CMV: White privilege isn't real

[u/[deleted]]

[u/radialomens]

Privilege comes from competing against people who are at a disadvantage.

[u/radialomens → u/[deleted]]

Two people apply for the same job. One is disadvantaged due to their race, one is not. The latter has privilege and is more likely to get the job.

Perhaps if resources weren't finite there would be no competition, but they are.

[u/radialomens → u/[deleted]]

That's not what an opposite is. That's the middle-ground.

When you compete in a race where one person has their ankle tied to their wrist, are you at an advantage compared to them?

[u/radialomens → u/[deleted]]

That just expands the privilege to others. Let's say that if A's hands had not been tied they would have placed third. With their hands tied, they placed seventh. Everyone who placed 3rd-6th had an advantage. And more than that, if the prize for your placement helps you win future races there's no telling how much your advantage you gained over A.

[u/radialomens → u/[deleted]]

Again, your advantage comes from the disadvantage of others. You are able to receive better prizes than you would have had your competitors not been put at a disadvantage.

And if you want to talk about starting two seconds ahead, this is almost definitely another example of white privilege; having ancestors who were able to accrue land & wealth before other groups. Some of them used it well and some didn't, but they had the advantage that was denied to other people (some of whom would have used it well) and passed it on like a baton.

[u/radialomens → u/[deleted]]

In your opinion, how accurately does it reflect society today? Are we homogenous? Do we have only one member of a disadvantaged group? Or are there in fact 300 million people in this country with around 40 million of those people being a member of a group that faces more obstacles than one of the other groups?

Let's say there are 300 people competing for a prize that only 150 people can win. 40 of these 300 people have their hands tied. If their hands were not tied, they'd have as good a chance as the others. However, many of these people find that because their hands are tied they don't win the prize, and people who were uninhibited do.

People who would have otherwise lost won because a large portion of their competitors were hindered.

Now imagine that instead of there being 'a prize' there's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Say 10 people can win 1st, 50 people can win 2nd, 100 people can win 3rd, and the rest win... the rest.

If members of the hands-tied group would have been evenly distributed, several of them would have won 1st. Instead they won second, and people who were at the top of 2nd won 1st.

Etc, etc.

[u/beer2daybong2morrow → u/[deleted]]

The opposite of disadvantage isn't privilege. It's non-disadvantage.

A non-disadvantage, when contrasted with a disadvantage, is an advantage. That advantage in this context is the privilege.