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Old 05-03-2012, 06:27 PM   #164
AshleyO
 
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,700
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya View Post
Feeling guilty doesn't really help, and you can't exactly help it.

Think of it this way. There was this public meeting thing recently that an oil company held to try to make us feel better about running a pipe line into the harbour. There's this woman I know who breathes environmentalism and asked hard questions that showed that she did a lot of research and she knows what the fuck she's talking about. The speakers treated her like a little girl and didn't directly answer her at all, but gave more attention and care to the Occupy guys who asked more general questions. That's privilege in action, people listen to you and take you more seriously if you're white and male on top of that.
You see, that's outrageous. I don't dig it. She was asking the hard hitting questions. Today in creative writing class, something like that happened when we were critiquing a paper of a fellow student. I always talk cause I love the class and started getting quieter because I ALWAYS talk. But today, I opted to stay silent for a second while other people were talking. There was this black girl who had her hand raised for at least 5 minutes or more before the teacher got to her. I thought it was strange that in a room full of different races, I started to notice that a lot of the white people were being picked before people of color could speak. And it broke down from white male, to white female, to black female. The sad thing is, I don't think it was even intentional. It's not like it was malicious, it was more or less an institutionalized accident.

Quote:
There's a guy I volunteer with at the crisis centre who's really awesome about that kind of thing though. He know he has privilege and like you doesn't want it, but his attitude about it is that he'll use that privilege to bring attention to that privilege and he's one of those guys that I know would have my back if something like above happened. He's brilliant at talking to other men and calling them out so we don't have to burn ourselves out trying to, and listens with a open mind and doesn't get defensive, but uses what he learns to better himself as an ally. Cool cat, that guy.
Mmm.
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