Interesting, I've had a very different experience riding a bike everywhere. Of course, I live in Boise, Id which is a pretty bike friendly place to live. Most drivers do actually go around me, and when they don't, they almost always try to squish as close to the inside of the road as they dare. I, in turn, try to make sure to stay as far to the outside as I can and take sidewalks when its appropriate. I actually feel quite privileged with my bike. For the most part, cars are very conscientious of me. I try to return the favor.
So when I say the semi driver is privileged, it isn’t a way of calling him a bad person or a man-slaughterer or saying he didn’t really earn his truck, but just way of acknowledging all that–infrastructure, laws, government, culture–and the fact that if he and I get in a collision, I will probably die and he will just have to clean the blood off of his bumper. In the same way, talking about racial privilege isn’t a way of telling white people they are bad people or racists or that they didn’t really earn what they have.
I thought the article was pretty solid overall. It seems the author has a good grasp of the different stakeholder views. As a privileged, white, male I'm ok with admitting my privilege right up until the point I think they are trying to tell me I'm something that simply isn't true. Just as the author wouldn't expect the simi diver to apologize for earning their truck, I'm not going to apologize for where I ended up. I made good choices and those have put me in a very comfortable life. If someone wants to say "hey, you got somewhere! Good for you, but be aware that you had advantages that other people simply don't" I'm not going to contest that. I will, however, get rather nasty rather quickly if someone tries to tell me that I have only been successful because I am privileged, white and male.
How do you know that is not true? That at the same level of effort that you put in, that as a minority female, you may not have been successful?
I know that being from a reasonably well off family, being white, and being a male do not guarantee my success because if I hadn't capitalized on the opportunities I did, I wouldn't be where I am. If I had chosen to piss them away, I would not be living the comfortable life I now am.
I need no more proof of this than my mother's family. She married my father and they both built careers as teachers. One of her sisters jumped from entry level job to entry level job for her entire life. Not surprisingly, her life hasn't worked out as smoothly. My mother's other sister went on to become an accountant and makes almost what both my parents make combined. Unfortunately for her, her husband is a huge spender and they have an enormous amount of debt that prevents them from enjoying that large income.
I do not make the claim that everyone can achieve what I did with an equal amount of effort. I like to think that they could - and will do what I can to give them that opportunity - but I can't really know that they enjoy the same privilege since the system has, at the very least, historically been skewed in my favor. And that probably has lingering affects. What I do claim is that choices make the person. If you don't take advantage of your opportunities, it is unlikely that you will be successful. Therefore, I don't expect anyone who is successful to apologize for the fact that they took at least some measure of responsibility for their life.
But that was not my question. If your opportunities did not exists, could you, as you are, have been successful (by the same measure of success)? For example, if your first employer saw your name and where you went to school (often correlated to income/race), and decided you were worth less or that you did not have what it takes? There have been multiple studies that name/gender/race affect if the employer thinks you can do the job or what quality you will bring, even if the actual data (resume and such) is exactly the same.
I am not saying you did not work for your success, but that your privilege may have been a deciding factor in that success. Most people posting on here come from a place of great privilege, first world country, educated, etc. I know I would not be where I am without the privileges I was given. Yes, I could have pissed away those privileges, but that was not the point. The point was, can you be certain that what privileges you had were not the deciding factor in your success?
ETA: From someone who has been involved in the field, in regards to research your comment "I do not make the claim that everyone can achieve what I did with an equal amount of effort. I like to think that they could - and will do what I can to give them that opportunity - but I can't really know that they enjoy the same privilege since the system has, at the very least, historically been skewed in my favor." seriously cracked me up. Most people with privilege believe that they are not discriminating and that they will give others not like them the opportunity, but most often those people do discriminate without even being aware of it.
Quite right, I started my reply to you by restating what I had claimed (that I wasn't successful
because I am white, male, and privileged but because of the choices I made) . I thought it might be useful since you highlighted my claim in replying to me. You then asked a slightly different question (can I be certain that being white, male, and privileged didn't play a deciding role in my success). I re-asserted my claim in the first paragraph, illustrated what I meant in the second paragraph, and then addressed your question in the third paragraph. I wanted to be perfectly flat in my response and in your second reply, you quoted the my answer to your question - I can't be sure.
I claim that choices make the person. Two people starting in different places can both end up deadbeats if they don't take advantage of the opportunities that they have. Similarly, they could both end up successful (like you pointed out - defining success if a different issue completely) or any combination there of. I'm not saying that their paths are equally difficult. I'm just saying that the strongest predictor of where you end up is the choices you make.
I'm not sure why my candid answer made you laugh. If you're implying that while I claim to want to empower people to take control of their own lives, I actually undermine them, then I'd be disappointed. I honestly don't think that I do. I respect people who take life by the balls and achieve in spite of any obstacles they may face. At the same time, you point out that "Most people with privilege ... do discriminate without even being aware of it" so I very well may be in that group. Who can say? Not I - since you're claiming that its unconscious on my part. Certainly not you! You have no idea who I am. What we both know is that you have someone saying "I try to give everyone the same opportunities" and you seem to be saying "No, you might
think that you do, but I'm convinced that you are actually very discriminatory since many people in your position are". That strikes me as a bit of a fallacy. A is a subset of B. Most of B is C. Therefore A is C.
