White Men Rule

[stevenleser]

97. Seems more accurate to say that Straight, White, Christian, Upperclass Males rule.

Those are the Brahmins in American society.

I havent found a definition of priviledge that I like.

To my way of thinking, gay males, African american males and white women do not have priviledge. It does no good to say a middle class gay male has male priviledge because of all of the descrimination a gay person receives in our society. Ditto with African American males. I also think it does no good to say a white woman has white priviledge.

I guess if I were trying to define a meaning of priviledge I would like, there would be a figure of 0 to 10 with 0 being worst negative priviledge (untouchables to extend the caste analogy), 10 being most priviledged and 5 being no priviledge (what would be priviledge benefits are cancelled out by negative priviledges).

negative priviledge no priviledge priviledged
0 ---------------------------5------------------------10

An LGBT, Black, Atheist, Poor woman would probably get a 0 and what I noted in the title would get a 10. Being LGBT automatically deducts 3 points, being African American deducts 2 points, Going from upperclass to middle class deducts 3 points and going from middle class to lower class deducts 1 point. So in my system a Poor Straight White Christian male would rate a 6, or barely priviledged. Being a woman deducts 2 points.

Class is the biggest determinant of priviledge IMHO. You cannot have any significant amount of priviledge if you are poor. You have potential priviledge, but that's it.