Why do SOME whites feel it is ok to define the life experiences of others?

Despite all my studies in multiculturalism and exposure to various worldviews it continues to baffle me how so many whites remain unaware of their priviledge in this country simply for the color of their skin. Those who lack awareness wish to deny color or race as a factor for opportunity in this country and dismiss the fact that countless people of color describe concrete experiences in which they have been discriminated. The fact that as a white person they are able to dimiss the life experience of a person of color as un-true is evidence of their priviledge. How can you define the experiences of another if you have never walked in thier shoes? Perhaps the ugly reality that discrimination persists is too uncomfortable for them to recognize and it is therefor easier to dismiss as false since it is not a part of their everyday reality. Out of site, out of mind. The result is indirect oppression and a false reality.

Why do SOME whites feel it is ok to define the life experiences of others?
How are you so sure that this is how it happens? Or are you dismissing it and defining their life experiences? The only person you can change is you. You can make positive impact by example, but accusing everyone of being racist isn't going to get you very far.
Reply:not all white people are the same, there are many different variations Americans on the othe other hands are a bunch of dumbasses
Reply:I agree. We (white people) don't have a good understanding, and sometimes not even a basic understanding, of the situation. I grew up in the Northwest. When I was a kid, we had one black family in my entire grade school. When I got to highschool, there were probably 10 - 20 black kids, out of 1700. Not much chance of understanding it. To be honest, I was good friends with the child I was in gradeschool with, but when he got to highschool, he kind of let that friendship go. He had kids that were more like him he was more comfortable with, I think. We never discussed it.





My greatest exposure to this was in about 1990, though. A white friend of mine was married to a black gal, had a couple of kids. Got to know them a bit. They were going on vacation, and were doing it on a Harley (no kids, obviously). I asked him where they were going, and he described to me the route he was taking, and the states he was avoiding so that he and his wife wouldn't have to worry about being seen as a couple. It really hit me. here in the Northwest, it wasn't much of an issue for him. In other parts of the country, he was afraid.





We haven't come nearly as far as we'd like to think we have. And, we don't generally see the differences in how people are treated until we perceive someone is getting preferred treatment over US.





This is an interesting dichotomy. One of the common discussions you could hear when people were getting laid off after 9/11 was that if you were white and male, you were a gonner. It was all of the sudden thought that there was some sort of benefit to being a minority or female. When you can't understand it, you can't see it. I think that's the problem. Most people today are so involved in chasing the almighty $ that they just don't look at anything else...they don't make time to be aware. It's too bad.
Reply:Don't forget that there is also discrimination between what is considered ugly and beautiful. An less attractive white applicant with a resume that has more qualifications for the job does often get passed over for a more attractive job applicant with lesser job qualifications. There are all types of discrimination.
Reply:some facts would help convince me.
Reply:Those SOME whites are racist, even if their racism is overt. BTW, you answered your question in your description, "How can you define the experiences of another if you have never walked in thier shoes?"





There are many, many economically poor whites who have the same difficulty finding secure, benficial employment as those in the same position who are non-white.





Everyone has judgements about how other people affect their lives, and those judgments are shaped by your upbringning as worldviews and sensibilites are instilled to you. Some whites? Try some people.





As for being insensitive, or unaware? I only know what it's like to be me, as I have only ever been me. It would be very difficult for me to step inside the shoes of another person of different upbringing, different gender, or different sexual orientation, and know EXACTLY how they feel or how they live their lives. I think your being insensitive about insensitivity.
Reply:Can you accurately explain through your generalizations how whites feel without walking in THEIR shoes? Look up affirmative action -- it encourages business' to hire non-whites over whites.





If you're only referring to a specious example -- as evidenced by the whole "SOME" capitilization -- maybe it would be a little less offensive to write "some people" not "some whites". Unless, of course, you mean only whites do these things. Interesting.
Reply:Colleges would accept a black woman before a white man
Reply:I think you answered your own question when you said the thing about not being able to walk in the others shoes.


Maybe you would like entomology better.
Reply:Much of what your are apparently annoyed by is the fact that different individuals have different perceptions. While each individual has an inviolate right to their own perception, It never lacks wisdom to compare your own perceptions with those of others. Sometimes simply choosing to percieve things in a different way, through a different filter allows one to live a happier, more relaxed, less grieved life
Reply:Discussions of race, ethnicity and gender in American society only muddy the waters and serve the interests of the rich, when people should talk more about alleviating class differences which are really at the heart of almost all oppression. Why does anybody need to be a billionaire regardless of their ethnicity, race, or gender, and why should anybody work for substandard wages, have little or no access to health care, or live in substandard housing?





Some black people are rich and some white people are poor. Some women are rich, and some men are homeless. Why should anybody have to live at a subsistence level especially when some people are ultra wealthy. When Americans stop complaining about phony issues that have nothing to do with oppression, and start alleviating class differences, as most of the rest of the world recognizes, then people will recognize each other more as their fellow mankind and not somebody to be in continuous economic competition with. Our problems are primarily economic, not social.
Reply:you pretty much answered your own (rhetorical) question...they're either ignorant or in denial. but yes, it is annoying to hear white people i know ***** about "reverse racism" and "if there's a BET, why isn't there a WET? black people have the REAL privelege," etc. unfortunately my own parents are like that along w/half my friends.





P.S.- ignore the idiots who complain about affirmative action without having a single clue about it. ugh!
Reply:Everybody does it
Reply:I co-own a contracting company that does work for cable companies and we lost a large chunk of our territory because the cable companies were forced to employ minority owned companies in those areas. Do you consider me and my employees priveledged because of that? You need to STFU!



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