Althouse: "What the researchers found is that among social liberals... reading a text about white privilege did nothing to significantly increase their sympathy toward the plight of poor blacks."

May 25, 2019

"What the researchers found is that among social liberals... reading a text about white privilege did nothing to significantly increase their sympathy toward the plight of poor blacks."

"But... 'it did significantly bump down their sympathy for a [hypothetical] poor white person.' (Among conservative participants, there was observed no significant change in attitudes at all.) What accounts for this? One possibility is that social liberals are internalizing white-privilege lessons in a way that flattens the image of whites, portraying all of them as inherently privileged. So if a white person is poor, it must be his or her own fault. After all, they’ve had all sorts of advantages in life that others haven’t."

From "What Does Teaching ‘White Privilege’ Actually Accomplish? Not What You Might Think (Or Hope)" by Zaid Jilani (Quillette).

What if "white privilege" is a sign for the empathy off-ramp?

51 comments:

Gahrie said...: The only person it is legal to discriminate against today is a heterosexual White male. Government regulations often explicitly demand it.

I guess that's our privilege.; 5/25/19, 8:10 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Why am I supposed to be sympathetic to the plight of poor blacks, that is any more sympathetic than I am toward anybody struggling with poverty?

This deeply ingrained notion that whites are obliged to worry constantly about blacks is, I say in the strongest terms available, pig shit stupid. I have no such obligation.

This is about belief in witchcraft, the strange notion that what whites think and say about blacks determines the outcome of blacks' lives.

Blacks are responsible for their own lives.; 5/25/19, 8:12 AM
rhhardin said...: Whites get gains from trade by following trust conventions, reducing costs.; 5/25/19, 8:14 AM
gilbar said...: in my experience, social liberals actual opinions of blacks couldn't get any lower than they already are. That's what being a social liberal Means:
I'M so super awesome, that those poor darkies need my help!
Poor white trash, are just trash to them; and thanx to white privilege, they don't have to pretend; 5/25/19, 8:15 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: People do lie on surveys...

Especially anything controversial, such as race.

See recent polling in the Au election.; 5/25/19, 8:15 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Is this the white man's burden?; 5/25/19, 8:15 AM
traditionalguy said...: White Privilege is a Hoax. It really does not exist. But imagining that it exists gives the educated that old time "we are superior to Southerners" thrill that is the mother's milk of Northern politics.It is a spin off of BS that made The Southern Poverty Law Center scam work .; 5/25/19, 8:17 AM
Gahrie said...: White supremacy is a way of explaining why Whites as a group are more successful than Black or Brown people without blaming the Black and Brown people for their low IQs and dysfunctional culture.; 5/25/19, 8:22 AM
chickelit said...: White liberals in hiring positions are the most bigoted people in the job market. They actively discriminate against white males, openly stating that they prefer to hire women or minorities, especially in STEM fields.; 5/25/19, 8:26 AM
madAsHell said...: White privilege?? It's nothing more that 15 to 20 points of IQ.; 5/25/19, 8:36 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Considering the rich white progressive doesn't care about the plight of anyone, other than illegal entrants voting for them so they can remain in power, and considering the rich white progressive wants to destroy the middle class, for the sake of their own power - none of this is surprising.; 5/25/19, 8:39 AM
Michael The Magnificent said...: 'it did significantly bump down their sympathy for a [hypothetical] poor white person.'

Well, there is no such thing as a poor white person. See, from the moment you pop out of the womb and your skin color is seen as light enough, a red carpet is rolled out for the rest of your life. Your teachers automatically give you good grades, your neighbors automatically pay you to cut their lawns and shovel their driveways (even though you never do any of those things), and high paying jobs are just lined up for you.

No, you don't actually have to study, you don't actually have to work, you don't actually have to be responsible, you don't actually have to be law abiding, nor personable, nor smart.

You are showered with wealth and opportunity simply because of white privilege, and nothing more.

Or so we're told.; 5/25/19, 8:40 AM
Fernandinande said...: False teachings don't accomplish what you might think or hope because they're false.

