I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
There is equity, and there is equality, and those are different things. I do think that forceful push to maintain percentages in various aspects of life to correspond to percentages of population often is actually unjust. For example, to insist that it should be strictly 50/50 percentage (or whatever it is) between men and women in all professions e.g. police, school teachers, etc. and actually stop hiring a particular gender until this 50/50 distribution is established is not good.
I think a lot of equity arguments bug me because they often fail to address the real issue (at least in the workplace). It's a matter of attitude, rather than parity/proportionality.
However much we hate it, the majority of people in a stem field will still seek a straight white man out when we look for authority/expertise. That isn't because they are the greatest expert, or that they hold the highest accessible authority, but because it is an ingrained belief. That's just wrong, on so very many levels, that I cannot even begin to express how stupid it is.
Some people have spotted this issue, but their solution is abhorrent - denigrate this group. Raise a generation that looks on this group with contempt, to at least remove the component of authority. It will solve the problem, but it will create a lot more down the line as it becomes the accepted solution. Shall we have a generational genetic lottery forever?
Oddly enough, I think the "blurring of gender lines" brought about by the trans movement might offer a more meaningful solution to some part of this problem, as it erases the categories themselves, rather than attempting to shift their position.
Related JAQing off opinion piece in The Guardian posted today: "Where are all the films about ‘whiteness’?" .
For those unfamiliar with the acronym, JAQ = "Just asking questions," a bad faith tactic pushing an absurd narrative (e.g. "movies for white people are disappearing") by pretending to ask innocent questions.
Direct quote, emphasis mine:
That’s why the final step towards true racial equality on screen is for whiteness to be cinematically named, described and dethroned from its “just human” position of cultural power. It’s time for white people to develop a cinema culture all of their own.
It's riddled with white power talking points like this. This shit is really fucked up. It is irresponsible for a well-known major news source to publish shit like this, even with the "opinion" label attached. It's basically right wing extremist (aka Nazi) recruitment propaganda.
I knew Lemmy was a good place, and then the sealab memes came.
Now it's better.
♪If you're looking for me, You better check under the sea, 'cause that is where you'll find me, Underneath the sea, lab, Underneath the water, Sealab, at the bottom of the sea.♪
Equal rights are a threat to hegemony. Losing hegemony is scary for the privileged, as it is status quo.
"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it." - Malcolm X
The downvotes. Oh no.
Yes, and I is a shock to hear that the struggles you have been through were easier than another's. We often have no idea what is going on in someone else's life. Apparently, support groups are good for overcoming this as one hears about the supports others have, or do not have.
In general white cishet westerners don't know any social dynamic beyond the "in" group oppressing the "out" group (colonialism, settler-colonialism, slavery, capitalism, imperialism), so without targeted education, their imagination of different social structures can only be a projection of this assumed default state.
This is funny because the cishet white guy the meme refers to thinks it's his right to stand-your-ground a guy walking around the neighborhood.
cishet white men: exist
some marginalized groups: "THEY ARE TRYING TO OPPRESS US, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HATES US AND IS PART OF THE SATAN WORSHIPPING WHITE CISHET PATRIARCHY AGENDA, THEY TOO COWARDLY TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES AND LET SOME OLD WHITE GUYS TELL THEM WHAT TO DO"
cishet white men: "fuck taxes, man. Btw when you figure we gonna get a sensible politician? Same shit we saw our parents wondered every four years when we were kids, amirite?"
s are still flagging this post 