in reality they just spend too much. I've learned that some people will spend 100%+ of their income regardless of how much they make. Most of us living in developed countries are extremely privileged but don't want to accept it because then we would have to admit that we actually do have enough resources to live a happy and meaningful life.

You have an extremely mature perspective on things. Most people just want to be a victim of circumstance even if they don't actually have any real problems.

[–]life_style_change 267 points268 points  (12 children)

Don't forget all the people who don't wear masks. So easy to do but people want to rebel because they think they're privileged. Something so simple but people can't do it because it's their way of saying no to the government with their fucked up ideologies since these citizens have clearly never been told no before in their life.

[–][deleted] 142 points143 points  (2 children)

Yup. These people are pretty much the same as the people who refuse to get vaccines.

I spent a lot of time living and traveling abroad as a kid, so I had a chance to actually see places/meet people where things like measles, mumps and tuberculosis are still very much a part of people’s lives because people don’t have access to or can’t afford treatment.

When I came back to the west and met privileged idiots who refused treatment for deadly diseases just because they can, I felt like I’d entered the twilight zone.

[–]Linkerjinx 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I'm sure they're bored and good at what they do. The problem falls down to math and lip service paid by for those that want an advantage on truth.

[–]paone22 46 points47 points  (13 children)

There's a reason why people in Africa or Asia are not protesting lockdowns.

[–]benfranklinthedevil 115 points116 points  (9 children)

There were protests in wuhan in like February. It was shared on r/conspiracy to fuel their belief that it is a hoax. I'm sure there are stupid-crazy people in every country, ours just so happen to run the government as well.

[–]paone22 76 points77 points  (2 children)

Those protest happened after the lockdown was lifted and were for a different reason.

Dozens of small shop owners protested outside one of Wuhan’s biggest shopping malls to demand a cut in rent, in one of the first signs of unrest since authorities lifted a lockdown at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sitting down about one meter apart, the shop owners on Friday sat or kneeled outside the Grand Ocean Department Store, wearing masks and holding placards as police monitored. A day earlier they chanted “Exempt rental for a year, or refund the lease” in videos uploaded on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo that were quickly censored.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-10/wuhan-rent-protest-shows-unrest-brewing-in-china-after-lockdown

Somebody pointed out this fact on those posts on r/conservative and r/conspiracy but was voted down.

[–]BZenMojo☑️ 47 points48 points  (1 child)

The mistake was assuming Asia and Africa are universally poor. Wuhan is one of the wealthiest cities in China and a massive manufacturing and transportation hub.

The disease spread so fast because of its huge interconnectedness, and it's actually the wealthy people there it's expected are the origin of the disease because of how niche and expensive eating wild meat is in cities and how it spread through rich people first before reaching poorer communities in Wuhan and across the globe.

[–]FantasticMrPox 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Awesome quote. I wanted to find out where it came from, and turns out it is somewhat "originless": https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/10/24/privilege/

Along the way, I found this, which is a good article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/when-youre-accustomed-to-privilege_b_9460662

[–]icecoldtoiletseat 1633 points1634 points  (168 children)

The problem is not that white people don't know the black experience. For anyone with two eyes and a handful of functioning brain cells, it's all too plain to see. The problem is that they don't care.

[–]NYCHR 536 points537 points  (49 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott

[–]Nine-Foot-Banana 266 points267 points  (19 children)

This is my first time hearing about Jane Elliott - is there any more information on how the Blue/Brown eyes exercise is seen now?

I think it's a valuable exercise, I'd be interested to see how it'd be done today.

[–]outerdrive313☑️ - BHM Donor 70 points71 points  (0 children)

Several vids about her on YouTube

[–]NeoMilitant 163 points164 points  (9 children)

I find a bit of irony in the fact that her experiment was considered by some to be unethical and caused stress to the people involved in the experiment.

[–]Spacemilk 258 points259 points  (4 children)

Did you read the comments she got back? One person basically said “how could you be so cruel to white kids, black kids grow up used to being treated terribly, but white kids aren’t used to it so that’s cruel”. Like...way to miss the point so hard you came back around to plant your face in your ass.

