White male "privilege" is a mental disorder

[kpete]

White male privilege is a mental disorder
Posted on December 18, 2012

“But while men from all backgrounds kill their spouses, affluent white men are disproportionately represented in the ranks of our most infamous mass murderers. In other words, the less privileged you are, the less likely you are to take your violence outside of your family and your community. White men from prosperous families grow up with the expectation that our voices will be heard. We expect politicians and professors to listen to us and respond to our concerns. We expect public solutions to our problems. And when we’re hurting, the discrepancy between what we’ve been led to believe is our birthright and what we feel we’re receiving in terms of attention can be bewildering and infuriating. Every killer makes his pain another’s problem. But only those who’ve marinated in privilege can conclude that their private pain is the entire world’s problem with which to deal. This is why, while men of all races and classes murder their intimate partners, it is privileged young white dudes who are by far the likeliest to shoot up schools and movie theaters.”

http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2012-07-why-most-mass-murderers-are-privileged-white-men
via:
http://underthemountainbunker.com/2012/12/18/white-male-privilege-is-a-mental-disorder/

[DURHAM D]

1. .

[lindysalsagal]

2. Whoa.

Seriously. Whoa.

[Denninmi]

3. Oh, great, crap flying at me from yet another direction.

So, back when I was diagnosed in August as bipolar, I took some comfort in the fact that I and my family had the economic resources and access to the medical infrastructure to deal effectively with this problem. Frankly, I was grateful not to be in the position of having to beg for public support or worse, go without any help.

Now I'm told because I'm a white male who lives in an upper middle class suburb and come from a family with resources I'm once again public enemy #1.

I've read a lot that the op has written over the years, and generally find it rings true. Frankly, this post, though, is very offensive and hurtful to me, it paints once again with a very broad brush.

Oh, and if someone could please tell me how I "took my violence outside" I'd love to know, since, like Reagan, I have no recollection of those events?

So, what would you suggest I do with myself since apparently I'm simply too depraved for civil society? Just off myself now so you don't have to worry? Turn myself into the cops and the courts and let them lock me up for the rest of my life? Go live in a cardboard box in the gutters of the worst neighborhoods in Detroit?

Please enlighten me on how to actually have a life without being the object of someone's contempt, fear, or bigotry.

[HereSince1628]

5. I thought that might be racist and then I decided it was sexist

because the author of the piece is clearly taking a swing at a favorite boogeyman.

As I wrote in several places. This isn't about you or me, it's about their fear and the thing they fear are mostly phantoms in their heads. Don't submit to transference. You are not the object of their fear.

[Fumesucker]

6. You have to learn to let it roll off your back on DU

This place can be a quagmire, I just gone done responding to someone who had kindly given me some advice from the Horatio Alger school of psychiatry.

[antigone382]

13. One question however...

When we talk about anorexia, we note that it is overwhelmingly young white women who suffer from it. In that case, it is acceptable to talk about how gender socialization plays a role in the manifestations of the disease. That does not mean that all women are going to be anorexic. When we talk about suicide among GLBT folks, we have no problem talking about how their social positions and experiences can drive them to end their lives. That does not mean all in the GLBT community want to kill themselves. When we talk about gang warfare among the poor and minorities, we have no problem talking about how society's take on their race and socioeconomic status plays a role. That does not mean all nonwhite or poor people are likely to commit a crime.

So if we can talk about the negative psychological and behavioral effects that social structures inflict on those who are less privileged--women, racial minorities, the poor, and GLBT--without it being assumed that those effects are intrinsic, essential, or inescapable, why can't we talk about how privilege can have similarly negative psychological and behavioral effects?

[HereSince1628]

18. There's gender associations in the records for a number of mental illnesses

I don't object at all when the conversation is serious and numbers support it.

My count of 'mass' killings in the us is 35. That's a terribly small number to be looking for statistical trends. If you know anything about sampling theory you know that variance can be all over the place when the sample is small.

With respect to men and mass murders (not serial murders) including large family slayings and vehicular manslaughters around the world, examples can be found for pretty much all races with a quick google.
So I think all races in the world are probably capable.

The number in the US seems to be something like: White--23, Asian (including south Asian)--5, Black--4, Hispanic--3 and First American--1. I can't say if I found them all I may be off a few, but I think I'm close.

The US mass killings range from gun massacres to suicides by passengers blowing up airplanes to vehicular manslaughter with cars. So, really, there is probably some careful stratification of types of crime, socio-economic confounders may make a mess of what's more possible for some US demographics than others. That should be done before much more should be made of that. Unfortunately, stratification makes the numbers even smaller. I'm not sure we can say with any confidence.

Relative to women mass killers in the US, my count is 1, out of 35 events. Maybe something is going on with that, if it's demographically reasonable to leave everything lumped together. Other violent crimes stats suggest males of other races than white as the perpetrators. So it wouldn't surprise me.

But I can't be sure it is.

What I am sure of is that the person I replied to, isn't helped by transferring to himself a personal burden for mass murders committed by others.

That phantom personal burden is a boogeyMAN, hence the reference to sexism. I replied the way I did to move him away from accepting a burden that isn't his to bear.

You can make what you will of that.

[Glassunion]

4. So... Ban privileged white dudes?

I work with a few and I really like them. I'd hate to ban them. Would the ban be on existing white dudes or will we just ban the manufacture and sale of new white dudes?

To white dudes: I believe in my right to keep and bear white dudes.

I don't believe that being a privileged white dude is a mental disorder. Wtf?

[Sheldon Cooper]

7. If the statistics are true, and I suppose they are,

we really have to wonder why mass murder is almost uniquely, well, white.

[Downwinder]

8. What is the difference between a CEO of a company

making record profits that offshores the jobs of 27 families and a mass killer?

[freshwest]

12. None.

[Nye Bevan]

16. Right. Because laying off some employees is precisely the same as slaughtering 20 schoolkids.

Absolutely no difference whatsoever.

[greytdemocrat]

9. Slow day???

Not enough shit stirred up for ya k???

[demosocialist]

10. This is why I was skeered after the election!!! nt

[Comrade_McKenzie]

11. Black male gang mentality is a mental disorder.

[antigone382]

14. No, but like anorexia among women or suicide among GLBT youth...

...there are negative psychological and behavioral effects that go along with one's position in society. Those effects are not intrinsic, essential, or inescapable. Now, I get your point and I wouldn't have chosen the title. I might have linked to Gloria Steinem's very good article entitled "supremacy crimes" for a better and less incendiary explanation of the concept being discussed. But the point is that we can talk about the correlations between self-destructive behaviors and social structures for underprivileged groups. Talking about the potential correlations between self-destructive behaviors and social structures for privileged white men, however, is an outrage.

[cali]

15. what a shameful pile of steaming stinking dog shite. thanks for posting. uh, no. shame.

[Nye Bevan]

17. Despicable race-baiting garbage (nt)