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Men’s Rights Redditors take on racism. By which they mean a white dude admitting that white dudes aren’t actually oppressed

Gold Medalist, Oppression Olympics

Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, the locals are pig-biting mad about racism. Are they organizing vigils for murdered black teen Trayvon Martin? Are they challenging the Hunger Games fans who are sending out racist tweets complaining about the character “Rue” being played by a black actress?

Nope. They are doing something much, much braver. They are taking on a white dude for mocking other white dudes who are convinced they are the truly oppressed.

Over on the Boston Magazine web site, blogger Barry Nolan sets forth this truly hateful argument:

I have been a white male all my life and to tell you the truth, I have found it to be a pretty sweet deal. … Wherever you look and by almost any metric, any statistic, it works out to be a pretty sweet deal to start out life as a white male. …

So I cannot, for the life of me, understand why so many white men like me can be found whining about how tough it is to be a white man. It’s a mystery to me how they came to feel so beset on every side by feminists, minorities, and “the system.” When in fact, the system is so stacked in our favor, it’s almost embarrassing.

On the Men’s Rights subreddit a post blasting Nolan as a “racist idiot” now boasts 90 upvotes. In the comments, the brave antiracists set poor Nolan straight on a thing or two. To Ellwood78, it’s just a big coincidence that most of the powerful figures in the US happen to be white dudes:

NoNoJCM, meanwhile, reports on his own bitter experience as one of the oppressed:

Irrel_M is apparently a Stephen Colbert fan who isn’t in on the joke:

To paraphrase Sojourner Truth, “ain’t I a white dude?”

Note: This post incorporates some

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pillowinhell
12 years ago

Good bye MRAL.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

Jesus fuck MRAL who the fuck was talking to you? There were like 4 posts out of 170 about you, and now you try and make the whole fuckin thread about you. You were bullied in high school for being a nerd and you think that makes your white privilege disappear? Guess what muthafucka, I was bullied in middle school FOR BEING SOUTH ASIAN. If I hadn’t toughened up, and become friends with a lot of the jocks, that would have been my story for high school as well. I know so many Asians and South Asians that were bullied for their FUCKIN RACE. I know black girls that were constantly told they’re ugly, BECAUSE THEY’RE BLACK. So until you get bullied for being white, you can STFU.

Holly Pervocracy
12 years ago

And I did block the site, but I unblocked it recently, because I thought enough time had passed.

I think enough time is literally forever. There’s no reason to come back here. There’s enough other websites out there.

…Although you’ll get banned from a lot more of them if your idea of pleasant conversation is “sometimes bad things happen to white men, therefore privilege is a lie.” Man, whatever happened to talking about the weather?

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

Go the fuck away, MRAL. Being bipolar doesn’t give you the excuse to sneak back into a community that has made it clear that they don’t want you around.

FelixBC
FelixBC
12 years ago

MRAL, matriarchy, sauron, my favourite troll. I actually worry about you. But you take expressions of care and concern from other commenters and then turn around and shit on the same commenters, either through constant whining about how hard done by you are, or through little rage fits where you let loose with the hatred. Not ok, and repeated so often that you’ve ruined any good will you could ever expect.

Grow up, take your meds, get counseling, do your fucking homework and go to class. Do what ever it takes to get yourself out of this angry hole you’re in. Otherwise you will wake up one day and see that you have squandered whatever chances you did get in life, earned or unearned.

And, see, I’ve already devoted more time and caring to you than you deserve.

Holly Pervocracy
12 years ago

I only posted because I visited the site (I still read it) and then I see you guys talking about me.

This is, seriously, abuser-think. “I don’t do bad things because I want to! Only bad people do that. I do bad things when I’m forced to.”

And then you construct in your head a totally plausible scenario where someone mentioning your name offhand on a blog forces you to come up with a pseudonym, use an IP anonymizer, and post troll comments that have nothing to do with the mention of your name.

That’s bullshit. And it’s the kind of bullshit that makes me worry, man. Really makes me worry what else you might feel forced to do.

jumbofish
12 years ago

And I did block the site, but I unblocked it recently, because I thought enough time had passed.

No you haven’t you dirty liar. You sockpuppet between your little breakdown (the time you said you would block it) and now.

Snowy
Snowy
12 years ago

And I did block the site, but I unblocked it recently, because I thought enough time had passed.

I guess you thought wrong then. I’m going to second Holly and suggest that eternity is probably enough time.

Dracula
Dracula
12 years ago

Seriously dude, just go away. We will not be your friends, ever. You will not be welcome here, ever. It’s over and done, you fucked up, and there is no fixing it. Goodbye.

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

@Holly: Is “Why did you make me troll you?” a term yet? Because it needs to be.

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

You were banned. There is no “enough time passed” for a permanent banning. Get it through your head.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

You were banned. There is no “enough time passed” for a permanent banning. Get it through your head.

Seriously who the fuck thinks “enough time has passed” when the only way they can interact with the community is by creating a sock and never letting on who they really are.

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island
Scooby Doo on Zombie Island
12 years ago

Um, Holly, I don’t think me posting here now is “a bad thing”, and I don’t feel “forced” to post here, so I don’t see how that’s abuser-think. I just saw you talking about me, so I thought it was fair game to post as me. That’s it. I could get angry that you’re trying to portray me as a criminal, but what’s the point.

