Privilege

[Bob]

I’ve noticed over the last 12-18 months or so there be a lot of reference in various spheres to privilege.

 

Whether it’s white, male, western, or whatever.

 

I don’t know for sure, but I think the majority of this forum falls into all 3 of those categories, so how do you feel about your privilege?

 

Until you stop to think about it, I don’t think day to Day activity makes you recognise the impact of this on your life, but it’s definitely there, all over the shop.

 

Personally, I’ve got to a position in my life where I own (we’ll have a mortgage on) a 4 bed detached house, am a director of a quite large SME, which brings with it a nice German car, and I don’t have to go without too many things, albeit I am very far from being wealthy, and am like most only a few payslips away from massive life change, but I’d survive it.

 

I feel most of that has come through my own hard work and a bit of right time Right place fortune, but has it? How much is owing to my position as a white man in the west, whose parents gave me the foundation to get here without having to worry too much about my decisions? Probably most of it.

 

I was thinking this weekend as I enjoyed a day out with my girl and my parents at Harewood House in Leeds.

 

Chock full of middle class whites in out gilets, spending £6 on a sandwich and taking photos of our kids with hundreds of pounds worth of cameras, etc, in the lands of a seated family whose wealth came almost entirely from the trading of slaves.

 

There but for the grace of god, and all that.

[Lee909]

Well i don't own my own house. Neither does my mum or my Grandad parents. Who moved here because my Grandad being that short sighted he is classed as blind couldn't get work in Belfast outside of the blund workshops. Grew up on a shitty council estate. My wages are fine but thats cause i dont have to support a family amd work a mimimum 56 hours a week. Our wages are the same regardless of race or gender.

 

So do i feel i have benefitted from loads of these privlegives by being a white male.

 

No not really

 

On the few times i went into London in my early 20s when the police decided to do stop amd searches i was generally picked out being a young guy with a shaved head.

Would things like that have been worse if i was black,no doubt it would. And no doubt young black teens in London are in a pretty shitty situation in many cases.

 

But do i feel i have been handed some massive leg up on others. Not really no.

[Captain Turdseye]

I doubt that there’s even one man in Mogadishu with a mother-in-law as warped as mine. But then I have got fibre broadband.

 

It’s a tough one.

[Paulie Dangerously]

My parents are both very working class and from poor families.  Both grafted harder than I could ever imagine (My ma from the age of 15 in the Giro becoming a high ranking manager and my dad in various factory jobs including a good 30 years at the Ford/Jaguar plant with long stints of night work)  keeping a roof over my head, at least one Holiday a year and paid for me and my brother to go through University (pre horrendous fees). 

 

Upon taking retirement were able to help me get onto the property ladder, not with a deposit as I didn't need one for the house I bought but with the fees. flooring, bathroom doing etc.  

 

Clearly because I was born their child I have had this privilege but it comes from their graft, not the colour of their skin.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I’ve noticed over the last 12-18 months or so there be a lot of reference in various spheres to privilege.

 

Whether it’s white, male, western, or whatever.

 

I don’t know for sure, but I think the majority of this forum falls into all 3 of those categories, so how do you feel about your privilege?

 

Until you stop to think about it, I don’t think day to Day activity makes you recognise the impact of this on your life, but it’s definitely there, all over the shop.

 

Personally, I’ve got to a position in my life where I own (we’ll have a mortgage on) a 4 bed detached house, am a director of a quite large SME, which brings with it a nice German car, and I don’t have to go without too many things, albeit I am very far from being wealthy, and am like most only a few payslips away from massive life change, but I’d survive it.

 

I feel most of that has come through my own hard work and a bit of right time Right place fortune, but has it? How much is owing to my position as a white man in the west, whose parents gave me the foundation to get here without having to worry too much about my decisions? Probably most of it.

 

I was thinking this weekend as I enjoyed a day out with my girl and my parents at Harewood House in Leeds.

 

Chock full of middle class whites in out gilets, spending £6 on a sandwich and taking photos of our kids with hundreds of pounds worth of cameras, etc, in the lands of a seated family whose wealth came almost entirely from the trading of slaves.

 

There but for the grace of god, and all that.

 

And yet your name ain't gold.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Anything I have I've earned, same for my parents, no one gave me fuck all. Hope that helps.

[stringvest]

No-one using this site has to travel very far to see someone worse off than themselves.  We're all pretty privileged in relative terms, at least in terms of life's little luxuries.  Of course, the most important aspect of anyone's existence is health, and it's fair to say that there are some lads on this site who have far more to cope with than lucky bleeders such as me in that regard.    

[Numero Veinticinco]

I'm going to bring this up at the next white man meeting. In between 'how to oppress women' and 'keeping the blacks down'.

[Anny Road]

Luxuries are somewhat overrated. What we need and what we want are two different things. I think true happiness is about reducing your wants not striving to get them. Often failing.

[stringvest]

Luxuries are somewhat overrated. What we need and what we want are two different things. I think true happiness is about reducing your wants not striving to get them. Often failing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone X

 

 

Couldn't agree more.

[Anny Road]

I’m on an iPad which a previous employer forgot I had on a WiFi network I hacked into.

I buck the system.

