Kotaku article: "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is."

[t.c.johnson]

No one likes to think they are being accused of having it to easy, most of us like to believe we've worked very hard to get whatever we have managed to obtain. Acknowledging a level of advantage that exists outside of our own personal abilities does not mean we did not work hard for what we have or that any one is accusing us of having it "easy"..

Nor is it a judgement on anybody. This is a trend of society, not of individuals.

It is not my fault that I got out of tickets and others did not.

But just because it is not something I created nor intended doesn't mean it is not true.

And the imbalance won't be fixed (if it ever can be) unless we, as a society acknowledge it and start talking about it.

But as Kedd said arguing about the semantics or how to protect the feelings of the privileged is not really talking about the issues.

[Tyr]

But this ISN'T Kotaku. It didn't originate there. They gakked it, basically.

This is from John Scalzi. Who has an awesome blog. http://whatever.scalzi.com/

It's not?!

Damimit Corri, you've completely ruined the anti Kotaku rant I had all prepped for this.

I guess I better go read this thing then, and recant my argument....

But don't think for a minute I'm going to start being rational about this...I refuse to be rational until Treacle buys me cheese! Pepperjack cheese! The good Tillamook pre sliced stuff! I need it for my sandwiches.

[Morrison_Lad]

No one likes to think they are being accused of having it to easy, most of us like to believe we've worked very hard to get whatever we have managed to obtain. Acknowledging a level of advantage that exists outside of our own personal abilities does not mean we did not work hard for what we have or that any one is accusing us of having it "easy".
But it's been fun getting bogged in semantics, which is always the sign that a discussion is going well.

I disagree. I grew up for most of my life in an affluent suburb of Detroit where I still live today. Now, obviously, just because some of the area is affluent doesn't mean that it is all mansions on the water or anything. There's a range. But in my experience in the many years I've lived here, most of the people I know who grew up owning a horse and taking equestrian lessons*, or what have you, were well aware of the advantages they had. They were well aware of it and did everything they could to take advantage of it.

Now, some of them have tried to make the most of those advantages and lead a life of accomplishment and of doing good. And some of them were just assholes who were born on third and acted like they hit a triple. But the vast majority of even the most well-off people with whom I went to school threw on a pink Ralph Lauren sweater, grabbed a Louis Vuitton bag, but understood that they were not exactly "like other people." But they weren't defensive about it, either. It was just something one accepted.


* BTW, never owned a horse.

[Treacle]

It's not?!

Damimit Corri, you've completely ruined the anti Kotaku rant I had all prepped for this.

I guess I better go read this thing then, and recant my argument....

But don't think for a minute I'm going to start being rational about this...I refuse to be rational until Treacle buys me cheese! Pepperjack cheese! The good Tillamook pre sliced stuff! I need it for my sandwiches.

I don't like the word Pepperjack. Change it to something else.

[Kedd]

I don't like the word Pepperjack. Change it to something else.

"Spiced Flake Jill"?

[t.c.johnson]

Can I have a sliced if congealed fat with mild peppers?

[Tyr]

Can I have a sliced if congealed fat with mild peppers?

Ugh, that sounds negative, I like Kedd's better.

Or better yet Jalapeno Jerry

[Keith P.]

I'm on my phone, so I can't cut and paste it, but in Old Man's War Scalzi has his "grizzled old drill sergeant" Ruiz character write on of the best positive rant/diatribes regarding gay people in the military ever.

It is truly epic and hilarious.

[Nick Soapdish]

Ugh, that sounds negative, I like Kedd's better.

Or better yet Jalapeno Jerry

You should be holding out for gouda. Or maybe a brie.


Anyway, NPR had a bit about a week ago about racial preference which is kinda related to this because it explains why TC is getting out of tickets (and no, it's not because he's showing some leg). It's not racism, but it's related. It's implicit racial bias. Even self-proclaimed liberals tend do poorly on the test. They think that they think well of blacks and consciously, they do. But their subconscious is telling them a different story.

I did very poorly on the test, scoring a strong automatic preference for European Americans over African Americans. I'm honestly not that surprised because I don't know many African Americans although I'd hoped to score just a moderate preference. But in my case, I've been conscious of it which I'd like to think gives me a slight advantage. (Look at me try to pat myself on the back for a failing grade!) Apparently, it hasn't done much to correct the implicit bias, but maybe it moderates my behavior a bit. In the interview, they indicated that most people are unaware of this (or perhaps just underestimate it). Implicit biases might also explain why it's harder for us to recognize some of the inherent advantages or disadvantages that some of us have. We just expect that to be the default setting for everybody and assume that it is.

[Morrison_Lad]

Your results are reported below:

Your data suggest a moderate implicit preference for Barack Obama compared to Mitt Romney.
Your data suggest a moderate implicit preference for White People compared to Black People.

I'm surprised that I had only a moderate preference for Obama, when I absolutely despise Romney and think quite highly of Obama. The moderate preference for white people makes sense, in that most of the people I interact with are white(these days, anyways; as a small child, I grew up in Detroit).

I will say that that test really was tiring after a while.