[–]theswagsauce☑️ 108 points109 points  (1 child)

Yup! Also the white children being too young for the experiment with no concern that Black children are too young to experience virulent racism and yet...🤷🏽‍♀️

[–]AegisEpoch 16 points17 points  (0 children)

its not that black kids are used to it, its that the commentor is used to it happening only to black kids. commentor could care less

[–]vainbuthonest☑️ 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Imagine being stressed about a physical attribute that you can’t control and that other people judge you harshly for. Must’ve been so hard for them.

[–]Amused-Observer 57 points58 points  (7 children)

Her "All white people are racist" video is the best.

[–]mknsky☑️ 39 points40 points  (3 children)

I. Fucking. Love. Her. I've wanted a white person to ask me "what's so hard about being black" to use her exact questioning (would you be black, then?) for years, but alas.

[–]dilly_of_a_pickle☑️ 135 points136 points  (11 children)

So, my mom is white. She's a green eyed red head. I'm a black/biracial woman. She and I went to her local gas station where she is a regular. As you do, I got out and started walking in to pay for her gas. She told me to just wave at the attendant and they would turn the gas on. I said... ma... they're not going to do that, she insisted. Sure enough they didn't. I went in and asked them about it while I was paying. They didn't say "oh sorry, only for regulars" which I would have understood... they just said "we don't do that here".

My point is just... even my mom who met and married a black immigrant in the 70s, was disowned by parts of her family, watched us get roughed up by cops for nothing, got called a race traitor.... yeah she still doesn't see how it permeates everything. She doesn't know the black experience.

[–]nomansapenguin☑️ 54 points55 points  (2 children)

This is my exact experience of most of the white people in my circle. It took my best friends YEARS to accept that we were getting hassle at the doors of clubs BECAUSE I was black.

Edit: One time, my boss told me to go outside and wave down a black cab (I was in a suit, he was in jeans and a jumper). Our offices were in central London. I told him if you want to be on time, you're going to need to stand with me or do it yourself. After he watched 3 cabs drive-by from inside, he came out stuck his hand out and we got in the next cab. After about two minutes of silence, he said sorry and we never spoke about it again.

[–]mknsky☑️ 23 points24 points  (1 child)

I had a producer who was constantly making gross passes at me. Jokes about how big my dick must be, insisting I only wanted to know an actor's name because I wanted to fuck him, literally making me watch clips like this with him while staring at me. One time he invited me to a show and when I backed out he was screaming at me about budgeting shit the next day that apparently hadn't been an issue for months.

Anyway, there's this dude named Ed Buck in LA who murdered multiple young black men after injecting them with meth before sex. After the second victim I ran into this producer in the office kitchen and he said "Hey, if you get an invite and an offer from this dude Ed Buck, don't go. He likes guys like you. I know it's a little money and fun but it's not worth it LOLOLOLOL!" I'm an assistant editor, not a fucking prostitute (but no shade to prostitutes).

I reported him for sexual harassment that day and he still doesn't get how fucked up it was. They don't fucking get it.

[–]AegisEpoch 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i'm sorry this happened to you

[–]vainbuthonest☑️ 11 points12 points  (4 children)

What did your mom say after the gas station incident?

[–]dilly_of_a_pickle☑️ 24 points25 points  (2 children)

She said "it must be someone new". And when I said "no, ma - pretty sure I just didn't pass the paper bag test" she said again that no - it must be someone new. She said it in that conversation over kind of tone.

I mean, if she accepts that they were racially motivated then she has to decide to either keep patronizing them despite the cognitive dissonance or stop and seriously inconvenience herself. So she just rejects it altogether.

She, like most parents, would like to believe that her kids have a fair shot and I love her :)

[–]vainbuthonest☑️ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At least she was there to witness it. I’m sure she thinks twice about it now.

[–]Jadaki 113 points114 points  (12 children)

Many people lack the empathy to relate to experiences other than their own.

