{"id":43889,"date":"2014-05-16T04:46:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T09:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=43889"},"modified":"2014-05-16T06:55:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T11:55:14","slug":"the-obligatory-privilege-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=43889","title":{"rendered":"The Obligatory Privilege Check"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:<\/p>\n

\u201cCheck my privilege?\u201d Okay, let\u2019s. Let\u2019s check the privileges that I enjoyed, which may have contributed to my success.<\/p>\n

A \u201cprivilege\u201d is only meaningful when it gives advantage between competitors. The Queen of England enjoys greater privileges than I but they don\u2019t affect my opportunity for success in Minnesota because she and I are not competing to succeed in the same arena. The privileges that contributed to my success were the ones I enjoyed but my competitors did not. What were they?<\/p>\n

I was born White, as were 98% of the people in Minnesota <\/a>at the time. Skin color could not have been the deciding factor that set me apart from other, less successful people of my generation. If being White was a privilege, everybody had it so nobody gained anything by it.<\/p>\n

My parents were married when I was born, as were 95% of other kids born in Minnesota at the tim<\/a>e, and stayed married throughout my childhood, as did more than 90% of the families <\/a>in my time. Legitimacy and intact family status could not have been the deciding factor, we all shared those privileges.<\/p>\n

My Dad had a full time job, as did 80% of men at the time<\/a>, while Mom stayed home with us kids, as did 60% of other Moms<\/a> . A possible factor.<\/p>\n

My Mom read stories to us kids, which instilled a life-long love of reading, which is the foundation of learning. That definitely was a facto<\/a>r.<\/p>\n

I graduated from high school, as did 75% of the kids in my rural, non-farm school; <\/a>and also graduated from college, as did 13% of Minnesotans at that time. <\/a> Definitely a factor.<\/p>\n

I avoided a felony conviction, as did all but 64,000<\/a> of 4,000,000 fellow Minnesotans.<\/a> When 99% of the population shares a characteristic, it\u2019s gives no privilege to any one of them.<\/p>\n

I worked full time days and studied law nights for four years, eventually making me one of 25,000 lawyers in the stat<\/a>e.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 when I \u201cCheck My Privilege,\u201d which of these factors should I be ashamed of?<\/p>\n

Yes, I was gifted with better-than-average intelligence. I freely acknowledge it and regret only that I haven\u2019t put my God-given abilities to better use. Brain power is not something anybody can do anything about so it\u2019s nothing I need to feel guilty about having.<\/p>\n

If society wants to identify the factors to success, it\u2019s worse than senseless to harp on factors people can\u2019t do anything about, such as intelligence or skin color, it’s wicked. Being born poor and Black does not absolutely condemn you to a life of poverty and crime – see the many Black people who succeeded. Making people think their lives are predetermined, that no amount of effort can make a difference, is soul-destroying evil.<\/p>\n

If society wants to identify the factors to success, we should emphasize the choices that everyone has control over. Wait to have kids until you\u2019re married. Stay married, for the kids\u2019 sake. Be involved in your children\u2019s education \u2013 read to them, make them do homework. Kids: stay in school until you graduate, then get a job and work at least 40 hours per week, and stay out of trouble with the law. Make the most of your God-given talents, whatever they may be.<\/p>\n

After you\u2019ve done all that to the best of your ability, if someone is still holding you back, then we can talk about race. Somehow, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a conversation the \u201cCheck Your Privilege\u201d crowd wants to have.
\nJoe Doakes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Privilege” is one of those charges that’s intended to shut down all “debate”.<\/p>\n

It needs to be answered, mocked, and shut down itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: \u201cCheck my privilege?\u201d Okay, let\u2019s. Let\u2019s check the privileges that I enjoyed, which may have contributed to my success. A \u201cprivilege\u201d is only meaningful when it gives advantage between competitors. The Queen of England enjoys greater privileges than I but they don\u2019t affect my opportunity for success in Minnesota […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43889"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43896,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43889\/revisions\/43896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}