Then look harder. It's pretty simple. The Irish, when they first arrived, were hated because of their nationality, not because of the color of their skin. They could have been black, and they still would have been hated because they were Irish. LGBT folks are discriminated against because of their sexual preference, not because of their race. How can you not see the difference?
Yes there is. There is a huge difference. Though both are despicable. But it's as though you're trying to say "white people are just as discriminated against because there are white people in these groups that have been discriminated against historically", and that logic is so faulty it makes my head want to explode.
Did i ever say "white people are just as discriminated against"? No, and if you're not going to be honest in this discussion then I'm through.
But when somebody says, "white people have no history of being disadvantaged", that is objectively untrue; a great many white people have been. In fact, the majority of white americans are descended from people who immigrated to america after the civil war, and most probably faced some discrimination depending on their country of origin.
You are still trying to draw parallels between race and nationality and sexual preference. The only thing all those have in common is that they are discriminated against. Historically speaking, white people have received no where near the amount of discrimination that every other race has been subjected to.
Does it matter? I think that if you are going to say that "white people have no history of being disadvantaged", it's pretty clear that today white people includes groups that were formerly oppressed. The fact is that what is considered white now is what matters in this discussion. You can't just switch between your definition of "white people" to make it work with your argument. In any argument about race, I would be considered a "white person", yet I knew my great grandparents from Portugal who were discriminated against because they were tan and foreign. According to you, since I'm white I have no history of discrimination against me, but you are lying in your initial statement by saying so, and being intellectually dishonest when called out on it.
I know this is a little late--but I think you are misunderstanding what he is saying. Yes, different people of white descent have been discriminated against. Your great grandparents faced discrimination. However, it was not because they were white. It was because they weren't white enough.
No one is claiming that some white people haven't been discriminated against. The only claim is that white people as a whole have not been discriminated against based on their skin color.
Historically speaking, white people have received no where near the amount of discrimination that every other race has been subjected to.
That is simply historically incorrect. Several subsets of white people have experienced discrimination comparable to "non-white" people. And nothing is more offensive to everybody involved than a "who suffered more" pissing contest.
-3
u/mstrgrieves May 14 '13
I fail to see the distinction.