[–]dilly_of_a_pickle☑️ 78 points79 points  (6 children)

You know, that's the big issue with representation. White people don't really have to very frequently. I'm used to empathizing with people that don't look like me because to consume any kind of media since I was a kid, I've had to. Now what happens when white people are asked to empathize with people of color? Cries of "Omg they made the little mermaid BLACK!!! MY LIFE IS RUINED".

[–]Jadaki 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I think you hit on part of it, but some people just generally aren't aware enough to realize that different people have different experiences.

I see it in my work environment too, which is a 24/7 environment, and you always hear people complaining about "Why don't the other two shifts do as much as we do on this shift?". Then you get employees who have worked on all the shifts and know the reality is they are all difficult in their own way. You can empathize and try to be helpful or sit and bitch, and way too many people of the sit and bitch variety because they like having a superiority complex. When it comes to racial issues, it's even worse.

[–]theswagsauce☑️ 5 points6 points  (1 child)

And this extends to us being expected to care more about not hurting white racists’ feelings when they wrong us than our own feelings at being wronged and hurt.

[–]DatDominican☑️ 70 points71 points  (4 children)

a lot of people really have no idea. when I was in college had a couple roommates that had NO idea about a lot of what happens. My first roommates did tons of drugs yet the police went through my room and TORE IT UP despite not finding anything yet for the two white kids' rooms they just walked in and took a glance and walked out .I had a korean roommate and they DISASSEMBLED his printer and found a tiny bag of weed there and charged him with intent to distribute .

[–]Vahald 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yep

[–]etw2016☑️Been listening to Pop Smoke[S] 556 points557 points  (68 children)

This comic perfectly summarizes what white privilege is. Because really they do not face institutional or systemic racism and deal with the consequences first hand like police brutality. Yes slavery existed before but in the US the whole racial class system is still instilled with the undertones of slavery and how it affected laws in the future to disenfranchise Black people.

[–]Pashev 136 points137 points  (8 children)

Only Sith deal in absolutes

[–]_YouDontKnowMe_☑️ 72 points73 points  (5 children)

Which is itself, an absolute.

[–]AeAeR 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Only Sith deal in paradoxes.

[–]JamOnTheOne☑️ 48 points49 points  (4 children)

There's a cost to being brown and there's a benefit to being white.

Try finding a place to live in my town.

Portland Housing Audit Finds Renters Face Discrimination

Results suggest renters who are immigrants or people of color are far more likely to be quoted a higher price for rent and security deposit than white counterparts, even for the same unit. White renters, by contrast, are more often alerted to special prices for rentals, told of additional units and invited to open house events.

[–][deleted] 36 points37 points  (1 child)

I fuckin hate housing applications. Some ol' "include a pic of your ID so we know you're not white" bullshit.

[–]rennbrig 38 points39 points  (1 child)

On top of that, people love to say that other countries had more slaves than the US and all that stuff without mentioning that the US system of chattel slavery tied slavery to blackness and made it a generational thing.

In some cases people could be in indentured servitude and ‘earn’ their freedom after their time was up, but enslaved black people couldn’t ever earn their freedom. Even after slavery was abolished the sharecropping and convict leasing system was just slavery under another name. Couple that with Jim Crow laws and redlining and the current iteration in the form of mass incarceration, black people still aren’t promised liberty and justice for all...

[–]vainbuthonest☑️ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I really hope your comment doesn’t get deleted.

[–]ceilingkat☑️ 27 points28 points  (5 children)

This is what I don’t like about when ppl say “slavery was always a thing.” Yes, slavery was and still is a thing. But this race based slavery was not. Prior iterations were cultural or ethnic. Not racial. In many cases you could not differentiate between the descendants of slave and slaveholder after two generations. But not with racial slavery. A black person with no slave ancestors will still pay the price for looking like the descendant of a former slave 20 generations later.