One possibility is that social liberals are internalizing white-privilege lessons in a way that flattens the image of whites, portraying all of them as inherently privileged.

Well duh. That is the intent behind abusing the term "white privilege".; 5/25/19, 8:42 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Why do we never hear about yellow privilege? Asian-Americans are disproportionately successful; 5/25/19, 8:43 AM
gilbar said...: No, you don't actually have to study, you don't actually have to work, you don't actually have to be responsible, you don't actually have to be law abiding, nor personable, nor smart.
You are showered with wealth and opportunity simply because of white privilege, and nothing more.

I think that's called "BETO Privilege"; 5/25/19, 8:49 AM
Fernandinande said...: Zaid Jilani is a journalist who hails from Atlanta, Georgia. He has previously worked as a reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress, United Republic, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Alternet
and he says
"There is a sizable racial wealth gap, a life expectancy gap, and an incarceration gap."

Naughty racist privileged white people are not at the top of any of those lists of differences ("gap" is the wrong term), e.g.

List of ethnic groups in the United States by household income
Indian American (2016) : $122,026 [2]
Taiwanese American (2016) : $90,221 [3]
Filipino American (2016) : $88,745 [2]
British American (2016) : $79,872[3]
Austrian American (2016) : $78,127[3]
Russian American (2016): $77,841[3]
...; 5/25/19, 8:50 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Smollett, Sharpton, Jackson demonstrates the superior essence of Black Privilege. Gettin away with it in front of the whole nation!; 5/25/19, 8:51 AM
daskol said...: Mission accomplished in term of relative empathy achieved. It’s the Harrison Bergeron school of social equity.; 5/25/19, 8:57 AM
wendybar said...: Democrat privilege is a thing. (look at what the Clintons have gotten away with)...White privilege not so much. It is a rallying cry for liberals to divide by race.; 5/25/19, 9:00 AM
Fernandinande said...: From a much better quillette article:

The narrative of privilege and “structural oppression” almost by definition turns the “privileged” into witting or unwitting oppressors who can be easily demonized.; 5/25/19, 9:02 AM
Fernandinande said...: Aspen Institute's "Weave: The Social Fabric Project" is inadvertently amusing:

An earlier version of this manifesto appears as the conclusion of David Brooks forthcoming book, “The Second Mountain (The Joy of Giving Yourself Away)” which can be purchased here.

Give yourself away, whatever that means, but sell your books.; 5/25/19, 9:09 AM
Big Mike said...: I grew up as a skinny white kid in a quarry town to whom schoolwork came easy, so my “white privilege” was getting the snot beaten out of me. I will be pleased to share that privilege with any social liberal.; 5/25/19, 9:10 AM
traditionalguy said...: The true danger we have to deal with is White Dehumanization. That is the sine qua non for white extermination. The South African Boer Farmers have suddenly discovered that they are all on a State murder hit list for their alleged "white privilege".; 5/25/19, 9:11 AM
Leland said...: In order to recognize and accept "White Privilege", a "white" must first segregate themselves from the rest of the society based on the color of their skin. Next, the "white" must accept that despite whatever hardship they knew when growing up and whatever effort they put in to improve their life; they had it easy and it was all handed to them. In short, they have to accept they are lesser people based on the color of their skin. This is the Democrat message, which hasn't changed in 150 years.; 5/25/19, 9:25 AM
Narr said...: One of the small but telling streams of immigration that I have observed is white South Africans, and in academe Jewish South Africans, getting out while the getting's good.

As to the view of lowerclass whites by others, true story. When my son was small we lived in a nice working-to-middle-class neighborhood where most but not all of the owner-occupants were white, but around the corner was a stretch of rental duplexes, mostly black. Those kids could and did ride their bikes and hang out on the better side--it was shady, and there were a few casual kid-friendships between the two groups. Anyway, my son and I came home one afternoon and there were five or six of the duplex kids riding their bikes in front of our house.
We park on the street and start toward the house but have to dodge a black girl, maybe seven or eight, who zooms by, looks at my blond blue eyed son, and says, "Get out my way, you white nigger."

And they were gone.

