Four very good reasons to stop using the phrase "check your privilege."
- You don’t know people’s stories. You don’t know where they came from, you don’t know what they’ve been through. Just because someone was born white and upper class doesn’t mean they’re totally ignorant to the struggles of POC’s and the economically disadvantaged
- Privilege is something to be aware of, not something to be ashamed of. The phrase shames and silences people who might have had legitimate contributions to make to the discussion.
- It’s rude. Berating people for making simple mistakes is rude and tactless. If someone forgets to factor in privilege, gently remind them that circumstances are different for different people. Shooting people down is not conducive for stimulating discussion.
- If you have enough time, energy, and resources to sit in front of a computer for hours at a time and ride people for forgetting to consider privilege, then you’re already substantially more privileged than most of the humans on this planet. You have no right to belittle other people for being privileged.
All I am asking is that we try to be a little bit kinder towards each other. The point should be to discuss the issues, not argue about them.
Real Talk About "Domestic Issues"
Tonight’s debate was supposed to be about domestic issues, and it was to some extent but the majority of domestic issues like the environment, women, LGBT rights, immigration, were left out.
I’m tired of social issues being treated as secondary. Social issues are just as important (and to some people more important) than the economy and healthcare. I’m sick of issues concerning minorities and women being seen as less important because they don’t affect white men.
- Pro-life: Abortion is horrible. Everyone deserves to live.
- What Pro-Choicers hear: Abortion is horrible. Everyone deserves to live.
- Pro-Choice: A woman has the right to choose what to do with her body. Whether that means she wants to abort or not.
- What Pro-Lifers hear: ALL WOMEN SHOULD HAVE AN ABORTION. YES TO ABORTION! YES! YES! YES! ALL BABIES SHOULD DIE!
Make It Stop (September's Children)
Rise AgainstRise Against - Make it stop
Woah, woah.
Bang bang go the coffin nails, like a breath exhaled,
Then gone forever.
It seems like just yesterday, how did I miss the red flags raise?Think back, the days we left.
We braved these bitter storms together.
Brought to his knees he cried,
But on his feet he died.What God would damn a heart?
And what God drove us apart?
What God could…Make it stop.
Let this end.
Eighteen years pushed to the ledge.
It’s come to this,
A weightless step.
On the way down singing,
Woah, woah.Bang bang from the closet walls,
The schoolhouse halls,
The shotgun’s loaded.
Push me and I’ll push back.
I’m done asking, I demand.From a nation under God,
I feel it’s love like a cattle prod.
(Born free) I’m born free, but still they hate.
(Born me) I’m born me, no I can’t change.It’s always darkest just before the dawn.
So stay awake with me, let’s prove them wrong.Make it stop.
Let this end,
Eighteen years pushed to the ledge.
It’s come to this,
A weightless step.
On the way down singing,
Woah, woah.The cold river washed him away,
But how could we forget.
Gathering candles, but not their tongues.And too much blood has flown from the wrists,
Of children shamed for those they chose to kiss.
Who will rise to stop the blood.
We’re coming for,
Insisting on, a different beat, yeah.
A brand new song.Woah, woah.
Woah, woah.
Woah, woah.(Tyler Clementi, age 18
Billy Lucas, age 15
Harrison Chase Brown, age 15
Cody J. Barker, age 17
Seth Walsh, age 13)Make it stop
Make this end
This life chose me, I’m not lost in sin
And proud I stand of who I am
I plan to go on livingMake it stop
Make this end
All these years, pushed to the ledge
But proud I stand of who I am
I plan to go on living
To all who have ever been and/or are still bullied for being gay, for being lesbian, for being transgender, for being a tomboy, for liking ballet as a guy, for being shy, for being outspoken, for being smart, for being simply yourself, who ever you may be:
Please don’t give up. Fight. Keep on going. Keep on surviving. Someday surviving will turn into living again. It will. I promise.
Know you are not alone. There are people who love you, who will protect and support you, who will lend you an ear. Who will be a shoulder to cry on and an ally fighting at your side. Seek them out.
Never give up. Never give THEM the satisfaction to know they have beaten you. They certainly don’t make you happy. Why should you then make them happy by giving up?
“You who are so-called illegal aliens must know that no human being is ‘illegal.' That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?”
— Nobel laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
The Dis-Uniting of America (2): Social Issues and The Demographic Split
My first reaction on hearing of the Senate’s failure to get 60 votes for even modest measures to regulate the flow of guns into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, such as background checks supported by 90 percent of Americans, was to be furious at the spinelessness of the four Senate Democrats who voted against the measure (Mark Begich, Max Baucus, Mark Pryor, and Heidi Heitkamp), as well as the Republicans. And also with Harry Reid, who wouldn’t lead the fight on changing the filibuster rule when he had the chance.
The deeper message here is that rural, older, white America occupies one land; younger, urban, increasingly non-white America lives in another. And the dividing line on social issues (not just guns, but also abortion, equal marriage rights, and immigration reform) runs between the two.
Yes, I know: Plenty of people who are rural, older, and white aren’t regressives on guns, abortion, equal marriage, and immigration. And plenty who are urban, younger, and non-white are. My point is that if you want to explain what’s happening in America on these non-economic issues you have to understand what’s happening to the nation demographically — and why the demographic split is important.
Begich, Baucus, Pryor, and Heitkamp may be Democrats but they’re also from rural, older, white America. That land has disproportionate political power in the Senate, and a gerrymandered House — which may not bode well for immigration reform over the next few months, and suggests continuing battles over “state’s rights” to determine who can marry and when human life begins.
Over time, though, older, rural, white America is losing ground to a nation becoming ever younger, more urban, and increasingly non-white — a fact that threatens the former so much that it’s in full backlash against the forces of change.
