You Don’t Have To Apologize For Being White(BARF ALERT!)

Medium.com ^ | 5/4/14 | Dex Digital

[Impala64ssa]

Tal. Hey bro.

I want to talk to you for a minute.

I read your article, ‘Why I’ll Never Apologize For My White Male Privilege’. First off, congrats on landing an article on Time. That’s huge.

And I get it, dude. You’re annoyed with the ‘check your privilege’ line. Hey, I am too. I think it’s overused, and it’s basically turned into a meme at this point.

I read your piece. You’re Jewish. Your family, or at least your family a couple generations ago, had it pretty damn rough. And your dad worked his ass off so that you could have the opportunities that he didn’t. That’s great.

But, I want to talk about this line right here:

It was [my grandparents’] privilege to come to a country that grants equal protection under the law to its citizens, that cares not about religion or race, but the content of your character. This is where you messed up, bro.

This country actually does care about your race. A lot.

You brought up some of the horrors of the Holocaust. That’s a pretty heavy card to play off the bat, but it’s not going to work on me.

I forgot to tell you: I’m black. And I bet you can already guess where I’m going with this. You want to tell me about the systematic extermination of six million? I see that and raise you to ten million. You want to talk about a few years of forced labor? Let’s try for a few hundred. You seem to be able to trace your family’s history back pretty far. That’s awesome. I can’t, because they didn’t really keep records for property like that back then.

[Impala64ssa]

A rather condescending rebuttal to Tal Fortngs article on so-called White privilege". Notice at the end of the article this snot-nosed punk needs to rub it in about his own potential privilege, yet he's still oh so bitter.

[montag813]

You want to tell me about the systematic extermination of six million? I see that and raise you to ten million.

Total fiction. Even a left-wing academic with a motivation to boost the numbers could only come up with less than half of that:

The total number of African deaths directly attributable to the Middle Passage voyage is estimated at up to two million; a broader look at African deaths directly attributable to the institution of slavery from 1500 to 1900 suggests up to four million African deaths [*]

That is "up to" 4 millions over 400 years on 4 continents.

[AlexW]

” he’s still oh so bitter.”
________________________________________
It’s the culture, don’tcha know?
We come into this world with the race and culture of our forebears.
There are many in this world of ALL races and nationalities that are not happy.

[melsec]

While it is condescending it’s not badly written and at least the guy has the balls to admit he is racist - which he is and he plays it well. I am not sure he is trying too hard though he seems to pluck numbers out of the “I’m more underprivileged than you” playbook rather than reveal how he personally has or has not had to struggle because of his supposed lack of privilege. I think he doesn’t want to raise that as it may bring up the quota system that got him into college in the first place.

He tries to be nice but he does have that sickening “I’m better than you and know more than you” superiority about him! The “check your privilege” saying is an device to undermine people not based on merit or even privilege but rather by being a bully. When you don’t want to listen to what someone has to say or their point of view - it’s “Check your Privilege”. What a way to negate a whole individual and their life experience, their history and their thinking.

Mel

[GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco]

I am looking for a hoot to give but seem to be fresh out.

PS I have a tee time. If you are under 60, get to work or get back to work doing something productive. And by productive I don’t mean producing drivel.

[skr]

I guess the black guy hasn’t noticed that Jews aren’t exactly popular with huge amounts of the world’s population. When’s the last time a major religion told it’s members to kill all the black people?

[Flick Lives]

You’re Jewish. Your family, or at least your family a couple generations ago, had it pretty damn rough.

There is a perfect word to describe the author of this article; schmuck.

[snappahead]

awesome you can trace your family history back pretty far?? Brainiac, less than 75 or so years has passed since the holocaust, DIRECTLY IMPACTING the last 2-3 generations of families. Ate you suggesting that SLAVERY has a DIRECT IMPACT on your life? can’t trace your familys lineage back more than 2 generations? Without extensive research and some dumb luck, most people probably couldnt fill in the blanks in their family trees beyond the turn of the century, let alone before the civil war. Privelege is something all of us enjoy by means of the generations before us that dealt with hardships that sorry whiners like this guy could NEVER even begin to fathom. Leading to his ignorance when it comes to HIS OWN PRIVELEGE..