Narr
I had not heard a child use the n-word in the previous 10 or 15 years, and never since; 5/25/19, 9:28 AM
Dude1394 said...: I have some serious white privileged. Here is how I got it
- I stayed in school
- I didn’t father children out of wedlock.
- I didn’t do drugs
- I got a job and worked hard at it.
- I spent less than I earned.

That’s it. You too can have some serious white privilege if you want it.; 5/25/19, 9:29 AM
wild chicken said...: Oh it's a study eh?

Replicable I'm sure.; 5/25/19, 9:32 AM
Crimso said...: 'What if "white privilege" is a sign for the empathy off-ramp?'

People tend not to manifest empathy resulting from bullshit. Rather than thinking "Oh, those poor unfortunates," they instead think "That's bullshit." Alleged liberals have more difficulty than most not falling for bullshit. A great deal of their world view rests on it, so they bitterly cling to it.; 5/25/19, 9:33 AM
robother said...: Evidence for John Derbyshire's thesis that the whole SJW thing is a war by one set of Whites (the self-defined "elite") against other Whites. Blacks, like Hispanics other ethnic minorities, are mere props in this war.

The damage done to Blacks by constantly harping on the evil, racist nature of US society is acceptable, indeed helpful, if it keeps Black dysfunction as a club to beat on deplorable Whites.; 5/25/19, 9:46 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne aka Doug Emhoff's Pimp Hand said...: robother said...

Evidence for John Derbyshire's thesis that the whole SJW thing is a war by one set of Whites (the self-defined "elite") against other Whites. Blacks, like Hispanics other ethnic minorities, are mere props in this war.

If you're going to quite Derb, use his terminology. "Goodwhites" (the White elite) vs. "Badwhites" (all other Whites). It drives the point home.; 5/25/19, 9:59 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne aka Doug Emhoff's Pimp Hand said...: Above: quite = quote.; 5/25/19, 10:00 AM
mandrewa said...: Sadly, it's not just white liberals.

It's a fairy tail to believe that other ethnic groups are particularly honest, or are not racist. All of these negative messages about white people are just sucked up by a lot of ears.; 5/25/19, 10:00 AM
William said...: I grew up in a housing project. My family was dysfunctional. I was an enlisted man in the service. I never once had a job that could remotely be described as glamorous or enviable. I had some financial success in life but that was mostly due to the durability of my back and my ability to tolerate tedium.....I've had a better life than JFK Jr and a much worse life than Michael Jordan.; 5/25/19, 10:18 AM
Narr said...: The way Race has been socially constructed in the past fifty years or so, and made THE dominant consideration in almost all issues of individual and group relations and dynamics, obscures, as it is meant to obscure, that humans have never lacked for reasons to enslave, oppress, exploit, hate, harass, and torture others--even others indistinguishable from them in every respect except some myth or opinion, or fashion sense.

By making everything turn on Race, they make everything, including history, turn on today's identity politics and grievances, real and increasingly imagined.

Race, Class, and Gender . . .

Narr
But the greatest of these is Race; 5/25/19, 10:23 AM
William said...: Granted that a fair amount of straight white men are assholes, but I don't think it fair to portray all assholes on the screen as being exclusively white, male, and straight. On a per capita basis I think that there are rather more assholes among other races, genders,and sexual orientations than among straight white men.; 5/25/19, 10:25 AM
rcocean said...: Isn't that the whole point of "White Privilege"? It supposed to destroy any sympathy for white people among "People of color". A side effect is to destroy any sympathy for poor whites among well-to-do whites. After all, poor whites should just use their "White privilege" to stop being poor. Besides, the middle class traditionally despises the "Poor Whites". This is just another justification.; 5/25/19, 10:49 AM
rcocean said...: Look, the whole rich whites using "people of color" as a stick to beat other whites has been going on for a long time.

