White Male Privilige

Clamball

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In a recent post I called out a bunch of you for being male, and biased. I am perfectly willing to have my opinion changed and it lead me to think a bit more about this and ask

Do you think white male privilege is a thing, and does it happen in Ireland and do you experience it, either as the white male or the non white or non male person. Is it happening every day in the workplace in Ireland?
 
Flippant answer: I think you have to be more than just white and male here. Need to be a southsider who plays rugby?

Other answer: In my workplace no... it's not about gender, skin colour, nationality .... if you are capable and talented you will stand out. Although if your command of English isn't good, you will struggle.

Returning to the flippant answer - if you aren't considering 'class' in the equation and you are talking about privilege then you're not really looking for an answer. Identify may factor into how your class is perceived, but in Ireland you can be white and male and be perceived as trash, class wise. And you can be white and male and privileged. Which tells me there is a lot more going on than just that.
 
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In a recent post I called out a bunch of you for being male, and biased. I am perfectly willing to have my opinion changed and it lead me to think a bit more about this and ask

Do you think white male privilege is a thing, and does it happen in Ireland and do you experience it, either as the white male or the non white or non male person. Is it happening every day in the workplace in Ireland?
You called out a bunch of named posters who had the temerity to suggest that people who were fit to socialise were also fit for work. This apparently is evidence of their white male privilege (leaving aside that we don’t know whether the posters are even white or male or both)

It’s not exactly a Rosa Parks moment.
 
It’s social class and all the learning that goes into that.

I was in Dunnes in my gardening clothes recently poking about in a shelf near the exit. Taking things out to see in the back.

I was approached aggressively by a security guard. I gave him a dressing down and he went away with his tail between his legs.

It’s not accent, the guy was Polish, I doubt he can make much of Irish accents. It’s not appearance, I looked shabby. It’s confidence and it’s entirely unself-conscious. Talking down to him while being very polite was my automatic reaction to his accosting me.

His reaction, to lose confidence in what he was doing, to worry I might cause problems for him is also a learned thing.

If I had threatened to hit him or responded in an overtly confrontational manner, I have no doubt he would have been much better equipped to deal with me.
 
In a recent post I called out a bunch of you for being male, and biased. I am perfectly willing to have my opinion changed and it lead me to think a bit more about this and ask

Do you think white male privilege is a thing, and does it happen in Ireland and do you experience it, either as the white male or the non white or non male person. Is it happening every day in the workplace in Ireland?
Of course white male privilege is a thing but there are many form of privilege and that's just one of them.
The concept is based on the fact that if you are a white male you are born white and male and so acquire that privilege without any input on your own part (kind of what privilege is). While that's true being born really smart is also a privilege, I'd suggest a far bigger one. Should people apologise for being smart?
What about being really good looking or tall or rich? What if you are born a really smart, tall very good looking dark skinned woman. Is a short, stupid ugly white man born into abject poverty more privilege than you?

So, there are many forms of privilege and picking out one of them seems quite arbitrary and pretending that it is somehow the only form of privilege that matters is absurd and feeds into identity politics, and identity politics ends in racism and social division and it undermines democracy and society, and I don't like it.
 
What about being really good looking or tall or rich? What if you are born a really smart, tall very good looking dark skinned woman.
Clearly you should spend your life apologising to all those you meet, unless they are smarter, taller and better looking, in which case they should apololgise to you.
 
Clearly you should spend your life apologising to all those you meet, unless they are smarter, taller and better looking, in which case they should apololgise to you.
That means I should get lots of apologies from people of average intellect and looks while I apologise to those of average height and those of a darker skin colour. It sounds complicated. I'd rather just avoid identity politics.
 
Is it just me, or are others put off by the spelling error in the thread title?
 
Is it just me, or are others put off by the spelling error in the thread title?
You have the privilege of being able to spell (or use spell-check in my case as I'm dyslexic). Park your privilege you monster!
 
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