Derailing [conversations about Priviledge] For Dummies

No, they really don't.

@Aondeug [sighs]

@KCK, Hey now, it sounds like you're marginalizing me based off of my nationality!

Like I said, I can almost agree with what this person is saying. Don't think that I go around trivializing the experiences of minorities left and right in my daily routine. I agree that doing things like simply accusing people of being hostile, or overly emotional, or telling them they just like to be offended when they bring up valid points is a terrible thing to do.

...but then I come across stuff like:

You see, the very capacity to conduct studies, collect data and write detached “fact-based” reports on it, is an inherently privileged activity.

and

If a Marginalised Person™ gives you a personal testament, then you must immediately assume they are speaking on behalf of their entire group of people and be very quick to point out that it’s wrong for them to do so.

and whatever sympathy I had just flies right out the window.

KCK: Watch out or you too will be on my list.

edited 25th Feb '11 11:51:44 PM by Aondeug

No, see, the second one is a sarcastic put-down, and the first one is an honest statement.

On second thought, yeah, this is not good satire at all...

@zoulza But those are both factual; the majority is often the one conducting those tests, and it is common for the members of the majority to see members of the minority as representatives of their race as opposed to individuals, that is called generalizing. The members of the minority have a habit of doing that as well.

@Aondeug COME AT ME BRO

-charges forth with kitchen knife, trips on left foot-

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT

That actually happens too. I have a pigeon toed foot. But yeah...TOPIC MAN.

the majority is often the one conducting those tests,

Lemme stop you here. You do realize, there is a name for only believing things if they happen to line up with what you already believe? More importantly, that it's not something you should do. What kind of "tests" are we talking here, anyway?

"the very capacity to do science is an inherently rich-race activity." sounds like a justification for fascist mysticism.

@Spain Sun Conducting studies of race and what not. Even so, I'm not sure how common it is for scientists to reveal their race when conducting studies.

Not very.

Except that this is basically arguing that, simply by virtue of the fact that you're conducting tests, you are part of the majority and thus anything you find on the subject is completely invalidated. This sounds like anti-intellectualism more than anything else to me.

@zoulza I don't believe that's what the article is saying, but I would disagree. Because the research is seen through a majority lens, it's coming from a different perspective.

To put it simply, people—yes, even scientists—have biases.

edited 26th Feb '11 12:35:37 AM by KCK

Look at the quote! "You see, the very capacity to conduct studies, collect data and write detached “fact-based” reports on it, is an inherently privileged activity."

If you conduct studies, you're automatically privileged, and thus you are biased against the poor minorities, and thus your studies can't hope to bring any sort of meaningful information to light.

Maybe this quote is supposed to be satirical, but then that just brings me back to my original point that this fails pretty hard as satire.

@zoulza Yes, any information given out will be biased, it's not the end of the world.

That doesn't mean the results aren't worth listening to; if one is not going to be aware of what information is being spread, they may as well just argue with themselves.

Here's a note: Having privilege or biases does not make people inherently evil or negatively discriminatory.

I read through it and it seems like a satire of what people tend to do in these kind of conversations. Though I am unsure what the intended purpose of it is.

It's intended to point out how incredibly stupid and/or offensive people who do those things are, by exaggerating them. So yes, it's satire. Think A Modest Proposal.

It's funny because people took that writing seriously too.

Showing that Poe's Law applied then, too.

Derailing ain't hard to do. After all, derailing a topic is much like ruining a wedding - you just barge in drunk and start belligerently making erroneous claims.

edited 26th Feb '11 3:45:50 AM by MarkVonLewis

Part of the point of that satire, of course, is that people tend to be really predictable in the ways they're disruptive — as if they were reading from a Dummies' Guide.

After reading the Introduction, I finally made my decision.

The writer is a moron.

The things he listed do happen in the course of derailing topics, but sometimes those same subjects are legitimate parts of the conversation that need to be said. He essentially makes it look like any questioning of a claim being made by a "marginalized person" is just because the person questioning it is obviously more privileged.

@Barkey You're clearly interrogating the text from the wrong perspective.