Why do you think we imported thousands of African slaves? The big-land owners didn't want to just farm their own land, like the other yeoman farmers. They wanted to sit on the porch and drink mint-julips and sneer at the other whites. So they imported African slaves. Later, after the Civil war, the well-to-do, played the poor whites and blacks off each other. Now, the rich have been importing immigrants from all over the world to lower wages, bust unions, and boost their profits. And anyone who doesn't like it, is a "racist". Its always been disguised class warfare.; 5/25/19, 10:54 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: reading a text about white privilege did nothing to significantly increase their sympathy toward the plight of poor blacks. But, “it did significantly bump down their sympathy for a [hypothetical] poor white person.”

a lowering of tides sinks all boats; 5/25/19, 11:09 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: They really are the New Victorians. Taking up the white man’s burden crossed with a heapin’ helpin’ of the lower classes smell.; 5/25/19, 11:17 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I grew up with poor white children (my family wasn't, though we weren't rich either). Pretty much everyone I went to school with came from families below the poverty line at that time, and everyone had guns, including me. However, it wasn't anything like the South or West Side of Chicago.; 5/25/19, 11:24 AM
Biff said...: gilbar said..."in my experience, social liberals actual opinions of blacks couldn't get any lower than they already are. {snip} Poor white trash, are just trash to them; and thanx to white privilege, they don't have to pretend"

The advantage to this is that it allows social liberals to think, "I can't be racist, since I think white trash are lower than black people."; 5/25/19, 12:05 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: I love Quillette so much.; 5/25/19, 12:18 PM
Rory said...: "I can't be racist, since I think white trash are lower than black people."

This is why we have to move up the ladder from racism to bigotry generally. One can be a bigot against one's own race. It just requires being a snob.; 5/25/19, 12:25 PM
CWJ said...: "False teachings don't accomplish what you might think or hope because they're false."

And there you have it.; 5/25/19, 3:15 PM
Sam L. said...: Lefties just KNOW they're better than those poor white folks.; 5/25/19, 3:45 PM
n.n said...: Jew privilege... White privilege... Male privilege... Diversity breeds adversity.; 5/25/19, 3:48 PM
wildswan said...: "There is a sizable racial wealth gap, a life expectancy gap, and an incarceration gap."

And, speaking of white privilege, there's sizable abortion gap. Black babies are disproportionately aborted. And in consequence the number of black Americans is diminishing in this country both relatively and absolutely. If it were not for abortion, the blacks would still be the largest minority in this country. Someday people will wake up and notice these facts. And then it might be important to be one of the people who supported laws like the Alabama abortion law. Maybe then there won't be any kind of defense allowed against accusations of supporting a black genocide except to say you did not support it, you opposed abortion on demand.; 5/25/19, 7:22 PM
Fen said...: Isn't that the whole point of "White Privilege"?

The point is to assert that White's didn't earn what they have and therefor it's okay to take their stuff, their promotions, their lives.

The problem with this line of argument is that it grants Whites are superior. If the "privilege" side of the argument falls apart, what are you left with?

And again, really really really unwise to get Whites to identify tribally. If there were true White Supremacist movement alive and well in this nation, it wouldn't last more than a year, because everyone else would be dead by then. Imagine hordes of Norsemen commanded by Rommel.; 5/25/19, 7:43 PM
Fen said...: but I don't think it fair to portray all assholes on the screen as being exclusively white, male, and straight.

That idea in itself was another contradiction that undermined their point - we can cast whites as Black Hats because their conflict resolution diagram doesn't immediately jump to race riots and burning down Ferguson because they were "disrespected".

You know who throws a snit because they were "disrespected"? People who are insecure and think they are inferior.; 5/25/19, 7:46 PM
Fen said...: "There is a sizable racial wealth gap, a life expectancy gap, and an incarceration gap."

Which is mostly due to the Father gap. Which is by design - the Left wanted to destroy black families so that blacks would be perpetually dependent on the State. Slavery by Gov Cheese instead of shackles.

Oh, and just for the record - the GOP is not much better. There is NO excuse for 90% Black support for Dems. What it means is that the GOP isn't really trying convert blacks. It's a more subtle racism - Mitt Romney would never blackball a black from joining his country club, but he wouldn't sponsor him either.

We need a good culling. Fire and blood.; 5/25/19, 7:51 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Nailed it.; 5/26/19, 3:01 AM