SakashiroAleksander MajjamAs a half-breed with a white mother and black father, it's a bit of a slap in the face to be called a racist because you believe that those that have suffered through racial oppression should be afforded opportunities for racial parity against those that certainly don't need it (and even presume that ones that don't need it are the victims). There are people here using examples that ignore that racism is still a problem, and very much so in the US. They are ignoring that there are racists at the top of the totem pole destroying opportunities to others seeking racial parity/equality.
Racial equality is an attainable goal. Racial parity is a pipe dream. You'll never have equal representation of white or Asian people in the NBA, for example. Or in the music business. The reality is that different people are good at different things (and I'm not talking about races here but about individuals), and the best we can do is create conditions where every one of them can realize their full potential. The worst we could do is keep telling some people that they're born victims and that their efforts are in vain because society is rigged against them. Because it isn't. In a capitalist society you can become wealthy no matter what color your skin is. Plenty of examples exist. That's what equal opportunity is all about.
Preferential treatment in the name of social justice will not end racism but create more of it. There is income inequality within all racial minorities in the U.S. Go tell some white trailer trash dude in the rural south about his white privilege. Yeah, that'll cure his racism and make him feel guilty, I'm sure.
Ah yes, the classic white privilege counterdefense, born from a complete misunderstanding of what white privilege is. Hint: white privilege does not imply every white person in the universe was born with a silver spoon in their mouth. You may as well proclaim that climate change isn’t a thing because you can point out a data point where it was unusually cold in some spot or three on the planet.
The system isn’t rigged eh? Interesting statement, I am curious. How is it that, despite the wide range of variety exhibited in American demographics, that there has been only one non-white President of the United States across close to two and a halfish centuries? Feel free to explain how merit-based the outcomes are, I’m sure it’ll be convincing.
And since I’m playing ball again, I shall readdress the other post.
SakashiroMeicynQuillmonkey
No, don't even start on that. I am not going to follow you down your embafflement with racial equity. This is not a conversation I am comfortable having on a gaming board. It is actually quite shocking.
Honestly it’s disappointing to read. The imagery of equity is often depicted of two individuals standing in front of a fence, with equity portrayed as the short individual being given a box to stand on so that they can see on the other side of the fence just as easily as the taller unassisted individual can.
Based on what I am reading, it seems some would be more concerned that the taller individual did not also receive a box, and thus some form of injustice were committed against the taller individual even when they don’t need it. Either both get a box, or neither in the spirit of equality. If the shorter person can’t see over the fence without the box, well, that’s just life I guess and they should just do without, even though there is a box there that one of them could be given. No no, can’t have preferential treatment here!
It’s such a cynical style of thinking that automatically assigns victimhood to the party that didn’t also get something, framed in a vacuum without taking any circumstances into consideration. I can’t relate to it.
You conveniently removed the aspect of race from the picture. Body height is an individual trait, not a racial one. Racism is the assumption that all people of skin color X are also short and in need of extra boxes, and that all people of skin color Y should be denied a box regardless of height.
If you make race a criterion for the distribution of boxes, then you're quite literally racist. There's no way to sugarcoat it.
You pretty much confirmed my suspicions. You are entirely focused on the boxes and the distribution of them, rather than the empowerment of all present.
I left out race because I am not the author of the original example, and also because it doesn’t matter. There was no attempt to associate certain traits to certain races because it wasn’t the point. But let’s explore this for a moment, since race seems very important to you.
What if I told you the shorter person in the example was black and the taller kid was white? Perhaps in an effort to give the shorter person the same ability to see over the fence, I stated “hey, please give the black kid a box to stand on.” A cynical person who views life in purely transactional terms might hone in on the fact that I used race as the descriptor, and that I am favoring one race over another. The box it seems, is the reward, and both should receive one.
I would counter that I just think both should have the chance to see over the fence in this overly simplified example of equity in action. Race isn’t the motivator, it just happens to be the descriptor or mechanism I used to aim for a better outcome. Could I have used “short kid” instead? Probably. But a cynical person would be focused on my word usage, rather than address the real issue. You know, kind of like how some folks view the statement “black lives matter” from a cynical perspective, and retort with “all lives matter”. Yeah, we know.
Life is much more complicated than the fence example, and when you are attempting to provide opportunities in something like say, college admissions, you might weight certain factors in order to account for different backgrounds whether geographical, cultural, or whatever. Getting a mix of folks is the point, because it makes us all stronger for it. Pushing a racial equivalent of the intolerance paradox may make for fun in philosophical circles, but it has no practical application. Suggesting racism when it is clearly not racially motivated is good for online message boards and little else.