The connection between deprived/persecuted (min/maj)orities

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05 Apr 2016, 6:14 pm

A lot of social theories seem to look at deprived groups selectively, in relation to the "privileged". Be it minority or majority groups.

This is where this reductionist ideas like "cis white male privilege" take hold. By looking at one persecuted or deprived group as almost mutually exclusive from everything else, simplifies too much the relative nature of power and privilege and is too dismissive of other people not like them.

It leads to generalisations about an individual status based on selective demographic markers. It also encourages a kind of categorisation and stereotyping which is not always helpful.

However, I think minority issues can only be dealt with, if majority issues are also dealt with at the same time. This is the key to social cohesion. You can't have one without the other. This may seem unfair to some, but what matters is if it is effective.

The reason why I think this is the case is often there are fault between these groups, becuase of socio-ecconomic rivalry.

Politicians find it easy to play on poor majority fears encouraging these. However being in a majority doesn't necessarily mean their issues are incomparable to minority issues. It is not a competition to the bottom.



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05 Apr 2016, 6:19 pm

This is why I'm against regressive policies like positive discrimination, or this obsession with reductionist calculation of privilege. They aren't actually solving these issues, just causing more division and resentment.



kraftiekortie
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05 Apr 2016, 6:53 pm

Just because I'm white, cis-gendered, male, have a job, and have a wife does not mean I'm privileged in any way.

I worked hard for what I've gotten in life. I've gotten a few breaks. I've also gotten screwed a few times, too.

Such is life.

I don't find it useful for one to consider one's self "victimized." I think this creates a whirlpool which people cannot get out of. Eventually, if one is not careful, one drowns.



Jacoby
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06 Apr 2016, 11:16 am

That's the main problem about this 'privilege checking' because if I were to accept this idea that being white or being male gives you this inherent privilege then you have to also accept that there are an infinite other amount of factors that can effect one's privilege that are inherent and beyond ones control. The term basically loses all meaning then, it's just the oppression Olympics with a deliberate anti-White bent(which is why SJWs who are mostly young white women all trip over themselves to identify as some sort of oppressed minority no matter how ridiculous it sounds) The origins of this belief system is cultural Marxism, that is what is happening on our college campuses right now.

Race is a tool of division, the issues in our country should be dealt with helping the individual not some group or class of people, we should be able to rise and fall on our own merits but obviously that's not really true no matter how much American mythology. Black people care about the same things white people do, we're all human with the same hierarchy of needs. There are something like 20 million white people that live in poverty in this country, more than blacks of Hispanics since it is the largest demographic but it is the most publicly maligned and ostracized group in this country that you are openly allowed to hate. Turn on TV and it's basically minstrel show for these people, it's kind of messed up when you think about it. Racial issues all come back to economics, that's the real problem not whether or not two people like each other or not. We hear about this undercurrent of racism in this country but I see it as more classism.



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06 Apr 2016, 12:47 pm

Is someone is poor, has little access to quality education, whether they are in a minority or not is irrelevant.

Where there is lack of awareness or integration between tow groups they can become suspicious and resentful of each other.

This tend to happen in post industrial areas.