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American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

economist.com

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Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Nobody wants to think their success was the result of an unfair arbitrary advantage.

And this is why the term "white privilege" sells so poorly to whites. And why CRT is attacked so vigorously. Everyone likes to think they made it on their own. The guy who inherited a multi-million dollar business thinks he has had no more real advantage than then guy who was raised in an orphanage in Uganda. While I firmly believe that this privilege exists, you just can't legislate based on it, because you'll get n…

>And this is why the term "white privilege" sells so poorly to whites.

It's because the privilege is being more wealthy, not being white. If the privilege only applies to rich whites and also applies to rich Asians and blacks then it's not white privilege but simply privilege.

>And why CRT is attacked so vigorously.

Have you read any CRT "scholars?" I have, and they are sickening.

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#152
post #134

LMAO at these journalists pretending they're so surprised to find this. As if they had no hand in creating this environment... and as if this wasn't the whole point to begin with. The upper class owns journalism and this state of affairs was very much the goal.

> as if this wasn't the whole point to begin with. The upper class owns journalism and this state of affairs was very much the goal There's more to it than that. Intellectuals look at the parallels between race and class and see potential for "yes, and" solidarity; political professionals see the danger of splitting and confusing the limited mental space that non-professionals have for politics. A competing truth is…

Identity politics was manufactured to distract from the income inequality and divide people so they couldn't focus on the increasing shafting of the American middle class.

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#153
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has that actually ever been a reliable truth, or are people finally waking up to the fact that it never really was?

Of course it's the truth. Success does not just fall into anyone's lap, save a very few minority of cases that get trumpeted as-if they're normal. There are no shortcuts. Hard work and persistence are what is required to be successful in this country - full stop. And hard work doesn't mean you sweat more... There is no system or mechanism in America that prevents a poor child from growing up into one of the nation's…

Opportunity is only available to those who are in the right place at the right time speaking to the right people. If we consider the fact that the universe is entirely deterministic we can see that the ideas of free will and meritocracy evaporate.

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so the capitalist press are trying to foment a socialist revolution???

They are not capitalist. They are sociologists / journalists / non-technical economists earning 50k (barely percentile 60), and telling us daily how action X is immoral (exactly what bishops and priests used to do).

[dead]

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#155
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geography and parental income would be good proxies.

Unfortunately, parental income can be a terrible proxy. High income doesn't necessarily indicate wealth or high class. It usually indicates highly educated, high level working class, like doctors and software engineers. Families with generational wealth often have very little direct income. All wealth is in assets that they borrow against, which doesn't count as income. Even when they take income or realize capital g…

I assumed by class they were speaking about the delta between doctors/software engineers at Amazon and warehouse workers at Amazon. I assume generationally wealthy families applying to colleges are already identified by admission departments and their less qualified children's admission is (and would remain) predicated on donating to the library fund.

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#156

LMAO at these journalists pretending they're so surprised to find this. As if they had no hand in creating this environment... and as if this wasn't the whole point to begin with. The upper class owns journalism and this state of affairs was very much the goal.

The goal of whom? Please don't vaguely hand wave about the .1%. Who specifically with means has had this goal? Because without any kind of evidence or idea of who is doing it, it just sounds like a conspiracy theory. I ask because whenever I see instances of the ultra rich trying to control the narrative, it always comes off as obvious and ham fisted. The obvious rebuttal is "well you don't see when they succeed", bu…

>always comes off as obvious and ham fisted.

Isn't this case only when the thing really is obvious and just because you can spot couple of those "obvious cases" does not mean you have spotted every attempt, only the obvious ones.

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is why the term "white privilege" sells so poorly to whites. And why CRT is attacked so vigorously. Everyone likes to think they made it on their own. The guy who inherited a multi-million dollar business thinks he has had no more real advantage than then guy who was raised in an orphanage in Uganda. While I firmly believe that this privilege exists, you just can't legislate based on it, because you'll get n…

There's white privilege in Pensiltucky? Elon Musk knows he wouldn't have made it big without family connections, but the white guy from Western Pennsylvania knows that he was up against a whole lot and made it anyway, against all odds. That's why "white privilege" sells so poorly.

You don't think a minority in Pensiltucky might have been against even more odds on average?

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is why the term "white privilege" sells so poorly to whites. And why CRT is attacked so vigorously. Everyone likes to think they made it on their own. The guy who inherited a multi-million dollar business thinks he has had no more real advantage than then guy who was raised in an orphanage in Uganda. While I firmly believe that this privilege exists, you just can't legislate based on it, because you'll get n…

There's white privilege in Pensiltucky? Elon Musk knows he wouldn't have made it big without family connections, but the white guy from Western Pennsylvania knows that he was up against a whole lot and made it anyway, against all odds. That's why "white privilege" sells so poorly.

Musk also left South Africa at a time when race relations were boiling and South African racism against whites were heating up. So ironically anti-white racism probably contributed to Musks' rise in North American continent.

Re: American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class

#160
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geography and parental income would be good proxies.

That's a great way to get a class full of front-line gentrifier families whose breadwinners are academics, journalists, artists, nonprofit staffers, political aides, social workers, etc. Class is not income, and finding the highest-performing kids from lower-earning families and neighborhoods is an almost perfect strategy for demonstrating the gaps. Of course that's my own background, so I'd take it!

Those of course aren't perfect proxies! We can add more factors to account for that. But it's a start.
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