The Urban Dictionary defines the phrase as follows:
A term screamed by far left sheltered liberals when they hear a white person say something that might offend someone that isn’t a straight white male. You will have this term screamed at you if say anything offensive to the LGBTQ, blacks, or any other kind of person that’s not white, straight or male.
Initially, I like this definition.
And the rest of this definition is quite frankly not politically correct:
The term is stupid because hippie liberals think these minor social problems are big in America and that those affected by them have their lives ruined by any kind of “hatred” here — they think therefore the same social issues are a big deal for the rest of the world, but they forget that places like Somalia exist, where you will be murdered just for being alive, let alone being white or gay.
Did you see that dyke yelling “Check your privilege” to that white guy over there? Why was she yelling at him? Some black lady with an enormous ass walked by and he checked her out. Apparently this is degrading and holds bootylicious black women back from succeeding in life like he has.How does she know he’s had a successful life?She knows because he’s white.
One example of a privilege so “checked.” And reality unchecked.
CheckMyPrivilege.com challenges you to take their test.
And so, how did you fare?
And yet, despite the submitted pushback, there is in fact actual pushback:
Why I’ll Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege
by Tal Fortgang
Behind every success, large or small, there is a story, and it isn’t always told by sex or skin color.
There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them.
“Check your privilege,” the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year. The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laser-like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung.
“Check your privilege,” they tell me in a command that teeters between an imposition to actually explore how I got where I am, and a reminder that I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world.
A series of excellent points; and he goes on:
I do not accuse those who “check” me and my perspective of overt racism, although the phrase, which assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it, toes that line. But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. Furthermore, I condemn them for casting the equal protection clause, indeed the very idea of a meritocracy, as a myth, and for declaring that we are all governed by invisible forces (some would call them “stigmas” or “societal norms”), that our nation runs on racist and sexist conspiracies. Forget “you didn’t build that;” check your privilege and realize that nothing you have accomplished is real.
Fortgang had no idea the crapstorm he created.
A White Privilege Conference.
More to come.
BZ
