When Life Hacking Is Really White Privilege
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Angelus Errare
Banned
Video was scathing and hits close to home.
Massive Duck. C.M.
Banned
Doesn't say the guy wanted to drop off a package, says "he just had one thing." If he was just dropping off a package, he would have been aware that he could do that as long as it already had the proper postage.
Sounds like he's just an asshole. Its quite an assumption to say he "looked at the line made up of nothing but minorities" and then imply that he decided he's not gonna wait in line cause "white privilege."
The article was dumb.
Edit: I also think its hilarious the article says only white people can get away with that kind of behavior and then goes on to say he was sent to the back of the line!
Yeah, it's not something that is always easy. It's only human to be upset when you feel you've been cheated or treated unfairly, especially due to race. It's easy to allow that attitude to take over how you perceive the world. Maybe some of it is me speaking out of privilege. As a black man, I've never had to live a life of extreme prejudice. Maybe if I did, I might not be able to look at the world with a less tinted perspective. I think the important thing is to simply pick your battles. Understand that picking battles that may be seen as petty or misplaced only hurt the main priority of stopping racism. Every battle can't be won, and every racist can't be sniffed out. Trying to do so will do more damage than good.
For those of you using the fact that the man was sent to the back of the line to dismiss the anecdote (and following argument) the larger point is that the man shows his own internalized privilege by even thinking bypassing 18 people in line would be okay (or that considering whether there might be something wrong with that behavior may not have even crossed his mind in the first place).
I don't understand why the author brings up race in the first place. It only serves to cloud her point about the 1% thinking they can always bypass the 99% and the rules.
Again, sounds like the guy was a (probably rich) dick. To assume he has some sort of interalized white privilege is ridiculous. I bet the make up of the line had nothing to do with his actions either. I'm sure he would have done the same if the line was made up of all white people. I find this article particularly offensive because of what it implies...
It is a poor case because there is so much assuming going on. You have to pick your battles. Trying to turn every matter into a racial issue that could potentially be one only hurts cases of real racism. The more people do this, the more cynical they become about real cases of racism.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
If he does it because he's used to it working, and he's used to it working because he's white, then I'm not seeing the ridiculousness.
Vermillion
Banned
Wow. I skimmed and I *still* have a better understanding of the article than most of the people in this thread.
Chie Satonaka
Member
Hah. The bolded isn't anything new and certainly not because people are "crying racism". Most people are still unwilling to confront the issue of instutionalized racism in the US to begin with. The only difference between now and maybe 10 years ago is that people are starting to talk about it much more, and it's being dismissed just as rapidly.
Cynicism towards racist claims will always exist as long as racism exists. But trying to mark every potentially racist circumstance as a certainly racist circumstance just gives them fuel.
It's not about downplaying racism. It's about picking your battles. If you try to win every battle as if every sign of potential racism is surely racist, then you're going to end up hurting your goal more than helping it.
In order to believe this a manifestation of white privelege, you'd have to have some indication that it's common for white people and not one douchebag. It is not common.
That's certainly the argument, but it's a flawed one because there's no evidence unless you're willing to make the baseless assumption that he must have acted due, in part, to internalized white male privilege. If you're willing to make that assumption, have at it, but understand your argument is flawed because you have no rational reason to make this causal link. Which is one major reason why the article is awful and the holding up of said article as undeniably correct based on assumptions is rather stifling to honest discourse.
It's also a reason why posters mentioned various anecdotes -- again, provided as evidence against an article based on nothing but anecdotes and assumptions -- of various non-white persons displaying the same behavior.
Incredible, really, that there were posters here who sincerely believe the white male in the anecdote demonstrates his white male privilege by attempting to cut the line who would then dismiss the relevancy of anecdotes of non-white males conducting themselves in the same manner. One doesn't get to dismiss anecdotal evidence to the contrary because contrary evidence is inconvenient to one's argument, particularly when the argument has nothing but anecdotal evidence.
I guess it is not about race, but it is more about being shameless and uncivilized.
Aye, cutting a line is not cool but doable regardless your race. Go to Indonesia or another third world country, people do that, but that's because they are not exactly accustomed to order or "civility" or whatever education though us.
