I hate being white!!

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Centrist = I'm not on the left wing. That also accounts for a lot of the Brits and Aussies here too.

Where did I ever say that EVERYBODY shouldn't be on that bus.

Of course, all of Humanity should be on that bus.

The bus keeps stalling and people keep getting off.

Thanks, I've heard good things about this book.

As a person of colour, I found Reni's book empowering.

Sometimes, they get off under their own volition.

We have to counteract the forces which prevent people from getting on that bus in the first place. And the only way to do it-----is to enforce equality of opportunity.

We must seek an ideal----a point where people can relegate racism to the past.

When we assume that members of one "race" are automatically racist through history and birth, we go further and further from that ideal.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 13 May 2022, 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not sure what you are trying to say here.

On one hand this is a gross oversimplification OTOH it's arguably true for a lot of people. Innate racism is like alcoholism -- recovery, should you undertake it, is a life-long process.

Cyberdad opined that most Americans on WP are moderately conservative. I don't know if that's true, but I have seen a lot of people whose views are somewhat progressive, but they get bent out of shape over wokeness, probably as they perceive that many who don't benefit from white privilege are nevertheless better off than they. Not just Americans. The OP is not American.

I would like for people who "don't benefit from white privilege" to do as good or better than I do. Especially if they're nice people. I haven't done all that great; but I haven't done bad, either.

My manager at my job is black. So is my supervisor---and she's a woman, too! They haven't benefited from white privilege. My supervisor doesn't have a college degree (but I do).

The Attorney General of New York, Leticia James, is black and a woman. I believe she's also LGBQ+---though I'm not sure about that.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 13 May 2022, 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

I lost most of my "innate racism" when I started hanging out with people of other races----about the age of 10 or so.

In my life, I've learnt that most people are "racist" if you're too "white".

I'm being completely serious here.

Most people are racist to some degree, full stop. Doesn't matter what colour you are. It's biologically programmed into us, and studies have shown that even babies are racist.

It's become fashionable for intellectuals to mock the left. It started with philosopher Bertrand Russell who was conflicted with his admiration of right wing ideas and needed some way to justify his beliefs. Today many people who call themselves liberal democrats or libertarians have conservative values and write copious pages in books justifying their "centrist" position but interestingly the target for their criticism tends to be those on the left.

I've seen it in publications on comparative politics when I was an undergraduate student. In relative terms the American left (democrats) are approx equivalent to the Australian right in terms of economic policy. America is much more invested in the free market and individualism which explains why higher education was never free and America still doesn't have free universal healthcare. Also free speech and individual rights in America seems to be much more lenient toward hate speech and standing your ground while being armed and carrying weapons. These things are unthinkable in Australia (even for our conservative right).

However the free market has transformed some sectors in Australia, Higher education transformed in the 1990s due to the GFC and successive conservative governments made a free system of education into one with loans/debts.

I also think Americans are far more religious than Australians which tends to push people toward conservative values.

racism is the easiest diagnosable symptom of a deeper problem in society. It is connected to other things like how we take care of elders, disabled, how inclusive we are as a community, tolerance, open mindedness. Communication and dialogue are the first step to breaking down social barriers that lead to transformation. Ultimately when we all get our act together and get back on the bus of "progress" we can then appropriately tackle global problems like how to manage this planet sustainably, conserve the remaining biome and reduce emissions.

The masses need to stop being manipulated by a corrupt power base who have an agenda that is not in our best collective interests. Major corporations and government knew the social ills of economic and social inequality, impact of industrialisation on global temperatures and how population explosion will devastate ecosystems probably 70-80 years ago but have never been responsible or done anything to address these issues. It has taken common people to advocate for ourselves against the power structure which largely is self-serving.

So when I see the backlash from the right against activists by calling them "woke" I know the empire is attempting to strike back (using the star wars analogy).

I don’t like being so white. I burn very easily and quickly.

Ok you saw a word which triggered a memory of a fact or opinion you hold and you wrote that down here, and the fact it was totally unrelated to the point I was making didn't stop you. Now it makes sense why there was confusion.