Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting

[downtoearth]

May 18, 2012 11:11:15 GMT -5 @bananafish said:

May 18, 2012 9:56:17 GMT -5 wawa said:

Banana - I think the problem is that you jump from the concept of white privilidge, which is a rather subtle thing to "white men don't have all the power" and try to use that fact to prove that the priviliedge doesn't exist. But it's more subtle than just "but these black guys are doing really well, and this white christian dude got shat on."

I'm curious about the EEOC termination trials you are referencing though. Can you tell me more about what you mean about white christian males always being in the wrong?

we may not be defining "privilege" the same way.... the only group i see with privileges not enjoyed by all equally is blacks and females. i feel that any privilege a white man may enjoy over any other group exists solely in the imaginations of those who cling to hate and excuses for their own failures or lack of fortune. for you to have and me to have not does not mean that you have more privileges than i do. i am still just as free to go out and do better and make my own success.

with the termination trials, the fight was about the employees i fired tried to sue saying i fired them for their race instead of their performance. of course i had the documentation to show their poor performance and my efforts to help them correct the problem with training, coaching, progressive discipline, etc. they lost every case against me. but some of them got smart and figured out that they couldn't win against me in court, so they went after my boss who is a white christian male. one case is still pending and the other was basically settled (we paid them their stinking unemployment) because there is no way my boss could win against a black woman with a special needs child. i testified since i'm the supervisor that did the documentation and took the action to terminate, but it didn't help the case (as it did in every other similar case) because they targeted the white man as the racist rather than the asian woman. it was ridiculous. i've had many similar experiences at this and other work places. i found out that black lady with the special needs child was frauding the worker's comp system. i brought it to my director (the white guy) who said i was right, this was fraud, but i should really let it go. i couldn't believe he suggested such a thing. since i was not going to let it go, he said HR is who needs to get the report since they handle workers comp claims. I went to HR and was shocked and embarrassed by the response I got. The HR lady, a black lady, said that it was my fault for looking into her timecard records and comparing to her doctor's notes and finding the discrepancy. i was like what? it's my job to approve her timecards and make sure there's a note for every worker's comp visit. when i protested her response to her director, she denied everything and gave me a number to call to report it to some other agency. bah. it was so wrong. i can not respect the ethics of that HR lady. she is so wrong in so many ways but she's a black woman, so they'll never remove her.

in my experience, white males are the easiest group to fire. black women are the hardest. given the same amount of documentation and policies followed, it's still gonna be 2 years in legal battles and crap before it's settled with a complaining black woman. the white male who protested against me was laughed out of court.

So taking out race...you found an error in time records, your boss told you to not do anything else, but bring up with HR. HR told you to not do anything else, but you went ahead and fired someone without the consent of your boss or HR.

Sounds like a boss and HR problem - and maybe a little mgmt from you since you didn't bring it up to the employee first to let them know that they had "made a mistake or error" on their time sheet that month. Why did you bring race in to begin with...did you fire a white, christian male for the same thing without repurcussions that we can use to compare?

[cookiemdough]

I don't have the strength to respond when someone is clearly willing to ignore all statistical data and instead chooses to make erroneous claims based on the "complaining black female" in her office.

[wawa]

Banana - No we are not defining priviledge the same way. You can't say that something doesn't exist and then make your case by changing the definition.

It's like saying horses don't exist, because I've never seen a four legged white furry mammal with hooves, a long mane and tail and single curly horn growing from it's forehead and neither have you!

And that's true...I've never seen such a thing. But that's because it's not a fucking horse, it's a unicorn.

White priviledge =/= lollipops handed out to white christian males by law every time they take a shit. Priviledge doesn't even mean that there are gov't programs geared to help you out. And it doesn't mean non-white, non-straight, non-christian people can't suceed. AT ALL.

It just means they have also deal with existing deep seated biases in our legal system, in our educational system, in hiring patterns, and just in how the average person treats them in their daily life on top of whatever other shit they have going on.

[wawa]

Also I can't spell privilege.

[msmerymac]

Wait, you've been sued for firing people 6 different times? That seems a bit above average.

Also, it's a pity we've never had any white Christian males as president, being so discriminated against and whatnot.

[gault]

Maybe you're a shitty manager.

[dev22]

Any you people were worried the crazy wound't find its way over here.

And by you people, I don't mean single christian white males.

[NitaX]

May 17, 2012 22:07:29 GMT -5 ceejay said:

Shadow & Nitaw- have you brought your FB friends over here? LOL

Girl, I don't know how this foolishness got in here. Lawd Jesus.

Black folk, lemme ask you this, did all of you get an employee ID number when you got hired? Did it also read like this ... 25T. That being you are the 25th Token minority hired?

[Guest]

Banana,

PLEASE read a little about white privilege. I really don't think you understand the concept.

I'd suggest starting with Peggy McIntosh. Here's an excerpt:

www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf

[iammalcolmx]

May 17, 2012 17:17:54 GMT -5 @bananafish said:

being an MMO, RPG, RTS junky and minority female, i wholeheartedly disagree with the sentiment that straight white male is the easiest difficulty in the game of life here in america. i think it's just the opposite. racism is reversed these days in politics, schools and the work place. affirmative action and quotas benefit who and hurt who? federal law mandates that the straight white man's life should be harder, harder to get a job, harder to get into college, harder to get that promotion. add christian in there and OMG, that ramps it up from Heroic to Legendary mode.

Being a minority female married to whitey I can tell you what you said was 10000000% untrue.

