There's an idea taught by marxist academics that being white means living life on "easy mode"[1]. A lot of people on hacker news believe it because there is a high level of average education on HN. This belief is often used to denigrate the achievement of white people. In Wisconsin, the K-12 school system asks white students to wear a brand to remind them of how privileged they are for being white[2].
There are a lot of poor, underprivileged white people in the country, but racism is not logical.
Fair enough, but that advantage is well deserved if they worked to build it.
Honestly, if you want to be on top in 10 years, spend your weekends toying with bitcoins, drones and/or 3D printers.
These areas will give birth to the new Facebook, and it's mostly white males who are playing with them right now. Get into it now, don't come whining in 10 years when a Hollywood movie is made about it and it suddenly becomes cool.
"well deserved if they worked to build it"- does that still apply if it involves centuries, decades of colonization, oppression, slavery?
" if you want to be on top in 10 years, spend your weekends toying with bitcoins, drones and/or 3D printers."
how many black kids- or poor kids in India, for instance (consider Ramanujan) do you think are going to have the OPPORTUNITY to spend their weekends toying with bitcoins, drones and/or 3D printers?
There's a REASON it's mostly white males who are playing with those areas, and it's not "White Men Work Harder".
African mothers work harder than anybody else, walking tens of miles everyday to bring home water to their kids. Where's their well-deserved advantage?
You realize that when someone says 'white male' they are saying it in the context of other types of people in the same society? Ie we're still talking about the First World - just juxtaposing them to black males, asian females, white females, etc.
The existence of 5-odd billion non-white people around the world isn't really discussed :)
> Fair enough, but that advantage is well deserved if they worked to build it.
But the point is we didn't work to build it. Merely being born were I was gave me extremely high odds of being amongst the richest people in the world.
At most you could claim my ancestors "worked to build it", but that's still a massive stretch - the main reason for the wealth I grew up around was oil and European imperialism.
How does recognizing you are lucky imply "needing" them? Telling well of American children to keep in mind their privilege and that most people in the world don't have what they have hardly seems like Marxism to me.
No. Wrong. Privilege implies no such thing. Privilege is not a moral judgment: it is a description of a condition. You are privileged when you have advantages due to your religion, birth class, sexual orientation, or other socially relevant criteria.
You are a dick when you refuse to recognize when you are privileged and act to reinforce your privileged position.
Pride (or shame) in other people's actions seems irrational to me (unless you had some involvement).
Why should I feel proud that I am from the same country as Isaac Newton? Or shame about the bombing of Dresden? I had nothing to do with either of those things.
There's an idea taught by marxist academics that being white means living life on "easy mode"[1]. A lot of people on hacker news believe it because there is a high level of average education on HN.
Marxist Academics believe x.
Hacker news readers are intelligent.
Being intelligent means believing in x.
Whatever the correct term is for people who use privilege outside academic discourse is, Marxist is not it. I would suggest Social Justice Warriors™, they're the kind of people who don't believe in racism against white people or sexism against men, as possibilities.
There are a lot of poor, underprivileged white people in the country, but racism is not logical.
[1] Stuff like this is taught in class: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-th...
[2]http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-schools...