The White Establishment

[BigRedBuster]

I think the disconnect can be found at claiming the new road was evidence of white privilege simply because it was to the benefit of "more" white people. That road is for everyone from the pizza delivery boy to the investment banker; it is for people driving from North Omaha to low-income retail jobs out west. The road is a "privilege" to everyone that has a car and needs to drive on it.

 

Let me just say first off, I believe there is a such thing as white privilege. But, don't be surprised when claiming a project that is used by everyone is evidence of "white privilege" just because more whites use it than other races in a community that has a white majority faces some criticism. There are a lot of trees to bark at, I just don't believe this is one. If anything, the Dodge expressway helped people in dying neighborhoods find access to jobs in other parts of town. The Dodge Expressway is literally a "two-way" street.

 

 

P.S.: as a resident of "West Omaha", I can assure you non-white families are able to move out to the burbs with the use of Dodge Street. That said, we can have (and probably did) a discussion about how well they are received in these neighborhoods. White privilege is moving into a new house and the neighbors wanting to know what you "do" rather than "where you're from".

Good post and this is why I believe it's a bad example.

 

Another thing is that it helps keep jobs down town instead of companies moving to the suburbs.

 

How many low income people work in restaurants, housekeeping and maintenance in office buildings....etc.

 

It benefits more than just white rich people.

[ZRod]

Omaha has nice roads?!?!

Yup. Everyone has nice roads compared to Michigan.

[zoogs]

Deadspin occasionally offers some pretty searingly on-point political coverage: This Wall Street Journal comment section offers a rare peek into the world of whites.

 

Lots of us make assumptions about whites based upon things we hear and see in pop culture, but few of us have ever taken the time to hear directly from whites themselves. We in the media frequently tell you what “those people” think, but the dirty secret is that if you asked how many of us know any whites personally, the silence would be profound.

A facetious premise, but I do think in absence of highlighting it, we tend to dismiss the possibility that such sentiments exist or might in fact be prevalent attitudes. And this article presents an interesting opportunity to double down and defend these arguments out in the open.

[GSG]

 

Omaha has nice roads?!?!

Yup. Everyone has nice roads compared to Michigan.

 

 

We drove to Michigan for Christmas. Their roads are just sh#t. It's like a damned roller coaster ride

[BigRedBuster]

Deadspin occasionally offers some pretty searingly on-point political coverage: This Wall Street Journal comment section offers a rare peek into the world of whites.

 

Lots of us make assumptions about whites based upon things we hear and see in pop culture, but few of us have ever taken the time to hear directly from whites themselves. We in the media frequently tell you what “those people” think, but the dirty secret is that if you asked how many of us know any whites personally, the silence would be profound.

A facetious premise, but I do think in absence of highlighting it, we tend to dismiss the possibility that such sentiments exist or might in fact be prevalent attitudes. And this article presents an interesting opportunity to double down and defend these arguments out in the open.

 

That shows a part of the problem.....But, what it shows is actually two parts to the problem.

 

a) It's a problem that those feelings exist.

 

b) It's faulty to claim "that's what white America thinks". You can't lump all of white America into those comments any more than you could lump all black people into a group believing white people are the cause of all their problems.

[zoogs]

IMO, the latter is being neither claimed nor implied.

 

There are *clearly* a lot of white people who do not feel this way, and are staunchly opposed to all of those ideas. Writing the article as if white people were an inscrutable, scarce and monolithic group is a riff on how minority viewpoints are usually written about.

 

What is being expressed here is a narrower proposition: "This is what a not-insignificant (and non-fringe) segment of white America thinks". There's a reason they picked The Wall Street Journal and not some alt-right echo chamber. And I think this expression is quite valid. I recognize many of those arguments from my personal contexts, and they are usually not held up for ridicule the way they are here. That's another sense in which I think this article is particularly incisive.

[BigRedBuster]

The title itself implies it.

 

".....A Rare Peak Into The World Of Whites".

 

 

It doesn't say "...a peak into a segment of whites".....or "....a peak into racist whites".

[zoogs]

Put another way, it's a parody of a media exposé on let's say, a vocally activist minority group that harbors actual hostility towards white people. Certain segments of the media are known to be particularly eager to indulge in that sort of thing.

 

Except this piece is on the Wall Street Journal, and that commentary is in fact everyday (certainly not unanimous, though). A good mirror to hold up to ourselves.

[BigRedBuster]

Another thing this article expresses to me is supposedly, white people have absolutely no ability to openly discuss issues within the black community for which the black community is responsible for.

[zoogs]

Wait -- surely you recognize the method of parody here, right?

 

White people have absolutely no ability to openly discuss issues within the black community for which the black community is responsible for.

I think it accurately frames attempts at this as horrifically out of touch, and as casual enablers of ill-conceived political drives.

[BigRedBuster]

Wait -- surely you recognize the method of parody here, right?

 

White people have absolutely no ability to openly discuss issues within the black community for which the black community is responsible for.

I think it accurately frames attempts at this as horrifically out of touch, and as casual enablers of ill-conceived political drives.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "parody".....unless this is a totally false article.

[zoogs]

Really? I explained the whole thing, at least twice.

 

Help me answer your question.

[BigRedBuster]

Deadspin occasionally offers some pretty searingly on-point political coverage: This Wall Street Journal comment section offers a rare peek into the world of whites.

 

Lots of us make assumptions about whites based upon things we hear and see in pop culture, but few of us have ever taken the time to hear directly from whites themselves. We in the media frequently tell you what “those people” think, but the dirty secret is that if you asked how many of us know any whites personally, the silence would be profound.

A facetious premise, but I do think in absence of highlighting it, we tend to dismiss the possibility that such sentiments exist or might in fact be prevalent attitudes. And this article presents an interesting opportunity to double down and defend these arguments out in the open.

 

So, you are saying this is a facetious article and those really aren't real comments pulled from the WWJ?

[BigRedBuster]

I'm seriously not trying to play dumb. I must totally be lost on your discussion.

[Landlord]

zoogs, sometimes you talk with such flowery language it's hard for some of us dummies to have any clue what the hell you're on about.

 

 

 

BRB, to translate, the article is satirical, and poking fun at how minority groups are occasionally represented with such broad, out-of-touch brushstrokes in the media, almost the way you'd imagine a narrator talking about certain kinds of animals on Planet Earth or something. I think.