White guilt at its finest. Listen, his heart is truly in the right place, and while I'm certain being white did open some doors for him, he overlooks the most important part of his story: Money. He didn't succeed because of white privilege, he succeeded because his family had money. His story is about how many obstacles money eliminated from his life, not how many his skin color eliminated. Without money, he wouldn't have been able to move to a nice suburb and attend a good school. So, where would he be now without those advantages?
Sure, the overall story starts off by pointing out how few opportunities there
were for black people in the early 1900s, but we were still coming out of a period where half the country thought of them as property, not people. (And technically, it wasn't even half the country. If you go back and look, most people didn't own slaves, only rich land owners did. I guess they had white privilege before it was even a thing.) Women were also oppressed at the time. Equality was never a big thing at any point in human history up to then, but it was becoming important. However, it's not like people just declared, "let's be equal" and overnight everyone lived in the same neighborhoods. As his own article points out:
She sold that house, and used the proceeds to buy a much smaller house in Glen Ellyn, IL, a wealthy, nearly all-white (at the time) suburb of Chicago.
Emphasis mine. Clearly the racist overlords were asleep at the wheel if black people somehow got into that neighborhood!!! Or maybe this is proving my point about how equality was becoming a bigger thing and more opportunities were opening up for POC. I'm guessing these were hard working folks who busted their ass to get there rather than sitting around whining about how they deserve to be handed things (something people of all races do and have done forever).
This isn't saying white privilege doesn't exist because being white comes with certain expectations and naturally makes you more appealing to other people that look like you. (Something that is true of all races.) However, it didn't help him in his life as much as he thinks it did. Green money was the key to his success, not white skin.
The gentleman in the video below grew up in the same country as the veggie guy in the article and had a very different path to success, but he achieved that success. Watch the video, not only does he hit on an interesting tidbit about "poverty being in our DNA" that I want to find out more about, but he directly addresses Don Lemon giving him the typical "woe is me" excuses people use for why they haven't made it.
https://youtu.be/StNCmOBDIag
Onto other things racism...
This isn't just a great slam, it's something black people should be asking the Democratic Party:
Post note on the protest in my burb. I missed most of it as I had golf league, but it was peaceful. I caught the tail end. Cops were there, but just in their cars helping the protesters march without getting run over. I didn't see many black people, which is actually fine. Not too many in the community, so it really was a nice message of support. I'd guess the number of protesters that I saw to be about 100. I also didn't see any mysterious pallets of bricks anywhere. (Anyone get that joke?)
Being a guy, skin color has NOTHING to do with this, I always wonder how many guys show up at protests not really giving a shit about the issue, but just hoping to get laid.
TheCatt wrote: Follow-up on the mayor's threat (and eventual removal) to remove the statue
I won't even comment on the other quoted stuff. Stupidity like that isn't worth the typing.
I'm still very torn on the removal of statues and such. I think I'm fine with removing stuff with the stipulation that they be placed into a museum. We should never forget our past. Where my problem lies is people trying to apply today's social values to people who lived hundreds of years ago. It's complete bullshit.