Tag Archive for "privilege"

Posts Tagged privilege

The Big Short & why we can’t have nice things

The Big Short is about the financial crash in 2007/2008 and the men that made tons of cash from the collapse of the economy. Yeah, people actually made money from the economy collapsing. Think about that. Millions of people lost their jobs, homes, and dignity, but some folks lined their pockets and made out like bandits.

By Silpa Kovvali • 8 years ago

Jonathan Franzen and the privilege of technophobia

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

“Jonathan Franzen is Having More Fun Than His Critics,” reads the headline of Laura Miller’s rave review of the author’s latest tome, Purity.

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

“Jonathan Franzen is Having More Fun Than His Critics,” reads the headline of Laura Miller’s rave review of the author’s ...

By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 9 years ago

An open letter to privileged people who play devil’s advocate

You know who you are. You are that white guy in an Ethnic Studies class who’s exploring the idea that poor people might have babies to stay on welfare. Or some person arguing over drinks that maybe a lot of women do fake rape for attention. Or, recently, someone insisting that I consider the idea that Elliot Rodger could have been a madman and an anomaly, not at all a product of a white supremacist and misogynistic society.

Most of the time, it’s clear that you actually believe the arguments you claim to have just for the heck of it. However, you know that these beliefs are unpopular, largely because they make you sound selfish and privileged, so you blame them on the ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

“No one cares if you never apologize for your white male privilege.”

Here’s a story:

A 20-year-old college freshman wrote an essay for one of his college publications and was subsequently interviewed on Fox News, written about in the New York Times, and had the essay republished by TIME. Yet, he doesn’t understand why anyone thinks he benefits from white male privilege.

Honestly, that right there is all I have to say about Princeton student Tal Fortgang’s exercise in point-missing “Why I’ll Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege.”

Here’s a story:

A 20-year-old college freshman wrote an essay for one of his college publications and was subsequently interviewed on Fox News, written about in the New York Times, and had the essay ...

By Lori Adelman • 10 years ago

Charts of the Day: This is what cisprivilege looks like

The Transadvocate has put together a few illuminating if disheartening charts showing that trans folks are too frequently the subject of employer discrimination and unemployment, despite having more education than their cis counterparts.

Chart one, from a survey performed by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, shows that transgender adults have consistently higher levels of education than the general population.

Yet, as you can see in the next two charts, this doesn’t translate into better employment opportunity or higher earnings, as transgender people face disproportionately high levels of workplace discrimination. More charts after the jump.

Chart one, from a survey ...

By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Why can’t I be both?: Questions on binaries, privilege and activism

“Where are you from?”

I turn to the man at the bus station. Wearing mismatched army pants and an African Kufi hat, he looks like some of the other lost souls that usually try to talk to me.

I sigh, and decide to be difficult.

“I’m from San Francisco,” I tell him, smiling innocently.

“Oh,” he says, but doesn’t give up. “But what is your heritage?”

“Oh you mean, what is my ethnicity? My mother is Brazilian, my dad is white American.”

“Brasileria, huh? Bailas samba?”

The man then starts on the usual spiel about how he thinks Brazilian women are so sexy and I have beautiful eyes. I begin to tune him out. I decide it’s not worth giving him a speech about the exotification of ...

“Where are you from?”

I turn to the man at the bus station. Wearing mismatched army pants and an African Kufi hat, he looks like some of the other lost souls that usually try to talk to me.

I ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

Guest Post: Femme Privilege Does Not Exist

Editor’s note: OK, I’ll admit it. When I was in college there was a secret underground society of lefty organizers bent on taking over the world. It was basically exactly like the Skull and Bones, except we were a bunch of pinko queers who wanted to smash patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, and the state. Today you can find us running the social justice internets and leading worldwide anticolonial and anticapitalist movements. Cyree Jarelle Johnson is one of us. This is a cross-post from Femme Dreamboat. Cyree’s bio is at the end of the post.

I’m (not) sorry to inform you that femme privilege does not exist. Not in the queer community. Not in the world at large. Does. Not. Exist. ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

There is no right way to hate your body

This weekend, I had the great honour of speaking on a panel with the incredible Hanne Blank and the estimable Therese Shechter.

We were there – at Momentum – to talk about sex and body image online, and our panel was what Hanne called a confetti conversation: we threw a bunch of bright and diverse but related ideas up in the air and watched them float around the room.

Therese spoke about how online spaces are often the only place where you can find fat bodies being publicly sexual in a way that is depicted as good and desirable and sexy. I spoke about the privilege that I enjoy when I write about body image, and how I ...

This weekend, I had the great honour of speaking on a panel with the incredible Hanne Blank and the estimable Therese Shechter.

We were there – at Momentum – to talk about sex and body ...