White male privilege

I was born with parental privilege.  I had the privilege of either getting with the program or getting my arse whipped.  My own children grew up with the same privilege.  I'm hoping my kids can't wait to beat their own children.

Dang it, you stole my thunder.  There's only one privilege that matters and that's parental privilege.  I don' care if you're black, white, rich, or poor.  If you have a solid family at home that loves you then you can do anything you want.

That being said, this doesn't mean you can't be successful if you grew up in a broken home, it just means you have another hurdle to overcome.  Outside of legitimate mental illness, there is nothing that keeps any of us from being wildly successful.

"If you are born poor its not your mistake, But if you die poor its your mistake". - Bill Gates

The fact that you don't think you have white privilege means you do.......geez.......try to keep up.

White privilege is just another justification for division.  You're a minority so you can't be as successful as white people.  Vote for me and I'll right the wrong and make you successful through more government...

How is this any different than a person who is non-white saying that white people have privilege?

I feel that minorities have incredible privileges that I do not have.  Easier to get into college, easier to get scholarships, easier to get promoted in many organizations.  I'm not a minority so does that mean I can speak about their privilege and they cannot?

There's a lot of problems with that video though.  It basically propagates the racial and ethnic stereotypes that people don't have the same opportunity in America when they actually do.
Here's another perspective on the very same video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rONeWUSeAyg

I think my passion on this topic is mostly based on the fact that I did start at the back of the line.  I was back there with blacks, whites, hispanics, native americans, and several others.  I was born into a welfare home, my parents divorced when I was five, I was homeless for several years, and would steal ketchup packets from the gas station as my only meal for the day at times.  I was both the victim and witness to all kinds of abuse, I was bullied, mocked, and outcast in school.  I had very few friends.

Everyone I knew, including most of my family would tell me how I couldn't be successful and everyone I was around heard the same things.  The system was rigged, the "man" was always going to take advantage of us, you name it.  What happens when people hear that their entire life?  They believe it and they live up (or down) to the expectation and never even try.

The one difference in my life was my Dad.  He had a lot of flaws, but he loved me as much as any father could ever love a son.  He believed in me and he always told me that I was the smartest person on earth and that I was going to do great things.  I believed him and I did exactly what he always believed I could do.
It wasn't easy and I had a lot of baggage strapped around my neck from my upbringing.  I had to learn to speak better, I had to learn how to shake a hand, I had to learn how to be respectful towards others.  I had to deal with extremely low self esteem and shame and went through years of counseling, but I did not ever believe that I was not going to be successful.  You could take everything away from me today and I guarantee you that I will be successful again in less than 5 years. 

To use a football analogy.  If Scott Frost went into the locker room and told all his UCF players that they were smaller, less capable, and Auburn had advantages in every way and would beat them before the game, how would that effect the players on the field?  However, he didn't tell them that.  He told them that they were just as capable and able to play with them like anybody else, and his team responded and won the game.

In life, when we talk about White Privilege, and people having advantage over one another, what we're really doing is telling the "disadvantaged" person that they are always going to be that way so don't even try.  Every single one of us have disadvantages in life.  Some are pretty, some are ugly (me), some are smart, some are dumb, some are strong, some are weak, etc.  However, we all have the ability to maximize our potential based on our desires and drive.

Our attitude towards life is what determines our success in life.  Not color, not sex, not intelligence, not anything.  Only our attitude.

I spend a lot of my time counseling young men who are in the same situation I was as a child and you will be amazed at how little hope and drive they have.  They have nobody in society that believes in them so they don't even want to try.  My story gives them some hope and when I hear from kids getting into college because somebody finally believed in them it is very emotional.

So, I strongly encourage everyone reading this to stop embracing stereotypes that keep people down and just simply encourage everyone to succeed.  No matter what their background they are not too far gone and can turn it around.  I could tell you some great stories about people I've worked with coming out of prison and it's amazing how powerful a positive attitude can be.

haha, I've thought about writing a book but remember that part about needing to learn how to speak better.  Yeah, I failed just about every english/writing class I ever took. 

"You didn't do any of that, someone did that for you"

lol, i know.  It was because I'm white.  I just sat back and let all the success come to me. 

My middle son got a dose of his white privilege when he was applying for college.  He always had a dream to go to MIT and worked his behind off to get there.  He had several state and regional awards for robotics design, did a lot of amazing things.  Scored a 35 on his ACT and had an amazing application package with lots of great recommendations.  Well MIT only accepts about 1500 students a year and is so big on "diversity" that they accept 50% women and 50% men (even though women are a much smaller percentage of applicants).  That narrows his chance down to 750 slots.  Well then they have to do 50% minority, even though far less than 50% of applicants are minorities.  Now it narrows it down to 375 spots available for the white males.
They get approximately 25k applicants every year and they don't share the demographics, but from what I've read about 80% of those are white males.  that basically makes it impossible for him to have a chance no matter what he did.  It would still be tough to get in if they allowed a more reflective mix based on applicants or the population as a whole, but being a white male is the absolute worse thing you can be when it comes to getting into a prestigious school.

If I were King I would give women Hollywood in exchange for keeping them out of sports broadcasting/commentary.