Turns out I was right. Kind of. Because honestly, I was thinking more 1960s US, not 1930s Germany. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
CNS News, “Wisconsin’s VISTA Program Encourages Volunteers to Overcome White ‘Privilege’”:
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) wants its white VISTA volunteers who work with low-income, racially diverse public schools to examine the “privilege” their Caucasian race confers on them.
DPI devotes an entire Web page to “Power and Privilege,” including links to racial justice workshops and online tests where VISTA volunteers can “learn about your personal bias.”
One “diversity” document linked to DPI’s Web site suggests that white people “wear a white wristband as a reminder about your privilege, and as a personal commitment to explain why you wear the wristband.”
The document — written by a diversity resource center in New Jersey — also suggests that white people ask themselves questions, such as: “How do I ignore privilege? What am I doing today to undo my privilege? How do I fool myself into thinking I am powerless?”
Other suggestions for white people include:
— Set aside sections of the day to critically examine how privilege is working.
— Put a note on your mirror or computer screen as a reminder to think about privilege.
— Make a daily list of the ways privilege played out, and steps taken or not taken to address privilege.
— Find a person of color who is willing to hold you accountable for addressing privilege.The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is the state agency that advances public education and libraries in Wisconsin.
DPI notes that its AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers are serving in schools that are culturally and racially diverse, and therefore DPI provide “multiple opportunities for training…that help the volunteers better serve the schools and communities in which they are placed.”
[…]
“Not only should you examine the kind of privilege you bring to your (work) site but also how power is distributed among the families, community members, and students you work with,” the DPI Web site says. “The VISTA project encourages VISTAs to think about power and privilege in the context of race, gender, socio-economic status, to name only a few.”
At the top of the DPI’s “Power and Privilege” Web page is a quotation from feminist Gloria Steinem that reads: “The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.”
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) is the national service program designed specifically to fight poverty.
VISTA members commit to serve full-time for a year at a nonprofit organization or local government agency, working to fight illiteracy, improve health services, create businesses, and strengthen community groups.
The very idea of “white privilege” is a strand of “critical race theory” — which Soledad O’Brien infamously tried to paper over during a debate with Breitbart’s Joel Pollak in the context of the release of a video of Obama, during his days at Harvard Law, praising Professor Derek Bell, one of the leaders of critical race theory, a strand of sociological study that among other things suggests that colorblindness is a form of oppression, and that violence is a rational response against a social order that he believes continues to institutionalize racism (largely by refusing to see everything through the lens of race).
It looks like Obama’s toying with radicalism in college wasn’t so much “toying” as it was “embracing.” From the Department of Justice (as exposed by J Christian Adams) on down to his selection of his pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, Obama has shown a profound fidelity to noxious racial theorizing — a poisonous, radical, aggressive concoction that contains hints of anti-semitism, black radicalism, a determined racial focus, and black liberation theology.
That it has found its way into AmeriCorps VISTA program shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who recognized early on that Obama was not a post-racial person at all; instead, he is a driven (half-)black radical who remains enthusiastic about mapping academic radical chic theoretics onto public policy, institutionalizing it in small ways and large.
And this is the man the GOP leadership believes it can work with.
Incidentally, the white wristbands are a nice touch. Although had they really wanted to make a bold statement, they have gone with yellow stars.
Yeah great, so all my hard work, sacrifice and money spent to get to where I am today is all on account of my white privilege.
I’d like to spam that website with pictures of middle fingers. Lots and lots of middle fingers.
My white privilege and a dollar don’t even get me a cup of coffee anymore.
Hence my avatar. Figured I’d save time. Seems like all us freedom-oriented types are getting the yellow star treatment anyway,
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) is the national service program designed specifically to fight poverty.
VISTA members commit to serve full-time for a year at a nonprofit organization or local government agency, working to fight illiteracy, improve health services, create businesses, and strengthen community groups.
Ba haa ha haaaaa …
The only thing in that list they could possibly do is teach kids to read. The rest of that stuff? complete and utter bullshit.
What was that old saw about war? Something like, “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you”. Seems like the same deal with racism.
And when they get a little older to where they just might be able finally to read and write then the non-verbal wrist bands can be supplemented with some text.
Fresh out of college, no-experience college grads are going to “create businesses” ? ba haa haa …
I think that is the funniest on the list.
So, the black “leadership” in this country and their leftist toadies have officially rejected everything Dr King stood for? How nice.
These people do not want Equality, they want Revenge.
Back in the mid-eighties, finding myself unemployed with two young kids, I applied for every fire dept, police dept, power company, city position, and the like in the central valley. I got the distinct impression my white privilege put me at the back of the line every time, due to they were all trying to “balance” their work force ‘cuz of affirmative action.
I ended up cleaning toilets at Arby’s, and spent the next two years working my way up to assistant manager.