It's funny when someone said breaking rules is cool. I guess that worth #firstworldproblem tag. Breaking rules is almost norm in my third-world country which is not cool and started to be shunned as education improve.
Aye, cutting a line is not cool but doable regardless your race. Go to Indonesia or another third world country, people do that, but that's because they are not exactly accustomed to order or "civility" or whatever education though us.
It's funny when someone said breaking rules is cool. I guess that worth #firstworldproblem tag. Breaking rules is almost norm in my third-world country which is not cool and started to be shunned as education improve.
Massive Duck. C.M.
Banned
Read the whole article, not just the snippet in the OP
You're just making yourselves look foolish
You're just making yourselves look foolish
ramuh
Member
Did read the entire article. Don't feel foolish. Still confused.
Did you read the full article? You're buying into the shit narrative being weaved in the thread that this is an article entirely about a man skipping a line. It's not, that was only the opening couple of paragraphs. It's about life gurus sputing off nonsense advice that only applies to privileged white people. It was pretty accurate, no big assumptions.
Maybe give it a rest with your false assertion that everything under the sun is about race now. There are thousands of daily articles and hundreds of daily GAF threads that have not a lick to do with race. Stop jumping into each actual race thread (out of a handful) and declaring that we're devaluing discussion because of flimsy personal distaste.
How come the whole article talks about stuff Altucher did or said then? Seems like it's an article highlighting King Asshole.
Clarification: people are not reading beyond the OP and think this is an article whose focal point is that a guy cut in line and failed at the post office. As you said but some othera mau not get: Yes, it is actually about Altucher and his white male privilege which makes his asshole advice to others possible. It contrasts how minorities generally cannot do what he did and even worse, have been punished for plain going about their lives not being assholes.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
That story about the black guy getting arrested for trying to buy jewelry because they figured he couldn't afford it, as well as even Oprah getting that treatment overseas, tells me it's more about race than you might hope.
As I said the larger point is correct but picking an example like that makes you look ridiculous.
Here's my counterexample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZo1We9FJRM
Is this black privilege or just an asshole?
Nope, it's just an asshole.
Why do you ask me a question only to assume the answer in the following sentence? I read the article. It's not a very sound argument. The point has some truth to it, but it's littered with poor arguments. Yes, blind favors for strangers are not shared equally among races. A lot of people may not realize how they racially profile or profile by income class. But this person's argument makes too many jumps. Please read my first comment in this thread. Obsessing over racism and trying to sniff out every racist is a poisonous way of life. I'm not saying don't ever be negative like the book she points out. I'm saying don't obsess over the negativity. Call out racism when it is obvious or almost certain or at least testable in some manner. But assuming every case is racism is just going to cause you even more damage on top of what real racism does. In the 26 years of my life, I've had plenty of strangers be helpful to me and plenty not be helpful. I do find that generally being nice and polite gets people to help me. If I put an arbitrary number to it and said 50% of the time strangers will do me a favor, is it likely strangers would do me a favor 60% or 70% of the time if I were white? Yeah I believe that. I know some people have shot me down due to my race. It's a statistical certainty that it has happened. But this writer's argument is advocating acting as if all of the 50% that didn't help me didn't because of racial bias. I am against that way of thinking. It just leads to blind pessimism and emotions and anger wasted on uncertainties. I'll save my energy for when I can be at least fairly certain the issue is about race. I'll accept I can't catch every racist and try to be a better person than them even if they can get away with it.
Did read the entire thing and what wasn't posted was equally flimsy. More complaining about this Atulcher asshat, then
Every single one of these are ludicrous to me in that you'll see it happening with people of whatever ethnicity.
The one exception that stands out to me is that one of being presumed to be in charge, which I'll readily admit has occurred to me in meetings however I don't just go along with it, I'll give credit where it's due and correct such presumptions in a heartbeat.
That isn't to say such assumptions are okay to make in the first place however they are probably quite ingrained and will be slow to change as most societal things are. In my (admittedly Canadian) experience, I'd say it's moving in the right direction.
The author appears to agree with this
As a sidenote, this is refreshing to simply see the word 'entitled' rather than 'white privilege' and to me is the most genuine point.
