Poor Little White Boy Fights The Power

[Lief 🗽]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/nyregion/at-princeton-privilege-is-a-commonplace-b-misunderstood-or-c-frowned-upon.html?hpw&rref=education

It is a familiar phrase on college campuses, often meant to serve as conversational kryptonite, the final word in an argument to which there is no response.

“Check your privilege.”

But Tal Fortgang, a Princeton freshman from Westchester County, had a response.

After class recently, he was explaining to a classmate his views on welfare and his concern about the national debt, when he was told — not for the first time, he said — to check his privilege.

He thought about the phrase, what it meant and last month penned a pointed essay in a conservative campus publication, The Tory.

“The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laserlike at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung,” he wrote.

His essay touched a nerve.

[Indy Texas]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I don't think he gets that he doesn't even qualify as white for purposes of the White Privilege argument.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

His essay touched a nerve.

As well it should have for using the pretentious word "Weltanschauung" instead of its literal English equivalent "worldview".  Granted, sometimes other languages have words such as schadenfreude for concepts not adequately handled by existing English vocabulary, but "Weltanschauung" ain't one of them.

[Vosem]

It looks like the people he's arguing with seem to believe rich people shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion on economic matters ("check your privilege"), so props to him even if his essay does read like a too-thick thesaurus.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

His essay touched a nerve.

Good. Who writes like that?! I've talked to traditionalist Catholic Chesterton fanboys with less overwrought ears for English prose.

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

snowstalker.txt

[Oakvale]

Einzige?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

It looks like the people he's arguing with seem to believe rich people shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion on economic matters ("check your privilege"), so props to him even if his essay does read like a too-thick thesaurus.

He's focusing more on race/gender than class in the essay.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

A classic example of how the whole "privilege" argument constantly sweeps up white-passing minorities and essentially makes them victims twice, first at the hands of white supremacy and then at the hands of those trying to make them pay for white supremacy even if they never benefited from it.

He's taking the wrong messages from his experience. He has some points, though - he's apparently being treated poorly and disregarded for the crimes of his oppressors.

Also, could we not advocate for the murder of an innocent Jewish guy in the title? Would make me a bit more comfortable.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

A classic example of how the whole "privilege" argument constantly sweeps up white-passing minorities and essentially makes them victims twice, first at the hands of white supremacy and then at the hands of those trying to make them pay for white supremacy even if they never benefited from it.

He's taking the wrong messages from his experience. He has some points, though - he's apparently being treated poorly and disregarded for the crimes of his oppressors.

Also, could we not advocate for the murder of an innocent Jewish guy in the title? Would make me a bit more comfortable.

LOL. Are you seriously arguing Jews are not "white"? I've never heard anyone besides actual neo-Nazis make that claim.

[The Free North]

"Privilege" in the US, and in any country really, is determined by socio-economic background, not race.

[Meursault]

Ray's constant calling-to-attention of his Jewishness never ceases to amaze.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Ray's constant calling-to-attention of his Jewishness never ceases to amaze.

Yeah it's actually rather similar to Hifly's Oxford thing.

[Horus]

A classic example of how the whole "privilege" argument constantly sweeps up white-passing minorities and essentially makes them victims twice, first at the hands of white supremacy and then at the hands of those trying to make them pay for white supremacy even if they never benefited from it.

He's taking the wrong messages from his experience. He has some points, though - he's apparently being treated poorly and disregarded for the crimes of his oppressors.

Also, could we not advocate for the murder of an innocent Jewish guy in the title? Would make me a bit more comfortable.

We're white, bro.

Secondly, why is his Jewishness relevant? That's right, it isn't, you just had to throw that in there to play the victim card.

[Vosem]

It looks like the people he's arguing with seem to believe rich people shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion on economic matters ("check your privilege"), so props to him even if his essay does read like a too-thick thesaurus.

He's focusing more on race/gender than class in the essay.

