And the Chinese, Muslims, and Italians live a modern, high quality life as compared to before as consequence of their innovation, but we don't call them privileged. They also have white skin. If it weren't for electricity, energy exploration, natural gas pipelines, refining, automobiles, airplanes, and modern agriculture techniques, modern life would be much more similar to that of a shanty town for everyone. The people who acquired ownership of these industries and including many other industries were able to accumulate vast collections of wealth that still exist to this day. If you want to change this condition you can try to do so forcefully through the government, but that could end up in blood shed. Also, government relies on these industries to function so they are somewhat beholden to them. Or you can work within the system, build a successful business and hire from whatever ranks you feel are underprivileged. No matter what changes, something will never change, and that is people's proclivity towards boredom. When people are bored, they usually act out in search of entertainment. Some people fill boredom with hard work to improve their life. Some people have lots of sex etc. Some people act destructively. At what point are people no longer responsible for someone else's destructive behavior? This is a trading website. If your focus on this topic is distracting you from trading it can impair your work.
And how would any "experience" that I relate not be anecdotal? How would I be able to prove that it actually happened? Again, you're just looking for ways to rationalize your own beliefs. Continue ranting if you like, but that's all it amounts to.
They'd be surprised to hear that. And this is the Politics and Religion Forum, not a trading forum. If you don't know where you are, perhaps you'd be less distracted upstairs. By the way, how come you deleted your post about hate crimes? I enjoyed that one.
It would NOT be "anecdotal" if you could prove this was happening over and over again. Remember "epidemic"? For example DP, let's take an alcoholic. If I see a friend of mine have a few too many drinks one night, I might ask him about it, I might not. Maybe he had a tough week. Maybe he doesn't get out much. THAT is anecdotal. Now, if I see this same guy drinking like a fish night after night after night in a recurring pattern, well, it's no longer anecdotal now is it? So you posting an article about a "singular" event in which NO background information is given and cry out racism, well that doesn't work for me. Just as if I observed you drinking too much one night, it would not be fair for me to cry out, "DP, you are an alcoholic!" Show me the pattern. You are a trader right? Well, you are a vendor right? You "teach" people to look for patterns in the market right? Well, show me the patterns. Show me how all over the country, this is happening in our schools. I bet you can't do that. No it always some story about some guy who knows some guy who knows some guy that said some white guy didn't like him. I want to hear the facts, ALL the facts. Let me be clear of something, I'm not denying racism exists in this country. It most certainly does. It also exists in Europe, Asia, even Canada. But is it an epidemic? Oh for God sake no. There are some real fundamental problems in this country and racism is NOT one of them.
Because it was a joke and I thought it would water down the discussion. If there is white privilege left, it is quickly eroding. This is a mercenary economy and you eat what you kill. I could still see it working in advertising where marketers are going after a specific demographic, but they also favor good looking people. Why no discussion of mental health or personality. I feel that people discriminate on the basis of one's personality or mental health more than any thing else and no one ever talks about it.
So first you want me to provide one experience. Now you want me to provide an experience that happens to me over and over again? What are you smoking?
No DP, I want you to show me some integrity. Borrow some from your family if you have to, but bring that to the table. I want you to show me an example that is a recurring problem. Saying I know a guy that screamed "Nigger" in the Walmart parking lot last night is NOT an example of rampant racism spreading all over the country. It's an anecdotal experience. Now if there were thousands of these stories happening all the time, maybe you are on to something. So yes, I want you to cite "one" experience, but not one as in singular event, but one event that is a recurring problem. For example, diet. Americans are too fat right. So diet is one example. But it's an example that can be observed in millions of homes all across this country. That is why we have an obesity "epidemic" in this country. So it's one issue, "diet", but one that is a recurring problem. It's not anecdotal. It's not me saying I was out and about last night and I encountered a really really fat guy. Obviously America has a diet problem. Well, maybe, maybe not. You can't use "one" guy as your argument. But show me 60 million Americans who are obese and now sweet Jesus we have some real data in our hands. Surely as a trader, er vendor, you must recognize the value of honest to good data analysis. I mean right? Tell me you have something better? Tell me you didn't walk into this thread empty handed.
You're providing a whole new meaning to right-wing paranoia. You're suggesting that all these reports from all these people from all over the country for all these years are just manufactured in order to advance some sort of agenda. Like the loonies that think the UN wants to take over the world. Well, no, I'm not going to embark on a road trip in order to interview however many people you think I ought to interview because you'd find fault with it anyway. If reading this thread upsets you, don't read it. If you can't help yourself and must rant anyway, then go ahead and rant, but I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you about it.
No, the problem is you started this thread with no facts in hand. The paranoia is you and all your friends on the left that think EVERYTHING has to do with race when in reality, almost nothing in this country has to deal with race. Now money? Sure, I'll buy that. Physical attractiveness? I'll buy that too. But race? No, show me the data. The problem DP is there is no data. And yes, you are right about something, it "is" just a collection of stories. Stories that might not be accurate, stories that are devoid of facts and details. In economics we study data, not stories. Stories are meant to be false. For thousands of years man has "told stories" as a form of entertainment. Facts are different. Our court system relies on facts for example. Science relies on facts. Hell, even trading relies on facts. Price is truth right? So no, I'm not going to listen to "stories" and allow them as evidence that we have a racism epidemic in this country. I want to see FACTS. For example, only 54% of African Americans even graduate high school. That is a fact. And here is the source. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley...fail/fact-sheet-outcomes-for-young-black-men/ This is what I want you to do.
Prehaps you are misunderstanding, or have a separate understanding of the meaning of "white privilege" as was the article's intended meaning. Of course people aren't referring to the violent deaths of people as a "privilege", and as you say in your WWI example. It would be just as asinine to say that Sickle Cell Nemia is a "white privilege", because the white race is fortunate enough to not still carry that particular gene. I think a better example of the intended meaning, that you might be able to understand, would be for you to look back some decades ago, to a time in America when it was not unusual to see a sign on a public restroom door which read,"White's Only". And not just restrooms, and not just in America, but also throughout much of Europe- their were many benefits and aspects of everyday life that blacks and others simply weren't privileged to take part in. This is "White Privilege" as its starkest. To accept the white privilege was to take a seat at the front of the waiting line; to be the first one's served and catered to; to enjoy privileges that simply were not given to those of ethnicity. Some of you, your dads or your grandfathers may remember those days well. Now a days, those signs are no longer permitted to be hung around town, but make no mistake- the signs are still there for those who can read them. The all too familiar scent is still lingering on the nose hairs of the less ignorant. Now some may say "white privilege is a thing of the past", but the truth is it is just less prevalent today than it was in it's heyday- the 1940's-1960's. To say that white privilege doesn't exist, well, there may be some truth to it, but the truth is- that's just in their little bubble, where most people happily reside.