[Fido969]

I forgot to tell you: I’m black.

Oh, cripes. A professional life-long victim.

[txrefugee]

There are planes leaving for Africa every day. No one is a slave in America. Go to a country where you’ll be happier. It’s stupid to carry baggage from long ago that makes you miserable when you could live a better life elsewhere.

[Yorlik803]

Well, If Blacks (or anyone else) thinks they can get a better deal in the land of their ancestors, then leave and go back.
Nobody is forcing anyone to stay here. This isn’t East Germany or Cuba. I bet they can even pool their money and charter a airplane or two.
And good riddance to those that leave.

[elcid1970]

Is it my imagination or do African blacks who come to America to work have a better attitude about being here than those born here?

BTW, American blacks who journey to Africa seeking their “roots” generally get a chilly reception from the locals. Wonder why?

[Vigilanteman]

That is "up to" 4 millions over 400 years on 4 continents.

And it was a relative drop in the bucket compared to the number of Africans killed in tribal warfare by the coming of the "religion of peace" either forcing them to convert, making them slaves and, sometimes, believe it or not, both.

Before the "religion of peace" arrived, Timbuktu was a center of university learning. Now it is synonymous with an out of the way backwater.

[chajin]

A clue is found at the end of the article, when the author suggests reading James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. First, the book is over a half-century old, a product of a very different era. Second, Baldwin had a number of issues of his own, particularly his despising of religion in general and Christianity in particular, and his own homosexuality. Third, The Fire Next Time isn't that well written: it is a somewhat rambling monologue, not tightly organized, and constantly going off on tangents--one of the more interesting of which, to be honest, is Baldwin's attack on the blandness of white bread.

If the author thinks Fire is a good example of American literature, one wonders if he has ever read Up From Slavery or even Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, the latter of which would have buttressed his own argument much better than the Baldwin book.

Fourth, I would remind the author of another passage, from a movie that was somewhat contemporaneous with the Baldwin book:

"Dad, you're my father. I'm your son. I love you. I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man."

When the author stops thinking of himself as a black man, and starts thinking of himself as a man, racism will end. I keep trying to stop thinking of him as a black man, and I would be able to almost instantaneously, if he would simply stop reminding me of it every time it seems to be helpful to his position. And yes, that goes for the President, the Attorney General, and the National Security Advisor, among many others.

[Altura Ct.]

I am a bigger victim than you are!

[Gay State Conservative]

No,of course I don't apologize for being white.I am neither proud *nor* ashamed of being white.And the same should hold true for all other races,ethnicities,etc.If there's one thing that Martin Luther King said during his life that is *absolutely* correct it's that it's not the color of the skin,it's the content of the character.

[Impala64ssa]

The whole concept of "White privilege" is just means laying a guilt trip, and excusing bad behavior. Those who cry "white privilege" are worse than vultures. At least vultures wait until you're dead before they eat your heart out. Assuming that someone born White has "privileges"? Isn't that a form of bigotry? We all know what happens when we ASS-U-ME. And to those who do whine about White privilege, it kinda reminds me of the song Five Dollar Fine by the late Chris LeDoux

[nothingnew]

"Dude, bro, dude, bro, dude, bro...."

More excellence showing how BAD our schools do.

"Idiots on the left of me, jokers on my right, here I am....(you know the rest)".

FMCDH(BITS)

[Night Hides Not]

You want to tell me about the systematic extermination of six million? I see that and raise you to ten million.

Ripped that page right out of the Major Owens classic "Slavery Math".

[don-o]

Can anyone help with this memory? It was a black American reporter on assignment in Africa. He was reporting standing on a river bank, watching the dead black bodies floating by, victims of the whatever civil was was going on. He thanked God that his ancestors had been taken to the New World, though in bondage.