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Comment count is 22
Kabbage - 2013-07-21

"Check Your Privilege" is a profoundly off-putting slogan. There has got to be a less terrible way of saying that.


theSnake - 2013-07-21

It would be less offputting if every time I heard it wasn't from another white person.


zerdzer - 2013-07-21

so why is "check your white privilege" so offputting?


simon666 - 2013-07-21

"Check your white privilege" is so off putting because the phrase functions more as a selfish demonstration of the speaker's "in-ness" or "down with" the black cause and less as a means of persuading culturally white people to reflect on their position within society.

The phrase "check your white privilege" no doubt borrows from the phrase "check yo self," which comes from black hip hop culture. The white woman in this video by using a variant of "check yo self" is performing for her black audience (culturally black anyway) to show that she's down with the struggle. This is disingenuous when the intent of the "check your white privilege" is clearly to get white people to reflect on what it means to be white.

In short, "check your white privilege" is preaching to the choir and fails to persuade white audiences that not already sympathetic to black struggle to reflect.


glorious_pan - 2013-07-21

It's a phrase that could go either way. Maybe it does get some people to think, but it's also one of those phrases that has been tainted by people whose idea of "social justice" is a tumblr dedicated to stalking white people with dreadlocks.


Nominal - 2013-07-21

The problem with this kind of phrase is that it's basically telling white people "you might think you have problems, but you don't compared to other people and need to be brought down." Imagine how far the labor movement would have gotten if they told Irish indentured servants to check their white privilege.

Yeah some groups have it easier than others, but telling potential reformers that they don't have ANY problems and the whole way to go is down is...not the best way to be going about things.


Nominal - 2013-07-21

^the ONLY way to go is down


zerdzer - 2013-07-21

oh god...


prang - 2013-07-21

Maybe words mean different things when they're said by different people.


zerdzer - 2013-07-21

add a racism tag


Bort - 2013-07-21

I just checked; it's still there.

I see this video is from the "LaughingAtLiberals" channel. While liberals may present themselves poorly and can even be every bit as dumb and misinformed as the wingnuttiest Teabagger, at least liberals have their hearts in the right place pretty reliably.


RocketBlender - 2013-07-21

I've met some very, very smug liberals who were just... so... proud of themselves for their priuses and 'forward thinking', and even with them I wouldn't consider them bad people. Not people I'd choose to be around, but if I had to pick between them and some of the nuttier ring wingers I know, well...


Spaceman Africa - 2013-07-21

Most of the videos on this channel aren't even that bad. Most of them are just people talking at Trayvon Martin rallies or Occupy protest things.


Old_Zircon - 2013-07-21

Whenever I see something like this video I have such conflicting feelings.

I mean, I don't SUBSTANTIALLY disagree with anythin she's saying, but for fuck's sake...


gravelstudios - 2013-07-21

@RocketBlender: While the worst liberals can be just as irritating as the worst conservatives, the liberals aren't doing nearly as much damage overall.


gravelstudios - 2013-07-21

I really don't think this is all that far out there at all.
When I was an education major in college, a huge part of the program was trying to get us to learn to recognize all the little ways our culture teaches us to be racist that the average person doesn't even think about or notice. I took it to heart, considering that at the time I thought I was going to be a teacher and didn't want to be a biased one, but a lot of other ed majors thought it was all a bunch of nonsense. I can't disagree with anything she said.


Old_Zircon - 2013-07-21

She'd be considered a somewhat left of center moderate in a lot of places.


spikestoyiu - 2013-07-21

"White privilege" is this year's "cognitive dissonance".


glorious_pan - 2013-07-21

Don't you mean it's the new black?


ecksudee - 2013-07-21

Currently typing this comment with one hand if ya catch my drift homies ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)


Ocyrus - 2013-07-22

I wholly disagree that there is such a thing a "white privilege", there are "minority disadvantages" but that does not mean that there is any privilege.


Bort - 2014-01-09

Agreed, with one exception. Some number of white folks are resentful that minorities can legitimately complain about their lack of privilege -- which is to say, it's not enough that they can claim all the privilege the system can offer, they also want legitimate grievances. Wow.

By the way, I think I just explained the Teabaggers.


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