Wow, Darla not only hit one nerve but all of them.
Unfair to be white
- Thread starter tinfoil
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Wow, Darla not only hit one nerve but all of them.
i like having privilege. sucks for everyone else. oh well. PARRRRRTY TIMEEEEE \O/ WOOOOOOO I'M THE CHOSEN EVERYTHING!
Just a good ribbing, and it does make me chuckle!
apple0154
MEOW
I think it's like General Buck Turgidson explained in post #11 with the game. It's not so much about "privilege" as it is about having a hidden advantage. Obviously a white guy with a grade 6 education is going to lose out to a minority individual with a college degree. The point is with all things being equal being white is an advantage assuming, of course, the owners/managers of a business/organization is white which is usually the case.
I haven't been out in the every day, working world for some time now so I'm not aware of the extend of discrimination but I do recall two instances from years ago. The first one involved working at a large company in Vancouver, Canada in a large machine shop. We each ran a machine and our individual production was noted at the end of our shift. When a machine would break down the Lead Hand (boss) would come over right away and fix the problem so one could get running again.
One day the machine an East Indian was running malfunctioned. I noticed the Lead Hand never came to check it out after over 15 minutes had passed. As he had the machine behind mine and he was telling me what happened I had a good idea what the problem was so I stopped my machine and fixed his. My thinking was if I stopped my machine for 5 minutes and got his running everyone would benefit as I assumed the Lead Hand was busy. Wrong guess.
The Lead Hand gave me hell for stopping my machine. Later that day I was chatting with the Union Rep and told him about the incident. To my surprise and shock he said we don't help "those people". The idea was the record of "those people" would show they produced fewer "widgets" than white folks so if there was ever a lay-off or some reason to get rid of them that info would be used against them. The reality was their machines didn't go down more often than anyone else's. The statistics were skewed by the fact it took longer for the supervisor to fix it and get it back on line.
A while later a new job was posted on the internal boards and I applied. I wanted to get out of that machine department. After a few months in the new position the Plant Supervisor told me a woman had applied for the night shift and I was to train her which I started to do. A few days later he came and had a chat with me.
"I noticed you're training her well by showing her ways to use the electric lift and how to balance the barrel for pouring, etc. Don't do that. We don't want her in this position so make it as difficult as possible", he instructed me. Although the woman was white my point is discrimination is discrimination. It wasn't long before I found another job and got the hell out of there. It was/is a large company employing over 500 people at that time.
One day while living in Vancouver I decided to take a quick trip to San Francisco. I stopped in a bar where I was the only white guy there. (Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb.) I had arrived with Canadian money only and it wasn't accepted although I didn't have a problem going through Washington and Oregon. I needed change for the parking meter and gas so I asked the lady behind the bar if she knew where I could get change. It was a Sunday and the banks were closed. A black guy overheard the conversation and said the Hyatt would change the money and it was a few blocks away so we went there.
Anyway, on our little jaunt we chatted and he told me he was living on the street. He didn't look like the typical street person. He was clean and nicely dressed so I asked if he would be interested in showing me around San Francisco. In exchange, every tourist attraction we stopped at I would buy him a beer. Sooo, off we went. (After I had changed my money.) The Golden Gate Bridge. The Haight-Ashbury area. (I had no idea it was named after an intersection and I had to visit the area as it was like a hippy's Mecca, if you know what I mean. Every hippy had to make a pilgrimage there at least once in their life.) The cliffs area with the fancy houses. The crooked street (Lombard Street). Etc.
Anyway, every bar we stopped at had only black people. After about 4 stops I asked him why he never stopped at a bar with white people. "Don't white San Franciscans drink", I asked. He never directly answered but the next bar we stopped at was frequented by white folks. We sat at the bar and I ordered two beers. The bartender brought one beer, placed it in front of me, then walked away. After I realized he wasn't coming back I signalled to him to bring another beer. He came back with a beer and said, "This is the last one". As I looked towards the end of the bar and into a room I saw 3 or 4 guys and a pool table and all the guys were standing there looking at us. That was one of the quickest beers I remember drinking.
Personally, I find discrimination repulsive and while the world has changed tough economic times tend to increase discrimination. As to your question I think the university is using one way to bring it to people's attention.