Originally Posted by Zuranthium (Post 2302799)

Everyone here needs to watch this, for starters, to gain a better understanding of exactly why this quoted mentality is ridiculous and wrong.

Originally Posted by Zuranthium (Post 2302799)

Just look at who gets cast in films and who owns the businesses, for starters.

Originally Posted by Zuranthium (Post 2302799)

They are the most privileged group in existence. That's what our culture has built and the long-standing misogyny and subtle (or not so subtle) modes of discrimination against minorities have directly held them down in comparison to this ruling class.

Originally Posted by Pokesan (Post 2303005)

culture is a magic word that allows you to say all racial inequality is their(usually black people) own fault without having to get beaten up for your awful opinion.

Originally Posted by Pokesan (Post 2303005)

culture is a magic word that allows you to say all racial inequality is their(usually black people) own fault without having to get beaten up for your awful opinion.

Originally Posted by Lune (Post 2303034)

It's your inability to separate the two concepts that's awful, and your willingness to frame this in reductive, black and white thinking. I've never claimed "all racial inequality" comes from culture, just that racism doesn't tell the whole story and culture is probably a larger factor, and it explains so much about these concepts.

Culture affects a person profoundly, down to the way the prefrontal cortex is wired (which governs many processes critical to ethics and social function).

Explain, for example, how Jewish populations have managed to be so successful for thousands of years in spite of slavery, persecution, expulsion, exclusion, and extermination. Thousands of years of 'racism', yet they always come out on top. Is there an explanation besides culture? I can't think of one. And if culture can at least partially account for their success, then why can't it explain hardships among other groups?

Originally Posted by Jorgam (Post 2302587)

So if a white person was up there saying I'm nervous to get up here because there are so many blacks in the crowd, that wouldn't be racist? If a white person stood up there and said you probably don't know these "facts" simply because of the color of your skin to blacks, that wouldn't be racist? I guess it is not racist because she is a bi hispanic female leftist and that reduces it to just being offensive..

Any time someone says something like this about white people, just insert any other type of person that isn't white, say it again and then decide if it sounds like racism or hate speech. Same goes for straight males. The only group legally allowed to be discriminated against and hated publicaly.

Originally Posted by Lune (Post 2302956)

Jewish people?



See, in saying this, you imply it's us doing all the holding down, making them work in the fields while we sit on the porch drinking sweet tea. How exactly have we held down Asians and Jews (in recent times)? Both those minorities outperform whites, and the latter is proportionately more represented in the "ruling class" than any other group. If you recognize that some cultures are able to thrive and reach parity with whites, then you necessarily cannot blame whitey for 100% of the inability of other cultures to thrive.

Additionally, what good does that statement do? Ok, 'whites' in general are born with enormous privilege. That's an incredibly racist statement. If you generalized any other trait to an entire group besides whites based on the color of their skin that would be a reprehensible fucking statement. The fact that you're targeting the 'ruling class' doesn't make bigotry suddenly okay, and it just shows you don't really dig into why bigotry is wrong in the first place. What about all the whites who grew up in abusive drug-filled impoverished households with parents and communities who didn't care? What happens when they somehow manage to beat the odds and go to college, only to be told to check their privilege?

The only type of judgments we should be making are those based on individual character and for which we have evidence. Applying systematic judgments to a group based on an unconnected trait is wrong. It's wrong when we do it to white people, and it's wrong when we do it to black people. Even if we know a certain culture tends to have certain behaviors, cognitions, and traits, it's still a character evaluation, not a skin-color evaluation.

Originally Posted by Lune (Post 2303034)

It's your inability to separate the two concepts that's awful, and your willingness to frame this in reductive, black and white thinking. I've never claimed "all racial inequality" comes from culture, just that racism doesn't tell the whole story and culture is probably a larger factor, and it explains so much about these concepts.

Culture affects a person profoundly, down to the way the prefrontal cortex is wired (which governs many processes critical to ethics and social function).

Explain, for example, how Jewish populations have managed to be so successful for thousands of years in spite of slavery, persecution, expulsion, exclusion, and extermination. Thousands of years of 'racism', yet they always come out on top. Is there an explanation besides culture? I can't think of one. And if culture can at least partially account for their success, then why can't it explain hardships among other groups?

Originally Posted by JurisDictum (Post 2303046)

What people are actually saying is: its best to have white skin in America currently. The sooner you all stop inanely arguing with this fucking obviously true point, the sooner they will shut up and move on to something else.

They found that when they introduced groups of privileged people to information about their privileged -- the reaction is defensive. They start thinking about all the ways in their individual life that they were not privileged. Look at Mitt Romney attempt to deal with the assertion he was privileged. He action got on stage with his wife and tried to argue he didn't have it that good!