Who says that Facebook isn’t useful? I read a rather astounding article that discussed white privilege. Most readers of this post, like me, probably roll their eyes at just the mention of the term, finding it rather silly and offensive compared to the rampant opioid abuse and the struggle to pay the bills.
But this writer was so ridiculous that it’s worth repeating some essential principles she seems to have missed. For example, I didn’t go to Harvard, but I learned about something called the false cause fallacy (mostly because I wasn’t spending all my time doing intersectional poetry jams.) When you go down this victim’s list you will find that she jumped to certain conclusions without considering a variety of causes. (So I suppose you could add critical thinking and rational thought to the things that Harvard doesn’t necessarily teach.)
She presented a list of items that are supposedly unique to disadvantaged minorities, but in reality are not unique to that group. I could go through the entire list, but for the sake of space (and my sanity) I will only respond to the first three.
The author reports some kids vandalizing her home when they were the only black family living in a middle-class neighborhood. I lived in Utah County, Utah. In high school I remember literally having about three black people in my entire high school. But my new neighbors reported having their house egged by local kids. This is not a black and white thing, but kids being punk kids.
The author reports being called a racial slur in elementary school. From being a young kid all the way to serving in the Marine Corps I’ve had minorities use racial slurs such as “cracker” against me. While being called the n word is awful, racial slurs are not the unique domain of blacks, and there is no white privilege that lets us escape it. People can really suck sometimes.
The author said they were the only minority in her AP math class. Well, I’ve been the only Mormon in my military unit; I’m the only conservative faculty member at my college. I’ve been the only white person in a black neighborhood, and I received dirty looks for being there. I’m confident in who I am, and have a sense of humor so I don’t mind playful jokes about being the minority in a situation. I don’t make it part of a cosmic conspiracy against me.
I could go on through this person’s list, but it is much more of the same false cause fallacies and lack of reasoning. Above all, I have a tough time taking this individual seriously because she attended Harvard and sounds quite successful, but she apparently spends much of her time finding ways to be a victim. That is indeed a warped world view that sounds rather sad. A much healthier world view wouldn’t see everything through the prism of race or blame things on a cosmic conspiracy. Somebody with a Harvard degree should be able to have a better and more nuanced perspective of how the world works, and be thankful that they were able to attend one of the elite institutions in the world and all of the doors that will open for her.
