General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)because if I talk about Oprah, or Tiger, everybody knows who I am talking about. If I talk about Chester, then nobody knows who I am talking about.
I could take some time to explain who Chester is, but it is much quicker and easier to just point to Tiger.
Here's who Chester is. He's an actual black male, who apparently was my nemesis. Not on purpose (I think) but there was a time when the last three jobs I applied for, were instead given to Chester. I applied for the full time janitor job at the place where I worked part time. Okay, first that was given to another black man, Layton. After about five weeks he was fired for not showing up every Friday. Then it was given to Chester. Then I applied for a job as dogcatcher. Chester also applied for it, and got that job. Then I applied for a janitor job at the Methodist church, and Chester got that job.
Strangely enough, I do not consider "not getting a job" to be some sort of privilege, but again, apparently I am part of a privileged "group" and Chester and Tiger and Oprah are part of an oppressed "group".
My point is very, very simple. In spite of the averages, the people in the first group do not all enjoy privileges any more than the people in the second group all experience oppression. If a statistical "reality" as you call it, does not translate to the personal, then it is not much of a reality, is it?