[chichimi]

Tim Wise is also a great place to start. Ignorance of white privilege is, in and of itself, evidence of white privilege.

[iammalcolmx]

(1) Tha fuck is reserve racism? (2) I attended a HBCU which went out of it's way to recruit White students.

[iammalcolmx]

(1) Tha fuck is reserve racism? (2) I attended a HBCU which went out of it's way to recruit White students.

[iammalcolmx]

May 18, 2012 14:32:12 GMT -5 @bananafish said:

May 18, 2012 14:22:55 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

Being a minority female married to whitey I can tell you what you said was 10000000% untrue.

i am also married to a white man. (i'm half korean, half white). life is harder for him than for me cuz i'm female and minority. your life experience has been much different than mine apparently. doesn't mean my life didn't happen.

perhaps there's local differences in customs.... i live in the bible belt. whites are known to be the devil here.

I live in Georgia. My husbands career has been fantastic here. He has never been passed over for a promotion because of his race. Your perspective is very confusing to me. How exactly has your husbands life been heard?

[wawa]

Whites are the devil in the bible belt? Banana - yes, you apparently have had a very VERY different set of life expeiriences than most people I know.

look...I've tried to be nice and logical, but if your husband TRULY feels widely persecuted in the bible belt for being a straight, white, christian male then I'm pretty damned sure that what he needs is some anti-psychotic medication. Because that shit is CRAZY.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 14:32:12 GMT -5 @bananafish said:

perhaps there's local differences in customs.... i live in the bible belt. whites are known to be the devil here.

[dev22]

May 18, 2012 14:43:09 GMT -5 wawa said:

Whites are the devil in the bible belt? Banana - yes, you apparently have had a very VERY different set of life expeiriences than most people I know.

look...I've tried to be nice and logical, but if your husband TRULY feels widely persecuted in the bible belt for being a straight, white, christian male then I'm pretty damned sure that what he needs is some anti-psychotic medication. Because that shit is CRAZY.

::sits down with wawa::

[NitaX]

May 18, 2012 14:43:09 GMT -5 wawa said:

Whites are the devil in the bible belt? Banana - yes, you apparently have had a very VERY different set of life expeiriences than most people I know.

look...I've tried to be nice and logical, but if your husband TRULY feels widely persecuted in the bible belt for being a straight, white, christian male then I'm pretty damned sure that what he needs is some anti-psychotic medication. Because that shit is CRAZY.

Only crazy Rebel Flag Dress wearing white folks are considered the devil.

[chichimi]

I dont care where you are but you'd better be glad you are out of arms reach of any of us.
Go read. Go watch some video clips. Dont come back in here with this ish again.

[Deleted]

Unless you think Compton is the Bible belt, you be smoking that good shit, for realz.

[NitaX]

May 18, 2012 15:00:22 GMT -5 @chichimi said:

I dont care where you are but you'd better be glad you are out of arms reach of any of us.
Go read. Go watch some video clips. Dont come back in here with this ish again.

Chicimi -
Did you just say ish?! LOL

[meshaliuknits]

May 18, 2012 15:05:11 GMT -5 @habbsies said:

Unless you think Compton is the Bible belt, you be smoking that good shit, for realz.

It's a common mistake, really.

[chichimi]

May 18, 2012 15:07:00 GMT -5 NitaX said:

May 18, 2012 15:00:22 GMT -5 @chichimi said:

I dont care where you are but you'd better be glad you are out of arms reach of any of us.
Go read. Go watch some video clips. Dont come back in here with this ish again.

Chicimi -
Did you just say ish?! LOL

I did. Am I not supposed to?

[nerdicorn]

May 17, 2012 17:17:54 GMT -5 @bananafish said:

being an MMO, RPG, RTS junky and minority female, i wholeheartedly disagree with the sentiment that straight white male is the easiest difficulty in the game of life here in america. i think it's just the opposite. racism is reversed these days in politics, schools and the work place. affirmative action and quotas benefit who and hurt who? federal law mandates that the straight white man's life should be harder, harder to get a job, harder to get into college, harder to get that promotion. add christian in there and OMG, that ramps it up from Heroic to Legendary mode.

[NitaX]

May 18, 2012 15:09:20 GMT -5 @chichimi said:

May 18, 2012 15:07:00 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Chicimi -
Did you just say ish?! LOL

I did. Am I not supposed to?

LOL - No you are good. I'm just tickled that you have adopted my slang.

[nerdicorn]

May 18, 2012 14:24:49 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

(1) Tha fuck is reserve racism?

It's like misandry and unicorns- things that don't actually exist.

[marie427]

I can't believe I didn't stumble into this thread until now.

[Deleted]

You know how we now make white people sit in the back of the bus, pick cotton, play NBA ball, shuck and jive, and raise our children?

Oh we don't do that?

Then damn, I need to know what reverse racism is then because I plumb forgot, yall.

[dev22]

May 18, 2012 15:08:26 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

May 18, 2012 15:05:11 GMT -5 @habbsies said:

Unless you think Compton is the Bible belt, you be smoking that good shit, for realz.

It's a common mistake, really.

Sometimes when I drive by Compton I get confused and think I am in Kansas.

[wawa]

May 18, 2012 15:17:38 GMT -5 dev22 said:

May 18, 2012 15:08:26 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

It's a common mistake, really.

Sometimes when I drive by Compton I get confused and think I am in Kansas.

Out of everything in this thread, THIS is the thing that's going to get my fired. I just cried a little.