[Section_31]

It's a tough one. I feel being white and male has no doubt made a difference in how I'm treated in a lot of ways in  that I don't visibly stand out and so therefore don't elicit preconceptions in terms of how I'd be treated, say, by the police, or other blokes. I'm grateful for that.

 

But as scousers and notherners we're probably privileged to a much lesser degree than many others who fit into those above categories. I was told when I was a teenager for example by a Navy careers officer that I 'would struggle to become an officer in the Navy' (which was one of the first jobs I ever wanted to do) due to my scouse accent, and that there was a 'lot of snobbery in the Navy'.

 

Because of our class system I've always felt there were a lot of professions off limits to me, specifically the officer class of the military, law (our resident lawyers may disagree), probably certain universities and certain other places I wouldn't feel comfortable socially.

 

In terms of what I've done with myself, I never really had much help or support at all. My family never had a pot to piss in. I was the first to go to college, university, get a decent job, go abroad, get on a plane, own my house.

 

Not only did I get no support, often my circumstances worked against me. I used to have to sign on at the dole while I was at college and give the money to my mum because she was skint, then when I went to uni gave half my loan to her. Bought my cars on credit cards, repaired them with credit cards because nobody would help me fix them (stepdad was a twat).

 

My home environment was a madhouse too.

 

I went to a 'private' school but it wasn't a private school in the traditional sense. It was run by a church and the fees were subsidised for me at about 30 quid a month I think, me mum used to clean there to pay for them. But going to this school didn't give me an advantage, it just put me on a level playing field, because the only alternative was going to Speke Comp and getting my head kicked in. I got 5 GCSEs (from a choice of 7 I was allowed to take) we had no computers, no canteen, no sixth form.

 

Going to uni, getting a job etc was done for one reason and one reason only -  to get me out of that house and away from that life. The more people tried to hold me back or pull the rug from under me, the more I was determined to find a way out and around the roadblocks. Everything I've done, or do for myself is an act of pure defiance.

[Scooby Dudek]

 

 

 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

I made this business what it is, from scratch, hard work, toil, blood , tears and sweat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And $6m from my father.

[moof]

Can’t see this thread ending well.

 

Systemic privilege exists, to varying extents throughout society, but it exists. I think it’s only right to acknowledge that. Doesn’t mean everyone within a certain group has an automatic leg up, or vice versa. In my view, the best way to deal with it is to be grateful for what you have and to try and build up and empower those who are less privileged.

 

It’s often undetectable to the person it effects, but as an educated white male I think it’s fair to say I have been a frequent beneficiary.

[stringvest]

insidious.

[Bobby Hundreds]

My sister is currently working with a 6 year old with a muscle wasting disease he was fine at first but it's slowly taking over, he's frustrated he can't catch the other kids when playing and struggles with things he never used too. Hes going to get worse and by the time he is about 13 he probably won't be able too move very much of his body at all. He wants to be a racing driver.

 

My brother died age 21 of cyctic fibrosis when my sister was going to have a baby he said if its got cyctic fibrosis get rid of it, because he knew what living with it was like, pain, constant tiredness, hospitals and tablets but most of all knowing you have no future while everyone around you is planning for there's. My health is a privilege and my problems are minor and can be changed with some effort. I apologise if that's all grim but I force myself to take a step back as often as I can to put some perspective to where I am in life. I'm incredibly lucky and though I've got my own house, an okay car and money in my pocket thats not the stuff I base my life on. You'll miss your health, your family and your friends more than all the shiny shit in the world.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Can’t see this thread ending well.

Systemic privilege exists, to varying extents throughout society, but it exists. I think it’s only right to acknowledge that. Doesn’t mean everyone within a certain group has an automatic leg up, or vice versa. In my view, the best way to deal with it is to be grateful for what you have and to try and build up and empower those who are less privileged.

It’s often undetectable to the person it effects, but as an educated white male I think it’s fair to say I have been a frequent beneficiary.

The thread will be overtaken as usual. The anointed versus the demons from the abyss.

[stringvest]

The thread will be overtaken as usual. The anointed versus the demons from the abyss.

 

 

I'm still trying to work out which one Rico is.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

I'm still trying to work out which one Rico is.

He's an anointed demon mate.

[Paulie Dangerously]

[Bob]

And yet your name ain't gold.

Totally valid jab, that. No excuses.

[A Red]

Everything is down to luck, thats all, luck.

 

Lucky in the help your given, the health you have, where you're born or the genes you inherit. A bit of hard work helps but without luck you're fucked

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

It also obviously depends on the person.

 

My lad was spoilt but he is a lovely, loving , easy going kid. No mug but quiet. Got a Degree in Computer something and now runs a bar in town.

Generous and hardworking, worked since he was 15 and all through University.

 

My daughter is 19, brought up exactly like the lad. Never had a job, strong emotionally but very in tune, feminist, etc etc.

Going to University in September in Liverpool and living out? Which I'm funding, I know she won't work until after University because she knows she doesn't have to. She is in for a shock even living in halls, I should make her work. But she feels entitled. Hmmmmm.

[Rico1304]

He's an anointed demon mate.

No I’m not, I’m just a very naughty boy.