Those Confimation hearings are hell. What post do you think Trump will appoint her to?
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This doesn’t work as well with your 65 year old co-workers like you think it would 
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i agree with you completely.
the twist i would add is that when someone can act out their prejudice without being challenged – when they feel they can be safely blatant-- they are acting with power that is systemic racism.
they’re in a sense attempting to prove and maintain their privilege.
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On a tangent: all of this is related to why I get occasionally annoyed at the claim that GOP voters are “voting against their interests”.
White Americans gain tangible benefits from White supremacy. Preferential treatment by police and courts; more rewarding employment; better supplied schools; bigger houses; etc. They are wealthier, healthier and more secure because they are an advantaged class. Privilege has real, material effects.
You could certainly argue that these benefits are (a) unjustly earned and (b) destructive in the long term, but to deny that GOP voters are acting to pursue their own perceived interests is a mistake.
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Had not thought about it that way, but it makes sense. A completely nauseating sort of sense.
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It also carries the awkward implication that ending White supremacy will, to some extent, reduce the wealth and security of White people. And a lot of liberal White people suddenly become less enthusiastic about fighting racism when they realise this.
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Maybe true, but I think it would be more of a perceived loss than actual. “When all you have known is privilege, equality feel a lot like oppression.”
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It all depends on how it goes.
An example:
Situation: White person has an argument with Black neighbour, cops involved.
Current reality: White person assumed in the right, Black person in mortal danger.
Hypothetical post-racial case with no other changes: Cop assumed in the right, both people in mortal danger.
Improved post-racial hypothetical: Nordic style cops arrive, both people at risk of a thumping.
Further improved post-racial hypothetical: What’s a cop?
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I would counter that is exactly the privilege /oppression dichotomy. In your post racial scenarios, the parties are treated equally. The issue then shifts from a racial problem to a policing problem, somewhat easier to deal with. In my book, that is better. I admit, I might favor the Nordic option, but that’s just me.
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The point is: in all scenarios except for the first and last, the White person is in greater danger than they are at present. Which is a real, tangible loss of benefit. Privilege has its privileges; it’s good to be the King.
It was an unearned and unjust benefit, but it was still real.
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Yeah… I suggest a rewrite. It’s a little on the nose. No one would say that!
There are positive and negative privileges, literally private laws. Positive privileges are advantages everyone should have (at which point they cease to be privileges) but less than everyone does have. Negative privileges are advantages that no one should have. Negative privileges make it easier for those afforded them to live in an iniquitous society. But that society is a worse place for any just individual to inhabit than a just egalitarian society. Iniquity is only better for the iniquitous who would be more fairly (and harshly) judged by a just society.
“Man does not live by bread alone…”
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And eventually Panem et Circenses run out.
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…but damn, it woulda felt just fine.
*edited on the realization a Canadianism might have sounded offensive
You don’t think putting people like that all together on an island would be life-threatening? Those types of people live to hate. If they don’t have their hate of choice handy, they’ll find a new one around them. It’d be Lord of the Flies territory within two days, and Battle Royale by the end of the week.
Yep. I live in Houston, about 10 miles from where this happened. And … I’ve deleted about 3 drafts that consisted mostly of swearing. After 3 am, just read the story after getting off work at 2am, and just too tired to be of any use right now.
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Things are going to get worse before they don’t get better.
For about the next 200 years, tops. After that there won’t probably be anything resembling human society left. Things won’t be better then, either, but they’ll probably not be getting any worse.
I’ve thought about doing this before, but the elderly in my district take their jobs REALLY seriously, and they do an awesome job of it. I live in one of those suburbs of Pittsburgh that you wouldn’t think was fairly progressive, given the socio-economic makeup, but somehow it is.
I love voting. Going to my polling place is like a family reunion with awesome old people who aren’t all crazy racists and are genuinely interested in what’s happening in the 'hood.
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The racial interests and benefits are not the ONLY interests and benefits. And anyone white GOP voter looking at those as the most important ones are narrow minded and short sighted (no surprise).
My brother probably spent 16 hours at his polling place yesterday, and maybe a dozen training sessions before that. I’d assume some of the lower positions don’t put in that much time, but your still going to need to find people that don’t have a day job or can take time off to do both the training and election day work.
The result is you get a lot of older retired or semi-retired poll workers, occasionally with equally old ideas.
