Opposites Day?
I've really been mulling over the whole Distress of the Privilege thing...how people view remedies for discrimination and/or addressing disparities as a form of oppression.
Some examples:
OH NOES: "[Straight] people need to protect the marriage, families, and children from gays and their efforts to access the right to marry."
WELL, ACTUALLY... The same people who feel their marriage/families/kids are under assault are assaulting other people's (namely, LGBTQ people's) marriages, families, by either preventing them from accessing civil rights or taking away their civil rights. There aren't very many gay people trying to take away straight people's rights to get married or adopt children, etc.
OH NOES: "There is a war on Christmas."
WELL, ACTUALLY... Christmas is the only federally recognized national holiday associated with any religion.
OH NOES: "Affirmative action is granting an unfair advantage to students of color."
WELL, ACTUALLY.... Affirmative action is pretty much the only program (and banned in a lot of places) that grants advantages to people of color at all. Other programs like legacy admissions and the uh, entire K to 12 system afford numerous advantages to white students.
OH NOES: "If you say that this role must go to an Asian actor your are discriminating against white actors!"
WELL, ACTUALLY... Lead roles are reserved for white actors all the time; meanwhile, communities of color have difficulty getting studios to consider casting actors of color in films at all.
OH NOES: "Mexican American studies program or Black History Month are discriminatory against white students. Teaching students about Mexican or black history will cause them to resent white people."
WELL, ACTUALLY... The mainstream educational curriculum will cover the history of white Americans and even Europe during any given month while contributions from people of color are touched on rarely, if at all--or really focused on only one month out of the year. People of color aren't rallying together to successfully ban white focused curriculum but school boards are banning PoC focused curriculum.
OH NOES: "The term 'people of color' excludes white people. The term 'feminism' excludes men. The term 'LGBTQ' excludes straight people."
WELL, ACTUALLY... These terms were created because these groups were being excluded...
OH NOES: "When a woman marries a man and does not take his last name, that is disrespectful to him."
WELL, ACTUALLY... This is a case where the woman is doing exactly the same thing the man is doing, so it's equal. The man is not expected to take the woman's last name. Even though it's equal, it is still seen as oppressive towards the man?
OH NOES: "Men of color are out to snatch and rape white women."
WELL, ACTUALLY... It was kind of the other way around...there were entire institutions set up to condone the rape of women of color by white men (slavery, wars in southeast Asia, etc.) while systems were set up formally (anti-miscegenation laws) and informally (lynching) to "protect white women."
OH NOES: "Women lie about being raped so they can ruin men's lives."
WELL, ACTUALLY... Men who rape lie about being rapists and often end up discrediting the victim, falsely accusing her of being a liar and ruining her life, so. Very rarely are men's lives actually ruined by rape accusations, especially false rape accusations, compared to the reality for women who are targeted by rapists...?
Anyhow, there's just a lot of these and I'm just stumped, stumped by it all.
Edit: Oh, oh, also:
OH NOES: "If you don't like it, why don't you do something about it instead of complaining/whining."
WELL, ACTUALLY... These people are trying to raise awareness not just complaining or whining...but you're complaining and whining about them. If you don't like people whining and complaining why don't you actually encourage society to address their concerns by uh...doing something about it.
Some examples:
OH NOES: "[Straight] people need to protect the marriage, families, and children from gays and their efforts to access the right to marry."
WELL, ACTUALLY... The same people who feel their marriage/families/kids are under assault are assaulting other people's (namely, LGBTQ people's) marriages, families, by either preventing them from accessing civil rights or taking away their civil rights. There aren't very many gay people trying to take away straight people's rights to get married or adopt children, etc.
OH NOES: "There is a war on Christmas."
WELL, ACTUALLY... Christmas is the only federally recognized national holiday associated with any religion.
OH NOES: "Affirmative action is granting an unfair advantage to students of color."
WELL, ACTUALLY.... Affirmative action is pretty much the only program (and banned in a lot of places) that grants advantages to people of color at all. Other programs like legacy admissions and the uh, entire K to 12 system afford numerous advantages to white students.
OH NOES: "If you say that this role must go to an Asian actor your are discriminating against white actors!"
WELL, ACTUALLY... Lead roles are reserved for white actors all the time; meanwhile, communities of color have difficulty getting studios to consider casting actors of color in films at all.
OH NOES: "Mexican American studies program or Black History Month are discriminatory against white students. Teaching students about Mexican or black history will cause them to resent white people."
WELL, ACTUALLY... The mainstream educational curriculum will cover the history of white Americans and even Europe during any given month while contributions from people of color are touched on rarely, if at all--or really focused on only one month out of the year. People of color aren't rallying together to successfully ban white focused curriculum but school boards are banning PoC focused curriculum.
OH NOES: "The term 'people of color' excludes white people. The term 'feminism' excludes men. The term 'LGBTQ' excludes straight people."
WELL, ACTUALLY... These terms were created because these groups were being excluded...
OH NOES: "When a woman marries a man and does not take his last name, that is disrespectful to him."
WELL, ACTUALLY... This is a case where the woman is doing exactly the same thing the man is doing, so it's equal. The man is not expected to take the woman's last name. Even though it's equal, it is still seen as oppressive towards the man?
OH NOES: "Men of color are out to snatch and rape white women."
WELL, ACTUALLY... It was kind of the other way around...there were entire institutions set up to condone the rape of women of color by white men (slavery, wars in southeast Asia, etc.) while systems were set up formally (anti-miscegenation laws) and informally (lynching) to "protect white women."
OH NOES: "Women lie about being raped so they can ruin men's lives."
WELL, ACTUALLY... Men who rape lie about being rapists and often end up discrediting the victim, falsely accusing her of being a liar and ruining her life, so. Very rarely are men's lives actually ruined by rape accusations, especially false rape accusations, compared to the reality for women who are targeted by rapists...?
Anyhow, there's just a lot of these and I'm just stumped, stumped by it all.
Edit: Oh, oh, also:
OH NOES: "If you don't like it, why don't you do something about it instead of complaining/whining."
WELL, ACTUALLY... These people are trying to raise awareness not just complaining or whining...but you're complaining and whining about them. If you don't like people whining and complaining why don't you actually encourage society to address their concerns by uh...doing something about it.