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user-inactivated  ·  2539 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 5, 2017

The people running these types of classes are almost always trust fund kids who grew up in gated communities and never had to make the choice of paying for gas in the car or food. If you are not in the top 20% life ain't all sunshine and flowers, and there are millions of people in the bottom 40% that through no fault of there own are in a terrible place. There is only one privilege in this world and that is cash money. What you look like is the least interesting thing about you and only tells a superficially marginal part of your life story.

Something else? There is no such thing as "white people" in the same as there is no such thing as "Asian people" or "black people." The Irish, French, Italians, Spanish, British, Russians and Iranians are all Caucasian and all have a radically different interactions with the world at large; different histories, different religions, cultures, languages. A dark skinned man from Niger, or South Africa, Haiti, South Chicago or even an Australian Aborigine are all "black" and all have radically different life paths and experiences. And if you think all Asians are the same, go to Korea and call a random person there Japanese and see what happens to you. Go to Viet Nam or Cambodia and call the locals Chinese and see what happens to you. (Note, don't do this as you will get the shit beat out of you.)

The focus on race is lazy and counterproductive; watching some of these courses online I get a distinct religious vibe. There has been a lot of evil terrible disgusting shit done to people in this country and in this world based solely on what they look like. That history need to be taught so that it is not forgotten, so that we can use the past as a marker for forward progress. I still have the hope that we can work past this nonsense, but these type of courses make me think we are regressing away from that goal.