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

But Shadow, he clearly had no choice! We mentioned him and stuff! It’s all our fault!

Snowy
Snowy
12 years ago

But… You didn’t post as you, you posted as a sock.

hellkell
hellkell
12 years ago

MRAL, much like “no means no,” GO THE FUCK AWAY means go the fuck away. You have a high IQ, you should grasp this. Your refusal to coupled with the shit you say is why no one wants you here, under any name.

Get over yourself about being bullied in school. I was, and I’m sure I’m not alone here.

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

I just saw you talking about me, so I thought it was fair game to post as me

YOU. WERE. BANNED. It will never be fair game for you to post here, because you are banned. Not on moderation, BANNED. Get the fuck out and stay away.

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

@hellkell: You’re definitely not alone. I was a social pariah from kindergarten through senior year.

princessbonbon
12 years ago

Okay…we get some real swell people over here. How long are refuge claimants detained before they are allowed in the US and under what conditions? Canadians aren’t going to be happy about considering that, especially when the vast majority are law abiding people who want to work for something better.

Here are the US policies on immigration. However that does not mean the actual practice is the way that they outline it.

Here is the policy on refugees. Again, actual practice may vary.

This is where white privilege comes in heavily by the way and that is unfair.

The other thing which leaps to mind is..why is the US such a target? I mean, these groups are here in Canada and could wreak havoc here.

Years of stupid policies with the Middle East is the first reason-even Clinton could not reverse much of it and he did a great deal to get things in place for possible resolution for some of the long term problems. To be honest, I really wonder what would have happened had he had a third term with Israel/Palestine. Or even if Gore had sensibly filed for a full state recount in Florida and seriously pushed the issue with Bush.

What springs to mind is that yes, the Canadian government needs to weed out criminals and terrorists better. I don’t think there’s much argument here on that. However, the US needs to do something about why they are such a target.

Yes which is one reason why Obama has been right in ignoring much of the saber rattling from the Republicans. He still gives them too much credence but eh, he does that on everything.

Although sometimes I think the US takes the hit for some of the shit Canada and Canadian corporations pull or enable.

Probably, having an international reputation for being so nice tends to help in letting you get away with things because the US always is doing something ill advised at best and outright criminal at worst.

princessbonbon
12 years ago

Crud

Rutee Katreya
12 years ago

Be less pathetic, mediocrity.

@Myoo: well yes. Men get imprisoned more often than women, black people get imprisoned more often than white people, combine the two and you end up with a truly shocking number or black men in prison. (It would be a fairly typical example of intersectionality in action if it wasn’t for the inconvenient problem of men being un-oppressable.)

Not to belabor the point, but men commit more crime. Unlike on matters of race, you can’t point to a disadvantage on economic status as justifying this (The poor generally commit more prosecutable crime for a number of valid or understandable reasons including that little ‘prosecutable’ qualifier. However, the poor are disproportionately women and women are disproportionately poor). That’s why I look at matters like differing rates of drug prosecution when I say these things on race (There’s other measures, including the rough equivalent of case studies). Contra to what you MRA fantasists insist, this isn’t evidence of a ‘pussy pass

Note that there are no qualifiers in his piece – it tells all white men that they should shut up and that any forms of oppression they think they might be experiencing are in their imagination. Not only that, but his entire argument relies on treating class as irrelevant so he can conflate his experiences as someone who’s part of an incredibly tiny, incredibly privileged minority in terms of class with the experiences of others that aren’t so privileged (which is to say nearly everyone!)

The fact that you are illiterate does not make you correct. Hint: He does not say there is no such thing as economic privilege, or hetero privilege. He focused on the single most commonly misinterpreted-as-oppressed groups.

So I cannot, for the life of me, understand why so many white men like me can be found whining about how tough it is to be a white man.

Not “White men can never be oppressed”. “White men are not oppressed for being white men”, you illiterate twit. That you are trying to play divide and conquer by pitting the poor against women (Bad move) does not change that he does not.

hellkell
hellkell
12 years ago

MRAL, so what we mentioned you? We mention B__n from time to time too. He’s smart enough to take the ban and go away, and lord knows he’s bone ignorant. You could learn from this.

Holly Pervocracy
12 years ago

Um, Holly, I don’t think me posting here now is “a bad thing”, and I don’t feel “forced” to post here, so I don’t see how that’s abuser-think. I just saw you talking about me, so I thought it was fair game to post as me. That’s it.

Oh, okay, you weren’t forced to use a pseudonym and an IP anonymizer and lie about your identity and ignore direct instructions to leave, you just figured it was fair game to use a pseudonym and an IP anonymizer and lie about your identity and ignore direct instructions to leave.

As it so often is.

I could get angry that you’re trying to portray me as a criminal, but what’s the point.

Abuser, not criminal. Lots of abuse isn’t technically illegal.

If you want to not sound like an abuser, you could start by not threatening to get angry because someone called you an abuser. (You can think it’s wrong, you can even be angry, but you can’t use your anger as a bargaining chip, like you’re being magnanimous by withholding it but might unleash it at any time. That’s the sort of thing that reminds me of abuser-think.)

Rutee Katreya
12 years ago

Um, Holly, I don’t think me posting here now is “a bad thing”

You think a lot of stupid and wrong things, so that surprises me not at all. Be less pathetic.

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

Maybe if we started saying M__L, he’d take the hint and get lost. I doubt it, though.