re: Hunger Striker's family worth millions in railroad money (link w/ salary info)

Are you a student at Mizzou? When do finals begin?

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He took a role as a leader in a Peace Corps Prep program and founded a philanthropic photography project that aims to combat human trafficking, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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LINK

We've got a future attention whore Al Sharpton on our hands

I'm guessing the family situation was something like this:

The money is (mostly) irrelevant when it comes to racial privilege/injustice, but I'm not surprised so few on this board are able to grasp such a ~highly nuanced~ position.

Instead, there will just be a bunch of folks gettin real mad at me online and furiously slamming that down arrow lol

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Shouldn't he renounce his unique privilege?

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Here's the problem with the use of the word "privilege." It lends itself to personalization.

White privilege should be renamed to something like, oh, I don't know, fricking bias. That's all it is. It is bias based on widespread societal norms.

It ranges from: if you're a white guy who looks normal, you'll probably not get stopped by the cops. If you're a black guy who looks normal, you have a slightly higher chance of getting stopped by the cops, particularly depending on the location.
To: Quick, picture a doctor in your head. White guy, right? Almost everyone pictures a white guy. Including black people. Including women. It's conditioning.

The argument for "white privilege," which again is a fricking stupid name, is that because of these inherent biases in our society at large, white men are expected to be good, successful citizens. That's all it is.

The concept may have some credence, but it speaks to society as a whole, not individuals, so when you see some dumby in a letter asking that you acknowledge your "privilege" as a white guy, they are asking you to use a societal measurement to describe yourself personally. You can't "renounce" so-called "privilege." And you can't apologize for it. It's just a societal concept.

This concept, or rather, the misconception of this concept, has absolutely enflamed minorities across America, particularly black Americans, and brought to the fore the sometimes legitimate, sometimes illegitimate, feelings of inadequacy that are brought on by factors outside of each individual's separate control. So it becomes an easy scapegoat.

This is eerily similar to the Jews in Nazi Germany: an external factor, this one more amorphous (though more and more forming generally into white males), that can be blamed for feelings of embarrassment, inadequacy and hopelessness. Followed by a spark: Michael Brown (though to be fair, this fire has been smoldering since Trayvon, and was never really snuffed out after Rodney King).

Now, these people aren't Nazis. They aren't going to try to systematically kill white people. That's not the point I'm making. But the analogy is apropos because it shows just how hypocritical their viewpoint is: using oppression to fight feelings of inadequacy in the guise of "oppression" (remember Germans, and frankly much of the world, thought that Jews somehow secretly ran the world and controlled the world's money, which would be awfully oppressive if true). The analogy should cause people to look in the mirror a little bit. All the same, embarrassment and feeling of inferiority should be reflected upon until it is understood that change can only be effected from within. Sure, societal pressures, societal norms, will also have to change. It is not fair to suggest that America is racism free. It is not fair to suggest that bias doesn't make things more difficult for minorities. It has and will. But attempting to effect change by rioting, by putting up strawmen, is doomed to failure. Effect the change within, and the external forces will also change.

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The money is (mostly) irrelevant when it comes to racial privilege/injustice

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Ok, you've got my attention. Let's start here - do you believe that the face of this movement having a father worth $20M is irrelevant?

(no message)

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Quick, picture a doctor in your head. White guy, right? Almost everyone pictures a white guy

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Actually I picture someone of Indian decent. Most doctors I come into contact with are Indian and I meet a lot of fellow students who are of Indian decent who are planning on med school after their undergrad.