Of course I obviously only got there because of my whiteness…
Besides, Carin, didn’t Dear Leader famously tell us about businesses, “you didn’t build that!”, so by imperial fiat they can’t “create businesses”.
I’d embrace it. Tell my melanin-enhanced teachers and classmates to go get me a fucking cup of coffee already, and point at my white bracelet while I tap my foot impatiently.
J. Christian Adams — Yes, Justice Scalia: Section 5 Is a Racial Entitlement. Even DOJ Says So:
*** From the report (pp. 90-91):
Pay close attention to Perez’s use of “disadvantaged group.” This qualifier is familiar language to critical-race theorists. It evidences a view that even a small white minority is never worthy of protection, even if discriminated against, because ultimately whites are members of a privileged group. Also, people of color are always part of a “disadvantaged group.”
Privilege and disadvantage are not prerequisites to equal protection of the law. ***
Interesting. Here I thought that my degrees in physics and nuclear engineering- and my current career as a nuke- were due to my brains and hard work. Turns out, it was because of the color my skin.
Hey, maybe I can die my skin albino white. Just think of all the doors that will be opened for me, while all of you tanned assholes will be relegated to cutting my grass. Or something. Someone tell me what to think: I forgot to read Journolist today.
This does nothing to explain Asian Privilege: their uncanny ability to excel at mathematics and the sciences all while keeping out of jail and maintaining a stellar credit score.
So is this country going to de-evolve into a country where “whitey” ends up in bondage just to prove what utter contemptible raaaaacists we are?
And what of of us in mixed race marriages, who have mixed race kids? Are they supposed to embrace thier “minority” and eschew thier “whitey” half?
accessorizing is fun
If one uses Obama as an example, Garym, then the answer is “yes”.
The argument I used discussing this with a friend’s college-aged son who was harping about “white privilege”:
* True or false – A college degree is the only way to get ahead in life
* Also true or false – The number of students a college can support at any given time is finite.
* So, why are you still in college, when by virtue of your perceived “privilege”, you are preventing a member of the Oppressed Class from attending?
* And, likewise, why aren’t you in the military instead, so that one fewer member of the Oppressed Class doesn’t have to be cannon fodder for right-wing imperialists?
I’m still surprised he didn’t take a swing at me after that…
Any group singled out for favor in statutory law, or in the application of law by the government, is by definition NOT “disadvantaged.”
Thomas Sowell has some interesting observations of late.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Pronounced, introspectively, wisdippy.
And what of of us in mixed race marriages, who have mixed race kids? Are they supposed to embrace their “minority” and eschew their “whitey” half?
They’re supposed to hate their privileged white parent for forcing their underprivileged nonwhite parent into marriage. Even if the nonwhite spouse entered into marriage cheerfully, it doesn’t matter, because he/she was blinded by social inequality into choosing against his/her racial interest. A victim is a victim, always. And an oppressor is an oppressor, always.
Sleep tight!
Don’t get me started on white bear privilege. Damn polar bears get all the attention.
“Oh, I got my picture taken with Leonardo DiCaprio”.
“Oh, my ice flow is melting, save me Al Gore”.
false
true
Oh, I know – I was arguing this from the standpoint of the College-Aged Yoot With ‘White Privilege Issues’.
I was just being my typical contrary self.
Doubt it, they will be too stupid to make rope by the time it gets to that point.
Car, that’s not what they said. They’re “working to fight illiteracy”, not teaching kids to read.
Teaching kids to read is quantifiable and measurable. “Working to fight illiteracy” is not. It’s not even “fighting illiteracy”. It’s “working to fight illiteracy”. How would you demonstrate that you’re not doing that? You can’t.
These are the same people who came up with “saving or creating jobs”.
Hm. How unclever: “Prove” the privelege exists by presuming it does and going from there.
I’m sure there’s a logical fallacy or three involved in that premise.
You know, I did notice that my white heritage did confer privilege upon me. That’ was were it was instilled in me that nuclear families are important, that the family structure is important. We noticed the Japanese had that too, so we figured their slanted eyes conferred that privilege upon them. Also my caucasianhood conferred a sense of importance regarding education, respect for police, and for some odd reason, shiny shoes.
Don’t buy junk.
There are many other things that I have noticed and regard as racial things given to me, not all of them completely pleasant, like respect for property, discipline, that’s probably the worst one, goal setting, determination, value of continuing education and flexibility, appreciation for different food, learn technical things or be a dummkopf. Crap like that, clean house, and stuff, upkeep of things, shovel the snow, have well trained dog, not stealing and such, all of that was totally racial, come to find out. Once I learned how other people think and where they got it from.
The difference between “teaching kids to read” and “working to fight illiteracy” is that the latter involves lobbying; those who “work to fight illiteracy” may (hypothetically) not even know what a kid looks like.
All this fighting. Will it ever end?
Sowell, Intellectuals and Race: Part III .