Obviously there's still racism occurring and it's goddamn horrible for every innocent who has to go through it, especially to the level of being a different experience growing up as a minority. As a white Canadian my exposure to much of that culture is extremely limited and I understand that I probably don't 'get' just how shitty it is.
That said, despite my skin colour I try to be the best person I can be. I will open/hold doors for absolutely anyone, give people credit where it's due, let someone in front of me in a lineup if circumstances permit (they have a baby, few items, etc) so on and so forth. I'm not unduly proud of myself for doing such things, but I do think that kind gestures go a long way no matter to whom it's done.
If I did want to toot my horn I'd mention my three fucking awesome foster kids who happen to be native american. They didn't have a great start to life either, but there are supports out there to try and enable them to have a better quality of life and provide opportunities for them to excel past what they otherwise might have done.
Two Words said:
I'm not deleting my wall of text, but this summed it up better o.o
I love how people are interpreting this as two completely different responses.
I fucking hate that attitude but I am a European so I believe the context is a bit different. Don't ever go to Italy though cause everybody is sooo special over there. I swear not one line where there wasn't somebody who felt he could just pass right on to the desk/clerk whatever. It's like a sport. Makes the order loving German in me furious.
robotzombie
Member
You seem to only be selectively tackling the lowest hanging fruit in this topic, I'd love to see you try to take on one of Cagey's posts...
SneakyStephan
Banned
I thought life hacks were those cool little things in life that people don't usually know about. Like this:
How is that even supposed to work
pancake batter will seperate over time
You're supposed to get air into it with an egg beater (again this settles over time)
So if you want to make really shitty pancakes, sure I guess!
There was nothing particularly enlightening about his post nor Aselith's, only the unequivalent comparison that a black man can try to cut in line too. White male privilege is an actual thing for white people in America to take advantage of. There is no equivalent black privilege. A white man can much more easily sneak into a fashion event and not be questioned. A black, Latino or Arab-American can also try and likely find himself being accosted and questioned by a hostile group of security. This is basic white privilege. It's not that hard to understand.
Couldn't you just not fill it completely and shape the bottle to mix air back in?
Considering most people buy a mix, I doubt they're concerned with making shitty pancakes.
Well, first...
"Your Honor, I object!"
"On what grounds?"
"It's devastating to my case!"
Moving on, these various anecdotes in the article (cut the line, sweet talk your way into a fashion show, messages of self-help etc.) evincing white privilege is certainly possible. The fashion incident, in particular, I agree with white male privilege allowing him a greater chance of success than others. The post office is laughably terrible to pass off an example. The notion that it's "not hard to understand" and that it's obviously white privilege? There must be facts to support such claims, of which there are none. In lieu of facts, assumptions are made and passed off as facts.
Premise A - White privilege exists
Premise B - This white guy tried to cut the line, talks his way into a fashion show, promotes ideas to "life hack" or "get ahead" or self-help etc.
Conclusion - This white guy partakes in these actions because of white privilege
It's like an LSAT practice question: spot the logic flaw. There's several assumptions made -- that white privilege is the reason for the actions occurring and/or succeeding, that the actions are exclusive to whites, etc. Don't expect posters to grant those sorts of allowances just because it helps your argument.
You have to be Canadian, right?
I don't know that the article makes the argument all that well, and my brain tends to shut down whenever someone starts using the work "lifehack", but it certainly sounds like something I witness first hand on a daily basis in my retail job. Every single day there's someone chatting me up trying to get some kind of special deal or favor, and it's often a white man or woman. The only minorities I ever deal with who are acting like privileged assholes are foreigners who've immigrated fairly recently. I don't have the data to back up my experience (I don't keep a log of my daily interactions), but I buy the author's premise.
I'm sure something like the fashion event has to do with being a white person (not just male lmao).
But that doesn't mean that every single situation has to do with white male privilege as this article loves to make it out to be and that these white males walk around all day saying wow I'm a white male let me go take advantage of a situation. I see what the article is trying to say but its logic is incredibly flawed. The post office example is almost laughable
Do Canadians use mixes more than anyone else?
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