Privileged Words

You're giving me advice. But all I hear is your privilege.

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It's June. If you're eating, you're doing it wrong. #Pride

Because the four-decade long movement to gain equal rights for queer bodies should come down to a month-long body-shaming extravaganza.

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To have true diversity, black writers should diversify too and explore themes common to human experience that truly become classics.

This highly astute (cough cough) online commentator prefers to perpetuate the sentiment that white stories are universal while stories of blacks only speak to black readers.

In response to the lack of diversity at this year's inaugural BookCon.

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The #NotAllMen Hashtag.

Your belief that you as a man should not be lumped together with men who commit atrocities against women just because you're a nice person comes from the same sense of entitlement that led Elliot Rodger to believe that he deserved to get a girl just because he was a nice person.

News flash: Your being a nice person does not invalidate the fear of being harassed, assaulted or raped that women experience every single time they walk alone in a dark area or when they want to wear certain clothes. Shut up and listen instead of using your male privilege to raise a wall of defense.

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Tal Fortgang: "Behind every success, large or small, there is a story, and it isn’t always told by sex or skin color."

No, but it usually is. Your personal hard work does not invalidate the effects of your white skin or male gender expression.

Because this.

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Spread love wherever you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Are you a robot? Or an angel? Or a '50s American housewife? Because being one of those things is the only way this piece of bullshit wisdom can be practiced. 

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Work-Life Balance Tips for Women

I call bullshit on these tips. You rarely see work-life balance tips for men. Let's unpack this bullshit:

You expect women who work to still keep the happiness of her family and children in the back of their mind. Men are not expected to do the same.

Work-life balance tips almost always gloss over self-care for the woman as an individual, but rather focuses on how to split up a woman's time for other people's needs.

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I don't see race. I am a nice person and treat everyone equally.

1. Your nice personality is, unfortunately, not a magic power that can help people avoid institutional discrimination.

2. Your treating everyone equally glosses over the disparities that already exist and in fact perpetuates them.

3. Your treating everyone equally basically means you expect everyone to be just like you. If you recognized people's differences, you would act equitably, not equally.

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Practice consent. Respect another person's body.

Spaying your cat and neutering your dog without their consent is totally okay though because you know...other animals' bodies are not nearly as full of dignity and deserving of respect as a human's body. Consent culture fail.

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I like to date Western men because they're less patriarchal and more progressive about women's equality.

And yet, all of these articles point to the opposite reality:

NY Times' "Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?"

CNN Living's "Women's power to hurt the male ego"

Pacific Standard's "Courtesy Can Be Counterproductive"

Ask Men's "Top 10: Things Women Do To Emasculate Men"

The Frisky's "9 Ways to Unintentionally Bruise A Man's Ego"

Disney's Babble's "Stop Hurting Your Husband, Men Have Feelings Too!"

which makes one think whether that feel-good perception was purposely crafted by Western men for their own benefit. And "Western men" is, of course, code for white men.

Inspired by Buzzfeed's satirical article.

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Teach for America. Period.

The only one benefiting from a recent college grad teaching an overcrowded classroom of under-resourced students of color is... you, the recent college grad. You get street cred while the students get no cred.

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I think it's great that celebrities are using their star power to bring attention to people in Africa who need our help.

Oh, yes, because the situation in "Africa" has gotten so bad that it's not enough these days to have a white savior complex. You need to have a white celebrity savior complex.

Because this.

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If you do your work and live your life honestly, then you got nothing to be afraid of.

Nothing to be afraid of except white cops conspiring to plant drugs on your belongings to maliciously charge you of a crime you didn’t commit simply because you were black.

Because this.

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If you want to live authentically as a gay person, you have to come out of the closet.

Or how about I reject your colonized ideas of sexuality and determine for myself how I authentically want to express my sexuality in accordance with my cultural practices?

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Love your body. Be comfortable in your own skin.

Sure, that's easy to do if your society's media constantly reinforce the idea that your skin color, hair, facial features, and body shape are "fair", "healthy" and "attractive".

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The subway is a great equalizer. It is the one place in the city where people of all backgrounds can sit next to each other, share stories as equals and learn from each other.

Breaking news: 30-second verbal exchange on the Blue line interrupted by moments of awkward eye contact solves racism.

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The entire fucking green lifestyles movement.

Because nothing yells privilege like condescendingly telling people to adopt a consumerist approach to being "sustainable".

Because it's only sustainable, progressive and cool when white people do it. When people of color are sustainable out of necessity, we consider it low-class, backwards, and undeveloped.

Because this.

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If you like someone, go ask them out.

Terms & Restrictions: White guys get free range to date whomever they want. Racial restrictions apply to everyone else.

Like this for example.