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Showing posts from July, 2017

The Problem of White Privilege

White privilege is a term that describes societal advantages that benefit white people not commonly experienced by non-whites under the same circumstances. For example, whites are more likely to be hired, less likely to be stopped by police, and more likely to get a loan than blacks. White privilege is often used to silence dissent by claiming a white person's opinion is less valid because they benefit from white privilege. The problem with white privilege theory is the problem with racism in general — it applies averages to individuals, and that's not how averages work. For instance, it would be racist to assume a black person is underprivileged because statistically he/she is more likely to be poor. The same logic follows when assuming one is privileged because of their race. According to intersectionality theory, people have multiple social identities that intersect or overlap. The problem of white privilege theory is that it uses an 'all things being equal' appr

In Defense of "All Lives Matter"

When one says "All Lives Matter", the immediate response by Black Lives Matter supporters is the above or to say 'there is an implicit "too" at the end of Black Lives Matter.' Or, they'll offer an analogy like: John: Hey, my house is on fire...let's put it out! Mary: No, let's spray water on all the houses, because all houses matter! This would be a valid response, if one were only responding to the organization's name. However, in fact, a lot of people who say "All Lives Matter" are responding to Black Lives Matter the movement .  When BLM excludes non-blacks from their meetings, demands whites to move to the back, encourages attacks on police officers, and violently attacks whites or anyone who disagrees with them — it doesn't seem egalitarianism is at the heart of your movement.  When the head of BLM Toronto talks about killing men and white people, some people are going to have major reservations abou