Why am I always reminded here on DU that women can be abusive just like men?

[Rilgin]

156. Better to address what I said, not what I didn't say

Ugh. One problem with trying to discuss anything related to this issue is that you attack what I didn't write not what I wrote.

In what world did I say that racism does not exist. Find one shred of language that suggests that. I said, the best way to discuss racism might to discuss it without attacking other groups using loaded terms and labels. Then find a shred of language that suggests that we do not point at corruption. You got the pointing finger from one section of my post where I say that we need to address racism but we need to stop using language that points fingers at groups of people without addressing their individual characteristics. Words do in fact mean things. Attaching white or black to any problem adds implications that are then denied in these threads by the person adding the word. We have good words already that are not loaded.

"Racism" is a good word for actions against people or people based on their race. Institutional racism is a good term to discuss where society acts adversely against an individual because of his or her race. Describing racism against black people as examples of "privilege" of some other group who may or may not be successful in society and has individuals who have their own issues and problems stands the word "privilege" on its head since it is often used to discuss adverse societal affects that they do not encounter such as not being stopped by police on the street.

I have heard defenses of the term "white privilege" saying some intellectual sociologists use the term to define racism. However, this is not a sociologists forum and the term is a bad and divisive term to discuss problems in society since it is not a clean term. It is used precisely because of implications about "white" people as opposed to other people in the world as though racial injustice was just invented in this century in america. The history of the world in the present and the past is full of racial injustice from all groups.

In america, there are lots of places where black people face racial injustice most particularly in the justice system. However, thinking that these areas of racial injustice will be solved by trying to define this as privilege of others has a mixed message. It directs the reader of the term away from the racial injustice that affects black people towards a claim that the problem is the the failure of white people to accept they are privileged regardless of their actual societal privilege. You can see that in the next post where someone tried to say a homeless guy dying was privileged. Maybe I should have used a dead white person as an example. Is he privileged as well. It would be worse for a dead white person if he was a dead black person. Using the word privilege to describe people who are not privileged because they do not face some bad things that nature or society or luck throws at others stands the plain english meaning of the word privilege on its head.

It is not a case of ignoring problems in society. Addressing racial injustice whether through action or discussion is a good thing, it is the term and some of the implications that are now being used in the discussions on these sites that is inherently divisive. It seeks to get past problems by somehow cementing differences in place rather than work on uniting us on our common humanity. As a term, trying to label people does not invoke empathy, sympathy and unity. In fact labeling individuals as part of a group instead invokes or implies guilt or responsibility. I thought that the favored goal of progressive politics was to make a better world by fostering a common humanity, helping people see how our experiences are similar rather than different, and addressing societal problems together. However, maybe that was my mistake. It seems that the favored mechanism is to force group labels on individuals and say that society will only improve if you accept those labels although there is no real explanation of what people are supposed to do with their privilege. I guess you are supposed to give it up somehow, maybe insist to the police that they stop you when you are driving around. Personally, I favor actions to strengthen civil rights laws which do not label groups but make discrimination because of any labels illegal.