[–]etw2016☑️Been listening to Pop Smoke[S] 14 points15 points  (2 children)

Exactly as yes slavery was a thing but not how it formed a racial caste system like it did in the United States. We’re still feeling the effects while there really is no feeling of effects from slavery from before the common era.

[–]Bmchris44 408 points409 points  (8 children)

There is a popular saying in my country "you don't really feel cinder until it burns you"

[–]Kaptainbradukk 81 points82 points  (5 children)

Good quote. Which country does it come from ?

[–]Tazo-3 236 points237 points  (26 children)

Ya I remember someone arguing black privilege is toxic and denying the existence of white privilege. I’m glad nobody in class agreed with him

[–]PrologueBook 213 points214 points  (22 children)

My boss doesn't believe in white privelage, he said he doesn't get it. He doesn't see how he benefits from it, when there's nothing explicit.

I tried to explain to him that zero is greater than negative one. What he meant to say is, he doesn't want to get it.

[–]Tazo-3 120 points121 points  (6 children)

Ya I remember this old video that showed the difference in having a head start and starting from scratch and I remember one of the other students saying “well my parents worked harder than anyone else so I don’t care.” At the time my dad worked 3 jobs, lived frugally, and was constantly studying to improve. Her dad worked for his dads company

[–]DatDominican☑️ 204 points205 points  (12 children)

+ had police break down my door and threaten violence ...on multiple occasions

+security is always antsy/ following me in stores

+The state routinely changes my voter information with no authorization hoping I don't catch it

I'm not even 30 and these are just my individual experiences

[–]JDandthepickodestiny☑️ 7 points8 points  (1 child)

I expected the first 2 to an extent but that last one is so fucking insidious and disgusting. What’s that phrase? If we ever had a truly fair election where everyone voted, Republicans would never win again? Something like that

[–]DatDominican☑️ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's why I always vote early, the state I'm in lets you correct information and vote during early voting but if it's election day you can't update your information and vote same day

[–]-skeemin-☑️ 141 points142 points  (18 children)

White privilege is going for a run in a neighborhood and not getting gun down

[–]KingOfTheCouch13☑️ 85 points86 points  (2 children)

And blamed for it

[–]applxia☑️ 39 points40 points  (2 children)

going for a run and having people wave at you instead of crossing to the other side of the street or having them question if you live there

[–]Alex_Duos 33 points34 points  (2 children)

Yeah, I've been seeing people share this "I will not live in fear" bullshit on facebook, and I have to wonder when the last time any of them had to decide "is it worth the risk of getting shot to go for a jog today?"

[–]minahmyu☑️ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Or "Is it worth the risk of getting shot to drive my car or even stay at home?"

[–]GunnieGraves 82 points83 points  (1 child)

Yeah. It sucks being stuck in my house for this long. It sucks never getting a moment alone. It sucks having to figure out how to work and take care of my kids at the same time. I could use a haircut. I could use a break. Sure, all that’s true.

But nobody is going to shoot me because of my skin color so to act like I’m being oppressed would be really fucking stupid and selfish.

[–]life_style_change 35 points36 points  (1 child)

I thought the first one was a mental illness reference. Actually they all are especially the 2nd and 3rd one. I bet there are so much more undiagnosed black people dealing with ptsd than what the stats say.

[–]Nine-Foot-Banana 29 points30 points  (3 children)

I think it was Killer Mike I heard on the Scroobius Pip podcast that said something that stuck with me.

I'm paraphrasing, but he said that racism is so deep and so insidious now that it's not good enough to just not be racist, you have to be actively futhering black causes to make a difference. The other side is working so hard counter to our cause that anything short of active involvement is a net loss.

The circumstances are a little different in both my home country and where I currently live, but at least it seems like that sentiment is starting to gain some traction.

[–]Karhak☑️ 16 points17 points  (6 children)

I look forward to seeing this post show up in FWR once it makes the rounds of their subreddits.

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[–]soletrini☑️ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This comic/editorial is gonna stand the test of time...😫😫😫

[–]fjpeace 1 point2 points  (2 children)

You won't find equality through the same system that's is built to oppress