Just Some Guy

It was, in fact, the right answer!

like you try to bring it up with a conservative white man and he'll say, "my life wasn't easy. I grew up in a trailer park, raised by a single mom who was also a drug addict, and I have never had things handed to me. I struggled." and it's just. yes! you were subject to classism! your mother also faced misogyny, and institutional medical obstacles regarding addiction/drug treatment. you were disadvantaged compared to people who didn't have to endure any those things, and what happened to you was devastating and real.

all that "white privilege" means is that you were also not dealing with racism on top of that. that's it. that's what it means.

but if you push on this point, the reaction then pivots to: "but i'm not racist. i haven't used that privilege to hurt black people. i don't 'wield' my privilege against them."

great! interpersonal conflict is very much not how privilege largely manifests, it's exercised by systems and institutions that are beyond the reach of you and your friends. you may not have done anything to your black friend, but if you both applied for a loan at the same bank, all other things being equal, there is a historical precedence for you, a white man, being given better terms and resources. that is white privilege. neither of you are the banker, the banker is exercising power over both of you in making this decision.

and so ostensibly progressive people on here, who experience marginalization along one axis, will still reject any assertion that they have certain privileges - "I can't experience white privilege fully because I'm autistic" - there's a word for what you experience alongside white privilege, and it's called ableism. these two things very much coexist, because you are not also experiencing racism's intersection WITH the ableism you face. "I haven't used my male privilege against anyone, I don't oppress the women around me" - I never said you did, now if you and a woman both worked the same job, who is your employer (who wields the power in this situation) likely to pay more?

This is a form of backdoor bigotry from both normative facts (there are more straight than gay relationships) and well represented bigoted beliefs (men are superior to women).

It’s when AI produces discriminatory outcomes as a result of being trained on data that is biased which results in these AI systems replicating and reinforcing those biases.

That very well could be why Google Doc’s spellcheck is regurgitating this kind of bigotry because it’s literally what it was trained to do.

Side note this is why BAME folk are so concerned about the rise of facial recognition for criminal investigations. Cause not only is facial recognition less accurate for us than it is for white folk (cause they make up the majority of that trained data) but also because the police systems are institutionally racist.

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Yesterday, the federal government introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, with the stated goal of making the online activities of Canadians safer. The bill raises significant civil liberties concerns, including through the limitless powers it grants the government and a new digital safety regulator. “Greater transparency and accountability from tech companies is long overdue. But that must come through clear, targeted rules, not sweeping obligations and an open-ended government authority over any regulated service,” said Howard Sapers, Executive Director at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). “A blank check for federal power is the wrong answer to a real problem.” “Bill C-34 introduces obligations which are so alarmingly broad that providers of regulated services will be tempted to over-comply at the expense of users’ freedom of expression and privacy rights,” Sapers added.

Read more.

Gilbert Baker added a 9th stripe shortly before his death, with the new stripe representing diversity. He added this stripe in reaction to the 2016 US election. It’s unfortunately not as well known as the 8 and 6 striped versions.

Here’s an image of him sewing together the 9 striped rainbow flag.