My brother and I grew up in a world that sounds similar to yours. I’m not negating your experience. The fact that you and I have privilege doesn’t negate our own hardships.
You’re playing a bit loose, here. When you write that 100% of whites are advantaged, you are engaged in exaggeration that erases the practical reality. It is true that our system is structured to advantage whites. It does not necessarily follow that all whites are equally advantaged (other things being equal) or that all whites live a life in which they experience these advantages.
On the contrary, I'm choosing my words and considering their meaning very carefully. This topic is too important to "play loose".
100% of white people are advantaged by racism. I didn't claim that all experience that advantage equally, and I didn't claim that the advantage negates any other disadvantages each individual white person experiences due to the specifics of their lives, their class or social status, any number of other systems of identity-based power, or even countervailing individual prejudices.
You may find it hard to notice the advantage it gives you, but it certainly exists.
"100% of white people are advantaged by racism." No, this is an extraordinary claim without evidence that you are asserting.
"You may find it hard to notice the advantage it gives you, but it certainly exists," isn't carefully worded, and it's designed to effectively squash any sort of disagreement with the assertion in the first place.
> No, this is an extraordinary claim without evidence that you are asserting.
There are libraries worth of literature on the subject. I encourage you to spend some time seeking it out and understanding it better.
> isn't carefully worded, and it's designed to effectively squash any sort of disagreement with the assertion in the first place.
It was carefully worded, but you don't seem to be interested in coming to the discussion to understand. You seem determined to fight. The wording was intended to give you the grace that maybe other challenges in your life make it difficult to see this particular advantage. The words chosen were intentionally placed in the same comment with other words giving that grace explicitly.
Have you considered that you are making assumptions (e.g. that I have not done reading on this subject) or that you are making personal accusations (e.g. that I may not recognize advantages) based also on assumptions? That perhaps my interest isn’t in fighting but merely challenging your assertion and assumptions?
It appears to me you take the position that you are correct, and that any challenge is necessarily one coming from a position of ignorance or malice. I invite you to re-think your approach to this sort of conversation.
> Have you considered that you are making assumptions
Always, and always open to reconsidering my position or approach.
> (e.g. that I have not done reading on this subject)
You're not demonstrating familiarity with the subject. Your questions have come from a perspective that is addressed in the subject matter.
> or that you are making personal accusations (e.g. that I may not recognize advantages)
That wasn't an accusation. It was a fig leaf. Your positions have rejected your advantages as a white person. "You're off the mark. Way off."
> That perhaps my interest isn’t in fighting but merely challenging your assertion and assumptions?
Your interest increasingly seems to be defensive.
Edit:
> I invite you to re-think your approach to this sort of conversation.
Thank you, but no thank you. You don't seem to be interested in actually discussing the topic, or reconsidering your own positions. I'm 99% certain that I won't make any headway with you regardless of my approach.
