Princeton Freshman Sick Of Being Told To 'Check Your Privilege'

[georgiaboy]

This is ridiculous. Sickening, even.

Everyone in America has been blessed with immeasurable privilege.

Compared to the rest of the world we are ALL privileged.

Get a bigger view, and stop with the nitpicking over the vintage of your smartphone or the relative size of your inheritance.

Who among us has missed a meal, a roof, a frock?

Our poor people are FAT.

Check my privilege? Check YOURS, and stop with the whining.

I could go on.

 

[tod evans]

This is ridiculous. Sickening, even.

Everyone in America has been blessed with immeasurable privilege.

Compared to the rest of the world we are ALL privileged.

Get a bigger view, and stop with the nitpicking over the vintage of your smartphone or the relative size of your inheritance.

Who among us has missed a meal, a roof, a frock?

Our poor people are FAT.

Check my privilege? Check YOURS, and stop with the whining.

I could go on.

Some in the US are privileged enough to get fat, have a smart-phone and nice clothes at others expense....

 

[acptulsa]

What gets to me is how many people think being allowed to run around trying to lay a guilt trip on everyone they meet is a real privilege.

I prefer to avail myself of my privilege to be less antisocial than that.

 

[specsaregood]

What gets to me is how many people think being allowed to run around trying to lay a guilt trip on everyone they meet is a real privilege.

Its not a guilt trip; its an insult. It's meant to imply that you didn't get where you are due to hard work, merit, or inherent abilities. ie: you didn't build that.

 

[Philhelm]

That is just falling for the trap. I argue that the moment you respond angrily, get mad or upset you have already lost. The same goes for trying to justify or explain the lack of privilege like the OP article. Why get mad or justify an absurd claim which is really meant to be an insult?

I think I would respond with something such as:

Them: "Check your privilege!"
Me: "Check yourself. I wasn't privileged; I was blessed."
Or
Them: "Check your privilege!"
Me: "There is no need to belittle yourself for my sake."

I think the solution is to troll them harder, and be as offensive as possible. Lament the fact that you can no longer buy and sell Negros. Lament the fact that women dare to hold themselves as the intellectual equals of their men-folk. Lament the fact that minimum wage has limited the number of Mexicans you can employ on your plantation (this one might confuse them, however).

 

[satchelmcqueen]

a big "fuck you" would be good enough.

If somebody ever told me to "check your privilege" I'm not quite sure how I would respond. It'd be tough to come up with a friendly response; which is perhaps the point. To upset and troll you. I'm gonna have to think about that so I have something prepared in case the day arrives.

 

[Pericles]

It must be around here somewhere .... I had it just a few generations ago.

 

[LibForestPaul]

Its not a guilt trip; its an insult. It's meant to imply that you didn't get where you are due to hard work, merit, or inherent abilities. ie: you didn't build that.

Dah comrade. Be thankful to the state for your glorious gifts of privilege.

 

[Elias Graves]

Check your privilege.

Check. I got it right here. I was privileged to be born into the freest nation God has yet conceived.

 

[DamianTV]

So unprivileged people are more deserving of privileges than privileged people?

 

[osan]

If somebody ever told me to "check your privilege" I'm not quite sure how I would respond.

"Excuse me? Are you talking to me? Are you presuming to give me instruction as to how I am supposed to act and think? Because if you are, I will give you 30 seconds to get as much distance between us as you are able. If I find your irksome presence to be further violating my right to move about peaceably after the time is up, I will proceed to break your arms, legs, both collar bones, and as many of the bones in your hands and feet as I am able. Are we clear? One, two, three..."

It'd be tough to come up with a friendly response; which is perhaps the point.

Why would you be friendly? I would be coldly hostile such that the utterer of such offensively presumptuous inanities would know for certain that he was in the presence of the Devil Himself and would be heading for the hills. That, or were I in a mood to toy with him, would lead the poor sot on a circuitous journey of self discovery where he would assassinate himself at the end of my Socratic method.

One way or they other, I would destroy they prick.

To upset and troll you.

I don't get upset. Upset is a choice. I eliminate problems, by hook or by crook; I get them out of my hair and I leave their undies in a soiled state doing it. It is I who upset them.

I'm gonna have to think about that so I have something prepared in case the day arrives.

You can always go with something that requires little thought: "Get the fuck away from me." You'd be amazed at how effective this can be. And yes, I've used it. Growing up in NYC, one inherits any of a number of certain higly localized attitudes. This was mine. I really don't like to be bothered.

 

[osan]

I'm Hispanic, so I don't have to check any privilege.

I'm lily-white, and neither do I.

 

[VIDEODROME]

Its not a guilt trip; its an insult. It's meant to imply that you didn't get where you are due to hard work, merit, or inherent abilities. ie: you didn't build that.

So what if I didn't? What if I am privileged?

What if 'privilege' is something to try and gain through networking? These days if you manage to get a decent job, you probably have privilege either from family connection or social connections you created yourself.

 

[osan]

Really? Now we have to give excuses for why we're not privileged to which people can just sit on their high horses (or rather, high chairs) and tell us whether our excuse is good enough? Give me a break.

We don't need no steenkeeng justifications.

 

[parocks]

If somebody ever told me to "check your privilege" I'm not quite sure how I would respond. It'd be tough to come up with a friendly response; which is perhaps the point. To upset and troll you. I'm gonna have to think about that so I have something prepared in case the day arrives.

If the person who is telling you to "check your privilege" gives you your grades, you really can't come up with a nice retort. If you have something that can be taken away from you if you're videoed or otherwise recorded saying something that some others might not like, you really can't come up with a nice retort.

Basically, if there consequences, you can't say what you want, if there aren't, it shouldn't be hard, at all, to figure out something to say right on the spot.

"WTF is that? You gonna try to get me fired for saying things you don't like? Shut the fk up. You suck, your opinions suck, you're turning America into a garbage country. Where the hell do you get off on telling me I have to check my freedom of speech? You aren't in charge of me. Suck it."

Pretty much something like that is appropriate for anybody trying to correct you for anything, modify your behavior. But, again, if there are consequences, you can't do that. It helps, if you happen to look like a homeless person, if you're really comfortable that you almost certainly have better degrees than they have.

 

[parocks]

a big "fuck you" would be good enough.

Yes. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" And then explain why that person is the worst person in the world.

 

[amy31416]

Tell 'em that your meth head mama is turning tricks in the trailer park to help buy your books, but she seems to be forgetting to send the cash, so it's all good.

 

[rp08orbust]

There is a small list of acceptable excuses:

Black or Latino or mixed race
Homosexual
Extremely liberal (only if Black, Latino or Asian)
Not Christian (must also be militantly anti-Christian)

Being Latino only granted you an automatic exemption from privilege checks before George Zimmerman. Now, in any conflict, skin pigment levels must be compared to determine who is in need of a check.

 

[Czolgosz]

Dear Tal,

Welcome to Humanity.

Sincerely,

Cz

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Don't check it, destroy it.

I don't understand. Why hasn't he killed himself?