just one straight white male opinion here, folks.

nedhepburn:

just read a reply to something I wrote saying that as a “male on the internet” I don’t have any right to be pissed at Huffington Post’s controversial coathanger post. 

i don’t get it. should i be whipping myself on the back with a cat-o’-nine-tails, saying “IM SORRY FOR BEING WHITE” and “IM SORRY FOR BEING A STRAIGHT MAN” over and over? if i was a gay asian albino midget or an amorphous cloud of pansexual nothingness, would that make my opinion any more (or less) valid? no. i don’t care whether y’all agree or disagree with what i say – but making it about my gender and skin color? really? 

i get the argument about white male privilege and all that jazz (for the most part we’ve proven ourselves to be pretty terrible) but saying “fuck that kind of person” is basically doing EXACTLY the kind of socio-economic screening that “open minded” people claim to be working against. 

you’re basically saying “fuck this person for being ____” which is what a bully does. or what straight white males did for thousands of years. basically: writing someone off because of who they are. 

i dunno. that kind of mentality just fucks things up for everyone. 

Now is a good time to remind everyone that there’s nothing inherently wrong with privilege. What does suck is when someone who enjoys privilege — racial privilege, gender privilege, economic privilege, etc. — pretends that their privilege doesn’t exist. It’s the denial of privilege, not the privilege itself, that’s problematic.

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  1. nsd31 reblogged this from nedhepburn
  2. skye7576 reblogged this from nedhepburn
  3. vvednesdvy reblogged this from nedhepburn
  4. boogieordie reblogged this from nedhepburn and added:
    Clearly you don’t get the male privilege argument. Male privilege is seeing the coat hanger image on Huffington Post and...
  5. magicpowerbleakness said: I agree, but, speaking as a straight, white male, you have to admit to it as often as possible or you won’t be taken seriously when they do learn that you are a straight, white male. Let me repeat, I am a straight, white male saying this.
  6. progressivegroan reblogged this from nedhepburn and added:
    Coming from privilege does not invalidate one’s opinion.
  7. nclove said: There’s a fine line between abstract liberalism and what you’re saying though. Claiming that someone who says screw that white guy is similar to white men enslaving African Americans or discriminating against mixed marriage, etc, is WAY off course
  8. iamdirtfarmer said: i’ve just always gone with the ol’ blood for blood standard “i’m not that kind of white”
  9. bedtimerevolt said: Good lord.
  10. aaronleaf said: ugh
  11. xntrek reblogged this from nedhepburn
  12. xntrek said: <3

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