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Social Inequality

I saw this this morning:


My first thought was - this is pretty clever, really.

My next thought was - he needs to get out of the country more. When I was in Korea, I definitely felt the way I was treated different, and was almost always acutely aware of the fact that I was not the same as everyone else. 

But then I thought - how others treated me in Korea because I was a white, tall, man definitely was different than how they would treat me if I were a black, tall, man, or a woman of any race, or whatever. I'm not saying that Koreans are racist, just that being different and being made aware of it in this way was very unusual for me, and has helped shape how I treat others.

Being a white man has its privileges, even when that represents a minority.

On one hand, I think visual appearance differences are significant and noticeable. The fact that I am tall, for example, was almost always the first thing people noticed about me in Korea. I'm not that tall according to the standards in the US (I'm 6'2"). But then I remembered having read about how taller people tend to command higher salaries than shorter...

The truth is, I'm different. So are you. I want to be evaluated based on my character and my performance, not my height or skin color or sex. Because I didn't choose my height or skin color or sex, and I can't do anything about it. My character and performance, however, are completely dependent on choices I make, especially when evaluated over time (because some decisions I've made in the past were certainly incorrect, and no doubt future decisions will need revision as well). I believe that the only real judgments we should make about one another should be those made over time and with extensive experience and evaluation, not on first-impression things like height, weight, skin color, sex, etc. I'm telling you, I don't want to be privileged just because I'm a white dude. That makes me mad, too, even though it may be in my favor. A person isn't talented, or intelligent, or really even successful because that person wins the lottery - that just means that person is lucky.

So, in a way, this dude's premise is incorrect. He does experience inequality - it's just skewed in his favor. The fact that he's witty and "creative" in his paper does not mean he does not experience social inequality. If any of us does, we all do - either positive or negative.

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