Jordan Peterson - Intersectionality and White Privelege

[christopherarmstrong]

3:40 “The logical conclusion of intersectionality is individuality. The individual is the ultimate minority.”

[eval]

I can’t believe this has happened to kids. I grew up in the 90s, my friends and I grew up w skateboarding.
But we all had friends of all races, we saw each other as equals, all w different accents and different stories.
This is real sad and scary.

[xenostim]

So he says that individuality is the ultimate minority, but he preceded that by talking about various identity characteristics and their relative importance. He doesn't posit that they are equally significant socially or biologically. He admits some carry more power than others, referring to sex, age, and attractiveness as "big ones". Intersectionality is not limited to race, class or gender. It includes all characteristics that make up an individual to understand how they intersect within systems of power. His argument that there are infinite characteristics that affect an individual's experience is exactly what Intersectionality addresses.

Then about white privilege. The argument that there is no statistical basis for white privilege has no merit, a quick Google search will show that. When saying its "majority privilege" and a benefit of living within a culture he partially correct. The problem is that he's implying that minorities are not a part of that culture. America was never just white, so why shouldn't minorities receive the benefits of being within that culture?

Bringing up the shame and guilt I always find interesting, as if its implied that someone should feel that way about their own privilege. It's not, its called white fragility in this case and it is not helpful. If you feel that way its on you and it limits activism.

Imagine writing a paper and using the phrase "I can be pretty sure..."

[Dwizzzle]

Funny that videos in support of intersectionalism seem to have comments turned off. Clearly they don't want open discussion on this matter!

[RomanGolubev_A]

Would be interested to hear what's that future we don't want to have is like. Concrete is always more convincing than pure theorising

[crayzee]

Doesn't discrimination exist ?
Isn't it wrong to have a 'disadvantage ' based on your race, gender or sexuality ?

[amelianelson]

I remember having to read this exact "article" JP is speaking of in my first year intro to Social Working course. Everyone around me was reading this seriously and we had to discuss White Guilt in groups after that. Needless to say, I switched my major. The accuracy of this video is sad but makes me feel less alone somehow.

[EM-cgiy]

This was really excellent. I’m sick of the smear campaigns against JP.

[chrisharvey]

intelligence and beauty are significant factors of wealth so yeah race and gender are often separated by wealth and power

[theaeronaut]

What if, as in the case of the United States of America, the marginalized have been part of American culture since before the country was founded? As in the case of marginalized blacks descendant from slavery and racial discrimination. Is that cultural privilege or white privilege; considering that this group has been part of American culture since its birth?

[deseured.]

Wait, what future do “we” not want to have?

[MichelangeloSosa]

Does anybody know where one might find the paper he's referring to?

[grumpyschnauzer]

I had to read that paper in my masters program and refrained from disagreeing with it as a multiracial female because I felt it was a trap to see who opposes his liberal agenda.

[yndaeldborg]

Where is your evidence Peterson, where is your research, where is your empirical data for your statements? And, Peterson could you please inform us about the theorists who brought us the theory of intersectionality as a tool to analyse i.e. racism et al?

[LEO-xocz]

I've always wondered whether he was legit or not. This was great.

[traceyclose]

I’d love to have professor Peterson teaching me! I’m studying philosophy and psychology and I’m shocked that my most recent psychology module has brought in Intersectionality theory (and how good it is) implicit bias and white privilege. Here he makes perfect sense and I agree with him. Knowing how useless Intersectionality is I feel quite quite pissed off. So much so that I know I’m going to get a low grade for my assignment. We also had to watch a video by Crenshaw... way too subjective, so fed up!

[menotyou]

Postmodernism is marxism? Has this guy ever actually studied either? The two are diametrically opposed. Marxism is modernist. It invokes historical materialism. It invokes talk of classes as material.

Most post modernist philosphers would heavily critique these ideas (and have). Also Marxist and postmodern thinkers existed at the same time and critiqued each other.

That isn't even touching on how intersectionality is fundamentally misunderstood here and doesn't directly deal with post modernism. Like this talk sounded like someone who has heard simple introductions to these topics, cherry picked some similar patters, threw out all context and then made a series of strawmen based on what he sees tumblr activists do or idealistic college students with an introductory understanding. Even these groups he is misrepresenting because none of them can be categorized as both postmodern, and marxist because those categories don't even fucking make sense when squished together.

Like, I don't know who this guy is but it is clear he has no idea what he is talking about, but knows how to use enough academic allusion to make it seem like he does to people predisposed to think negatively about this topics. It seems like he has a lot of feelings about this subject.

[giggerchad]

why did you edit out the background noise when he stops speaking? its kinda annoying tbh

[seanalfaro]

Jesus this audio bugs the hell out of me