I remember getting my driver’s license at sixteen.  Many high school friends spent hours at the driver’s license office on their birthday; they considered it a rite of passage.  I couldn’t think of anything worse than spending hours in that office on my birthday.  I did finally get that driver’s license months later.

I talked to the attendant that day and asked if I should list my race along with the rest of my stats on my license.  There was a box where you could put in a one-letter code to denote your race.  They seemed mostly indifferent (I think they felt it was obvious) but mentioned that if I were to list it, it would be the letter ‘O’.  That’s what I picked.  I still have that physical license to prove it.

The letter ‘O’ denoted ‘Oriental’; I can see some of you cringing.  I got my license in the mid-80s; I grew up hearing the term without thinking much about it.  We now consider this term derogatory when referring to people and not rugs.  The newer acceptable term is ‘Asian’.

My history with ‘Oriental’

For the record, I personally don’t take offense to that word, but many Asian people do.  That’s a side effect of when I grew up.  Today, we would find the practice of racially segregated schools to be offensive, but many of our parents and grandparents have lived through it.  To them, it’s not completely unfamiliar.

The term ‘Oriental’ has substantial baggage.  We didn’t address the harm that term caused at first, but we had bigger fish to fry.  We’re methodically going through Maslow’s Hierarchy at a country level.  It’s easy to observe this at a local community level; it is considerably tougher to apply this at a country level.

If we look at the “Love and Belongingness” layer of the hierarchy, doesn’t “being part of a supportive group” include eliminating hurtful language?  To improve society, we should eliminate that which hurts others.  So we can depend on you to eliminate the use of “Oriental” when referring to people, right?  Similarly, we can eliminate the hurtful use of the word “girls” when referring to adult females, right?

However, those are only two specific instances.  Many others exist.

That Dirty Word: Privilege

Imagine that you’re a college track and field athlete.  You compete in the 400m sprint and win; you narrowly beat the athlete in the next lane by less than a second.  You legitimately covered the 400m in that time; no one disputes that.  However, we look at the athlete you edged; their lane had hurdles.

Unfortunately, people hear the words white (or male, or Christian) Privilege and implicitly become defensive.  They’ll respond with assertions like “I got no handouts in life” and “I earned everything I got”.  However, much like the 400m race above, privilege rarely speaks to the advantages you implicitly got; instead, it speaks to the obstacles you didn’t need to overcome.

Let me frame it in a less emotionally charged way.  You start a new job; they set you up with a new computer, desk, keyboard, and ergonomic mouse.  You occasionally need to use “common” office equipment, like scissors, paper cutters, printers, etc.  You are left-handed.  That ergonomic mouse fits right-handed people; all scissors in the office are for right-handed people.  Left-handed people will face more challenges in life.  Right-handed people may not intentionally complicate life for left-handed people (by ordering ergonomic mice), but they can make concessions by ordering other mice in advance.

Privilege may mean that you’re part of the standard that everyone looks at most, like right-handed people.

They’re not cancelling you

A friend once asserted he felt that as a Caucasian, Christian man, he was being canceled; he was misguided.  We’re not guilting you about who you are; we do not blame you for being white, Christian, or male.  However, the more of ‘the standard’ you are, the more work you’ll need to do to empathize with the rest of your world.  For instance:

• Right-handed people:  We’ve designed the world around you.  Purchasing mice and scissors that accommodate lefties is an afterthought.  Have you ever even seen a microwave oven with the buttons on the left?
• Caucasian people:  People don’t look at you and assume that you’re implicitly criminals or undocumented immigrants.
• Christian people:  No, the country wasn’t founded on Christian principles.  The first sentence in our First Amendment speaks to freedom of religion.  Do you honestly think you’re being persecuted?  Jewish people make up less than 3% of the US population, yet they suffer 64% of religious hate crimes.
• Men versus women:  Tragically, I only need to mention “Cornell 7” to crystallize this sentiment.

In a past post, I described how we discriminate against women in the workplace.  That exercise both humbled me and taught me about my biases, and that was simply along the gender line.  Though this may sound exhausting, the more white, Christian, hetero-normal, cisgender, or male you are, the more work you’ll need to do.

You still think you’re oppressed?

Here are the cold, hard numbers.  41% of Americans are white Christians, which implies that 20% or so are white, Christian men.  Do we really think that we’re systematically oppressing one-fifth of our population?  I honestly doubt it.  Still, some friends will maintain that they’re actively oppressed or canceled for their demographic.

However, I have plenty of white, Christian male friends; most don’t seem especially distressed by their mere existence.  Only a small fraction of this group feels oppressed; this may be an anomaly.  This could be like the modest number of female, black or Latino citizens who vote Republican even if it’s generally against their best interests.

To me, the interesting question is, “If the vast majority of this demographic (white, Christian, male) doesn’t feel oppressed or cancelled, which subset of this demographic does feel oppressed and canceled?“

Who are these people?

Take this as a working theory.  If the vast majority of this demographic does not feel oppressed or cancelled, what is different about the small subset who does?  And perhaps do they actually feel oppressed or cancelled or is it something else?  Let’s entertain the idea that instead of this thinly-veiled excuse, something else threatens them.

Are they the type who do not find the “three-fifths” clause as detestable as other people?  Do they believe there are material differences between people based on skin pigmentation?

Do they believe the “all men are created equal” clause of the Declaration of Independence literally meant ‘men’ to the exclusion of ‘women’?

Are they the type who will readily point out religious extremism when perpetrated by Muslims, but somehow never seem to mention religious extremism perpetrated by Christians (like the Ku Klux Klan)?

Are they the type who sneer at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and consider it a dirty word?

Let’s entertain the idea that they do not fear being oppressed or cancelled.  Instead, what they fear is:

• Merely being a man will no longer make you the head of the household.
• People of different races will get equal treatment; in other words, that Black Lives Matter.
• We’ll collectively accept that the US is not (nor was it founded as) a Christian nation.

They fear losing their status as ‘the favorite child’.  What they fear is equality, though they don’t yet realize it.  Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.  The next time you hear someone complain about society oppressing white, Christian men, you’ll understand the profound shallowness and pettiness of that assertion.