White males, then. My post stays the same. The phrase "check your privilege" is not a legitimate response to any political debate because it implies that people the speaker sees as "privileged" (which is weirdly a bit of an insult in America; leftists use it to refer to "the 1%" and rightists use it to refer to "welfare queens") don't really have the right to an opinion on whatever topic is being discussed.

A classic example of how the whole "privilege" argument constantly sweeps up white-passing minorities and essentially makes them victims twice, first at the hands of white supremacy and then at the hands of those trying to make them pay for white supremacy even if they never benefited from it.

He's taking the wrong messages from his experience. He has some points, though - he's apparently being treated poorly and disregarded for the crimes of his oppressors.

LOL. Are you seriously arguing Jews are not "white"? I've never heard anyone besides actual neo-Nazis make that claim.

I don't think Jews are necessarily white, but it depends -- a light-complexioned Jew whose family has been in the US since 1900 is definitely white, but a dark-complexioned Jew whose family came in 1995 (ahem) may be seen as not-white by some people and white by others. In either case, in modern America no substantive discrimination against Jews and I don't think Fortgang's Jewishness is really relevant to the story.

EDIT: On this very forum once opebo told me once that I was wrong to think of myself as white.

Also, could we not advocate for the murder of an innocent Jewish guy in the title? Would make me a bit more comfortable.

Man, you've gotta calm down a couple notches. Do you go about your daily life in fear of the goyim?

[Antonio the Sixth]

This guy should really check his privilege.

[Nichlemn]

His essay touched a nerve.

Good. Who writes like that?! I've talked to traditionalist Catholic Chesterton fanboys with less overwrought ears for English prose.

I read the essay with comments like this in mind, and really there's nothing overwrought about it. The quotation in the NY Times article gives a misleading impression.

As for the topic at hand, "check your privilege" is a pretty stupid phrase in most of the contexts it is used. There's nothing wrong with evaluating what privilege you may have and how that might affect your worldview, but as the core of a response to someone expressing a viewpoint, it's not a reasonable argument unless the other's persons argument specifically appeals to their own experiences. Otherwise, it's borderline ad hominem - "Oh, you just don't get it because you're X".

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I strongly approve of tumblr leftism and thus strongly approve of the phrase "check your privilege".

[rejectamenta]

"personal Weltanschauung"

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also I'd say this guy is a good example of the right wing equivalent of tumblr leftism. Especially with his writing style.

[Simfan34]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://theprincetontory.com/main/checking-my-privilege-character-as-the-basis-of-privilege/

My Snowstalker imitation aside, I quite liked this article. Perhaps its a bit naive, yes, but the main gist- that people's privilege in the aggregate stems not from their race but rather their socioeconomic place in society- is quite worthwhile. It is ludicrous to suggest the daughters of coal miners in West Virginia are somehow equally or even approximately equally privileged as some Upper East Side girls who went to Spence. It of course completely ignores the history of discrimination faced by "whites" such as spics, micks, wobs, etc, to completely act as if they have some sort of unbroken history of "privilege".

I have written about this myself, and the general idea we share is that wealth is the main thing that people like to overlook here in favour of race, gender, or whatnot. While I think his tone is a bit too presumptuous (in assuming that he "merits" the privilege conferred upon him by his ancestor's travails) it's really something that needs to be said and I'm glad this has gotten attention. Perhaps I am a bit jealous it was not me, but even I had an article get some traction once.

[Oakvale]

No-one is arguing that white trash are equally privileged as New York yuppies. The point of the privilege arugment is that there are observable differences in social privilege between gender/racial/ethnic background etc. ceteris paribus.

[Lief 🗽]

There's already a thread about this: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=191933.0

[Simfan34]

No-one is arguing that white trash are equally privileged as New York yuppies. The point of the privilege arugment is that there are observable differences in social privilege between gender/racial/ethnic background etc. ceteris paribus.

Yes but for all intents and purposes in this case ceteris paribus doesn't exist. Trying to compare protestant middle class Albanians to Protestant middle class Ethiopians is a fool's errand.

[Simfan34]

There's already a thread about this: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=191933.0

This thread takes the correct approach. Yours is distressing enough as to induce kummerspeck.