Why did two white guys from the suburbs decide to talk about white privilege for an hour? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Maybe you want a hint about what we talked about? Fair enough…
We begin by talking about when we first heard the term white privilege. From there, we move on to discussing if either of us have been accused of being privileged in any way…and how we reacted to it.
After that, we chat about if anyone’s actually leveled the term “white privilege” at us…of if we’ve ever been told to check our privilege in any way.
Then, the question that made Shawn think about this episode: does the idea of white privilege hold any weight for us?
Next, we talk about where the idea of white privilege originated, before moving on to the last two questions:
- Do we think we are guilty of any sort of privilege?
- Is “white privilege” a subtle (or not-so-subtle) form of racism?
If you’re a regular listener, you’ve probably noticed this episode contains about half the usual talking points we shoot for. It’s a much more conversational episode, and we hope you like it and take a moment to comment about the episode below…
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In a roundabout way, online I’ve been accused of being privileged for suggesting veganism is healthful. It’s such an easy and popular accusation to make. My skin color doesn’t make a difference when I’m putting the privileged food back on the shelf at the grocery store.
CMS: Fortunately, the one time somebody gave me grief for being vegan, coworkers piled on the guy before I could even say a thing. But I’ve seen it online.
It’s interesting because veganism used to be associated with struggling college students and environmentalists living off the grid. (Obviously, for many, it still gets seen that way.) It was never a privileged thing; rather, a thing those “dirty hippies” did. Once it went a bit mainstream, I guess Ihave seen it called out as “privileged.” Recently, I saw some people talking about how much Beyonce spent on vegan food…things like that. Meanwhile, I know clean-cut people with average jobs eating vegan on the cheap.
It always amazes me how easy it is for people to look at one exception in any group and say, “See? They are all like this!” I’ve had very short discussions with neocons fuming about food stamps…when pointing out that cuts in food stamps knocked over 100,000 veterans off the program, it becomes, “Well, THEY should get them, but all those freeloaders…”
“All those vegans…”
“All those atheists…”
“All those Christians…”
“All those men in gorilla suits…”
It amazes me how concerned someone can get simply by finding out how others eat. I’ve never been told I’m privileged for not eating meat, but I’ve definitely seen people who aren’t vocal about being vegan/vegetarian have to defend their choice. I’ve seen aunts and uncles give my mom shit for being vegan. It’s weird…
Yeah, my in-laws gave me shit for being vegan (and for about one hundred and one other things). Once, my FIL yelled, “We can’t even eat pizza!” while we all were deciding where to go out to eat. We ended up not going out. I somehow ruined the day, even though I said I could eat a salad at the pizza place. Another time my MIL gleefully said, “Well, the bread you eat has milk and eggs in it! Ha!” She looked crestfallen when I told her, “No, my bread doesn’t have milk and eggs. It’s vegan. I read labels.”
Yes, the people hellbent on “catching you.”
“What about those shoes?”
“Not real leather…”
“Oh…uhm…your wallet?!”
“Not real leather…”