Welcome to Gaia! ::

*headdesk*

My family. My highly conservative, racist, classist, ableist family. Deliberately goading me into a political discussion then shouting over me when I start talking about racism and classism and systematic oppression because "ZOMG WHITE PEOPLE ARE THE MINORITY AND WE'RE OPPRESSED!" and acknowledging white privilege means I'm "buying into white guilt." WHAT THE ******** DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?! I seriously don't get it.

I even tried explaining privilege to my sister in a way I KNEW she was capable of understanding; see, I'm pretty clever. Not bragging, I just am, guess I was born that way, or learning to read as early as I did stimulated some super-learning thing in my brain or something. I breezed through high school, graduated middle of my class, but got major grants and scholarships based on my high test scores--and I have never in my life studied for a test prior to college. Meanwhile, my sister's been working her arse off all through school for a class standing slightly lower than mine, studied for the ACT for six months to get a score only a few points lower than mine, and will be lucky to get the sort of aid I've recieved, because she's simply not as clever.

She was able to acknowledge that as unearned privilege given to me based on things beyond our control (my cleverness versus hers), but she and my parents flatly REFUSE the idea that it's possible to have unearned advantages based on economic class, race, able-bodiedness, sexuality, or gender.

All the headdesking I've been doing since coming home for this break is going to break my desk eventually. sad

Well, as much as you want to show them what amounts to a whole new world, they have to want it for themselves.

If it is that toxic for you to be too close to them, could you step back a bit and love them from more of a distance? Perhaps you could be a bit more busy, unless there's something you really need to do with or for them.

Because I'm hearing some things that remind me of real KKK members that I've been "privileged" to converse with... meanwhile, it sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders and heart to go with it.

Other than that, you could pray/ask your gods/(however you wish to phrase it) to help them grow in that area of their lives. Please understand that eventually, if you try that enough, something will change - even if its just you learning to accept their shortcomings.

Well that's stupid simply because white privilege (like male privilege) is real and simply a measure of what things non whites (and in the other example, females and open non cismales) are denied in society but are still given to whites (or males).

But white guilt is also to a certain extent a real thing, it's just a lot more rare. It's basically this idea among certain white people that all of us right now have a responsibility to pay for our "ancestor's" actions (even if none of your ancestors actually had a part in slavery, it's stupid I know).

So these are the white folk who support paying reparations to black folk, something any reasonable liberal person would disagree with.

Acknowledging white privilege does not mean you are part of white guilt though. That's just silly and dumb.

Indeed. No social grace, at all.

But it will all be alright. I'll just avoid her like the plague from now on. And when DB gets weak in the knees about telling her to buzz off, I'll do it.

Honestly, some people. The ******** coupon said "coupon must be given...", it's policy, and yet someone would honestly ******** argue about it. Then ask me to swap something for something we -physically can't swap-. What do these ******** expect me to do, magic them up a loophole somewhere? stare

ENJOY YOUR BARELY-FILLED, OLD CHIPS YOU b*****d. scream

The instant someone attaches the word "nazi" to something and calls me it, I stop taking them seriously and lose respect for them. This applies to the person who called me "stupid," a "feminazi," and said I "need to take an advertising class" when we were "discussing" (read: me getting bitched at for apparently not knowing how advertising works) when I was talking about how birth control ads show and reinforce the taboo in our society about female sexuality and desire and how healthy female bodies are constructed as somehow wrong if they bleed once a month without hormones. Also note that this discussion stemmed from me talking about my sociology project, which is specifically about how male bodies are constructed as a default and female bodies as "other" within medicine and how this harms female-bodied people. stare

Considering the comments other people in my sociology class have made when I've been asked about my project--no, they don't.

On the plus side, people's reactions have finally convinced me to definitely minor in gender studies.

Technically, I think it's called "Women's/Gender Studies," but people generally call it one or the other and everyone knows what they're talking about.