" On AVERAGE it is probably true that the AVERAGE white person is in a position of greater power, than the average black person."
I wonder if this is true in 2022 once you account for the difference in population sizes. But regardless, I don't think this is a useful way to look at disparities. In fact, it's kind of Kendian in the end.
" On AVERAGE it is probably true that the AVERAGE white person is in a position of greater power, than the average black person."
I wonder if this is true in 2022 once you account for the difference in population sizes. But regardless, I don't think this is a useful way to look at disparities. In fact, it's kind of Kendian in the end.
On average, tall people do better in life than short people. Slim people do better than fat people. But as somebody who is tall and slim, I don't consider short, fat people powerless. And I definitely don't consider myself more (or less) "powerful" than all the short, fat white people in the world.
As I've pointed out a few times, the concept of privilege is far more complex than the single factor of race. And telling yourself that you're inferior *or* superior on the basis of a single difference is hopelessly simplistic (and in either case, a signifier of deep insecurity). Especially when you apply it in broad strokes on a group identity level.
If I start working at a place where my boss is white, that's not an example of white people having power over me. If you get a job where your boss is black that's not black people having power over you. In both cases, it's an interpersonal dynamic where hopefully both people can treat each other as human beings. And in think in 2022, this is what happens more often than not.
Steve (and Passion guided by reason) we see the world in precisely the same way. And I agree wholeheartedly that the her framing is misleading, you articulate well WHY it is misleading.
Perhaps Passion is correct that I should not use the term 'gaslight', but the one thought I was trying to add to all of this agreement, was the idea that you could have acknowledged her point that some folks are in more able to cause damage because of their biases, but then go on to notice that white/black is not the only axis upon with such asymetries exist.
That is how I would have responded, simply because I think she (incorrectly) feels that you believe people are in equivelant positions, and she sees this as a false equivalence (as you do as well).
Still I acknowledge my approach would bring this distracting non-argument into the foreground, and my approach is more complex, which might loose the reader. but if the reader feels unheard, they may also be lost.
Anyway... the three of us have no disagreement on the invalidity of her arguments
" On AVERAGE it is probably true that the AVERAGE white person is in a position of greater power, than the average black person."
I wonder if this is true in 2022 once you account for the difference in population sizes. But regardless, I don't think this is a useful way to look at disparities. In fact, it's kind of Kendian in the end.
On average, tall people do better in life than short people. Slim people do better than fat people. But as somebody who is tall and slim, I don't consider short, fat people powerless. And I definitely don't consider myself more (or less) "powerful" than all the short, fat white people in the world.
As I've pointed out a few times, the concept of privilege is far more complex than the single factor of race. And telling yourself that you're inferior *or* superior on the basis of a single difference is hopelessly simplistic (and in either case, a signifier of deep insecurity). Especially when you apply it in broad strokes on a group identity level.
If I start working at a place where my boss is white, that's not an example of white people having power over me. If you get a job where your boss is black that's not black people having power over you. In both cases, it's an interpersonal dynamic where hopefully both people can treat each other as human beings. And in think in 2022, this is what happens more often than not.
Steve (and Passion guided by reason) we see the world in precisely the same way. And I agree wholeheartedly that the her framing is misleading, you articulate well WHY it is misleading.
Perhaps Passion is correct that I should not use the term 'gaslight', but the one thought I was trying to add to all of this agreement, was the idea that you could have acknowledged her point that some folks are in more able to cause damage because of their biases, but then go on to notice that white/black is not the only axis upon with such asymetries exist.
That is how I would have responded, simply because I think she (incorrectly) feels that you believe people are in equivelant positions, and she sees this as a false equivalence (as you do as well).
Still I acknowledge my approach would bring this distracting non-argument into the foreground, and my approach is more complex, which might loose the reader. but if the reader feels unheard, they may also be lost.
Anyway... the three of us have no disagreement on the invalidity of her arguments