Ask Lemmy

A lot of people saying white + male, I'm not white but I'm light skinned in a country where colourism is a social plague, random people literally call me "whitey" and "blondy" despite me literally having a black mother, when I tell them I'm not white they reply "yes, you are", and I'm like "OK, mfer, apparently you know better than me to what ethnic group I belong". Can't say I haven't benefited from it, the police has almost never given me shit (they did once to be exact). I'm also a heterosexual cis man, and even tho I was born and raised in the poorest district of a big city my father always told me to cultivate my intellect, so I learned multiple languages (English being one of those), went to community college, taught myself software development, etc. I didn't have the biggest head start in life, but compared to my friends in the hood, and women and immigrants across the whole country I simply cannot complain.

I've experienced both extremes of fiscal class: inherited wealth and opportunity as well as prison and homelessness. It's a double edged sword, a great curse and advantage concurrently.

I came from an upper middle class family have 2 great parents, and have wonderful extended family near by.

I've had lots of problems in life (late diagnosed neurodiversity), walked out of jobs, changed careers, gone back to uni three times, and had a series of mental breakdowns. But despite all that, because I had a caring family, I knew that the worst that could happen is I'd have to move back in with my parents, which might be. A bit humiliating but would be easy, comfortable and safe.

This security allowed me to spend two decades fucking up until I got the right diagnosis, medication and a satisfying professional career. I'm extremely conscious that if I'd not had love and support I'd have ended up an unemployed alcoholic, or dead. I have so much respect for people fighting through life on hard mode, but I'm also so glad I happened to get the lucky draw.

Similarly, being a normal looking white guy is an amazing superpower. Although "invisible disabilities" absolutely have their own challenges, the fact that my problems aren't easily spotted means that despite being repeatedly terrible at a wide variety of jobs, and a general screw up, I have gotten every job I've interviewed for, often massively beyond my actual skills and expertise. And it's not just the external appearance, the confidence I grew up with from being white, male, straight passing, and middle class, has meant that people just believe stuff when I say it, and take me seriously even if I don't really know much about whatever we're discussing.

Obviously there's some small amount of individual traits and whole lot of luck (you can still lose a game in easy mode, and sadly I know folks who have) but it so obvious I'm playing with a stacked deck compared with most of the world, that it boggles my mind that people try and deny their 'privilege'.

I’m not from a native english speaking country, but my parents taught us siblings english first before we learned the local language. There were some minor issues (i.e. other kids won’t talk/play with us because we couldn’t converse well), but it paid off in the long run because we are generally more fluent than the average person from our country, and we have neutral accents when speaking english. It helped a lot working in the corporate world.

Deleted

Pro: I never get seasick, no matter how rough it gets. Con: Terrified of heights and flying.

Other than randomly being born in a western democracy ranking high on living standard, happiness etc.

I was a good boy and put in the effort in school. I get paid accordingly and have a relatively stress free job.

College educated parents. Education and early career is so much easier to navigate with parents who know the ropes and have a network.

I'm easily satisfied with life. I have a pretty good job and make pretty good money, good friends, and I have a beautiful wife, and that's all I need. I'm not the ambitious type who needs to keep making more and more money. I don't need the fanciest car or designer clothes. I don't want to be famous, and I don't have anything to prove to strangers. That makes it much easier to be happy, I think.

White, male privilege and loving parents that supported me in all ways when needed. Seriously, life has been almost on peaceful mode, definitely easy mode.

White + was lucky to get a good job early on + parents had enough capital in their home to guarantor for my home loan at 28.

White, male privilege.

Autism ?

I'm a white man living in the UK that's about as close to life on easy mode as you can get. I learned quite young to not care about what other people thought of me which has been very useful.

I'm practically invisible. Now that I've settled into it and don't really desire/crave attention, it's nice to just fade into the background.

I never felt the need to compare myself to others. aka, I'm competing with no one but myself.

I consider that a huge advantage, but who knows maybe I'm wrong.