re: Macklemore's new song White Privilege II just released

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Agree to disagree.

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I'll take it. Believe me I was skeptical when I heard about a white kid from Seattle blowing up the rap game. Look up those songs and let me know what you think.

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Here's the crux of the matter. Anytime someone discusses this it always turns into some broad and vague bullshite about how someone is made to feel. There's no tangible evidence of privilege so we're left to believe it exists because people tell us that they feel a certain way.

The whole idea is silly, poorly defined problem with no solution offered.

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Of course there's tangible evidence that privilege exists. I don't really want to get deep into it because it's a chore, but I'll give a quick example. Levittown, NY was a post-WWII planned community and was racially segregated as a matter of public policy (its segregation was rubber stamped by the Federal Housing Authority). White veterans were able to buy in Levittown, but black veterans were not. Buyers had to sign agreements saying they wouldn't sell or rent to non-whites.

Houses in Levittown were quite cheap, but black people weren't permitted to enjoy the advantage of buying there. Families who bought in Levittown in the 1940s and 50s greatly benefited as property values increased, and were able to borrow against their homes to start businesses and exercise greater economic freedom in general. They've done very well.

But black families were excluded from this advantage, and that has lasting effects on their families. Property gets handed down, and businesses grow over time. Black families did not have access to the kinds of economic opportunities that were granted to white families in Levittown.

And this is not a phenomenon that existed only in Levittown. This kind of segregated partitioning of economic opportunity was widespread in the US, and its effects can last for generations, precisely because wealth and opportunity is often passed down from one generation to another.

So no, it's not just a matter of "feeling". The legacy of institutionalized racism still lingers today.

I don't believe in affirmative action or reparations or anything like that. I don't think we should feel guilty if we didn't do anything to contribute to these problems. But I don't see why it's such a problem for some people to acknowledge that privilege exists. Saying that "it doesn't do anything useful" is a complete cop out. If it exists, just acknowledge it. You don't have to run around shouting about it, but don't act so surprised or outraged when other people talk about it.

edit: I said I wasn't going to get deep into it and I kind of did. I'll let this post stand as my final one in this thread because I don't want to spend all day posting about this.

Ok. I acknowledge it.


Now what?

So he uses his white privilege to pander to the idiot masses? Yea...that guys a piece of shite and I'm not clicking on that.

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Let me guess...IQ differential?

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Macklemore uses his white privilege to cater to all the suburban white kids

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Suburban white kids don't listen to Macklemore. They listen to this:

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Politics or no, he's a pretty damned good artist.

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He's a terrible rapper.

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He's a terrible rapper.

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But he's white which offsets being a terrible rapper....White Privilege.