The slave is beaten for making his master uncomfortable.

[randys1]

The slave asked for his freedom, the master was reminded by this request that the master was a terrible person who owns people, and this made him terribly uncomfortable and angry that he was uncomfortable.

He wasnt used to being uncomfortable, especially at the hands of his slave.

or

OK, I am part of the ruling class and my white privilege is real and yes I and the rest of the white people have beaten POC, killed them, enslaved them, fucked them over with redlining and Jim Crow which goes on to THIS DAY.

But you are making me uncomfortable by talking about it so I am going to

[NaturalHigh]

1. You are way out of line.

The VAST majority of us have never done any of those things. I refuse to feel guilty for sins which I have not committed, and you are not going to change that. You, of course, are free to feel however you want.

[Man from Pickens]

2. Amen

At some point the past has to be the past, because if it isn't, there's no end to the grievances that can be dredged up from the history books. History's wrongs cannot be unwritten, all that can be done is to learn from them and not repeat them moving forward. How can it be justice to hold one person responsible for another person's actions?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. I'm a firm believer in the "never again" line of policy preferences.

Slavery and social isolation can come to any group. The question is: How do we guard against it?

The OP has nothing to offer.

[quickesst]

3. Couldn't...

....have said it better. Thanks.

[rock]

4. I did not feel that Randys1 was putting us before a mirror

I thought he was talking about the actual slave owners. Of course, I could be wrong.

[randys1]

6. The white person is made uncomfortable very easily when it comes to their white privilege

[rock]

8. Well, you're certainly right that many people are thin-skinned*

and will take umbrage at what you say. I am not one of them.

* Thin-skinned: and as I like to add "deservedly so".

[randys1]

9. The thin skin IS a symptom of white privilege, and yet they cant see this.

[rock]

10. Yep.

I know. (That's why they deserve it.)

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. All proper-thinking people know only the guilty protest their innocence. Da, commissar?

[NaturalHigh]

13. Yeah, or some people are just willing to call you on it...

when you try to blame an entire group of 21st century Americans for things they've never done.

[Igel]

11. Yup. You're wrong.

Some insist on creating their own reality. I've seen kids take neutral situations or even positive situations and make it hell for themselves because it fits the narrative they've been raised on. It's their identity. It's their comfort zone, they're the heroes in their own interior melodrama. Change is scary.

They are boorish and intentionally offensive, they bait you and try to create divisions. Makes for very clear divisions, a nice "I'm right and you're wrong" sort of dynamic, one that's probably comfortable for various reasons. At some point it starts to seem familiar. It creates the reality they apparently want to be in--one in which they're disliked and victimized and get to claim it's all and only because of racism. When really, it's because they're boorish and offensive. Still, they get a fan base going. If you challenge them, they win; if you don't, they win. At least in the terms that matter to them--their interior melodrama.

I figure it's the parallel to what I've seen other kids do: They have reasons and excuses for not doing things, and then when they fail it's not because they couldn't rise to the challenge, it's because of all these other things around the edges. When really, it's avoidance behavior because they suspect they'd fail anyway.


Luke 9:60 is fitting. Move on or retrench. Not worth engaging them.

[NaturalHigh]

12. or...

OK, I am part of the ruling class and my white privilege is real and yes I and the rest of the white people have beaten POC, killed them, enslaved them, fucked them over with redlining and Jim Crow which goes on to THIS DAY.

That's the part to which I was responding, and denying that I have ever done any of those things is not white privilege.

[Throd]

5. I, nor anybody I know, have done any of those things you listed.

I doubt you have either, but if want to don that millstone, go for it.

[BKH70041]

7. Buy them an expensive watch.

Then the one who sold them the expensive watch can claim solidarity with the underclass.

At least that's one way to do it. And no one's the wiser. Especially the one who sells expensive watches because they're a two-faced idiot.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

17. "Buy them an expensive watch."

[Nuclear Unicorn]

14. "I ... have beaten POC, killed them, enslaved them, fucked them over"

You are a very confused and angry soul and you aren't helping anyone.

[raouldukelives]

18. Not sure of the backstory on all this but I feel ya.

It's like tracing back the origins of Dylan Roof and the Council of Concerned Conservatives and Mike Huckabee and all the crazies elected, given power and wealth thanks to corporations.

It is incredibly sick and disturbing to watch the chaos unfold around us, all the while it is made even more unbearable, day after day, quarter after quarter, by the hard work of those who care not what the fruits of those labors are.

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. White privilege exists. I am, in that sense, the choir.

But I find myself clicking past op's like this because they're redundant, hyperbolic and counterproductive. I have begun to seriously question whether "privilege" is a useful frame in which to consider these concepts of institutional disadvantage.

Time and again, we're reminded that this isn't supposed to be about collective guilt and punishment... except when it is.