Kirsten Gillibrand wants to explain white privilege to ‘white women in the suburbs’

The New York Post ^ | July 31, 2019 | Kenneth Garger

[2ndDivisionVet]

Presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said during Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate that she can address “institutional racism” by explaining white privilege to women in the suburbs.

“I can explain it to white women in the suburbs,” Gillibrand said on the debate stage.

“When their son is walking down the street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot.”

The New York senator was addressing racial injustice issues when she made the remarks.

“I don’t believe that it’s the responsibility of Cory and Kamala to be the only voice that takes on these issues of institutional racism,” she said about Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), both of whom are black.

[GnuThere]

“Whitesplaining”...just what we all need.

[Maskot]

🤫 Don’t interrupt while the NVXIM princess explains your very existence to you so you’ll finally understand “institutional white racism”. Dammit

[17th Miss Regt]

...being in school all day, not driving a stolen vehicle, not in possession of a stolen firearm, not hanging out on a corner selling meth.

In other words, racism!

[Richard Kimball]

She’s just ovaryacting.

[combat_boots]

Does she have the NXVIM brand on her, too, since her father’s a player? That’d go over real well. /S

[newnhdad]

We have to come to terms that one day soon, these people will be in charge. It might not be in 2020 , or even 2024, but it will happen.

[NativeSon]

What these meat puppets parrot as “white privilege” is the product of physical, social and cultural (mental) evolution over thousands of years.

The common understanding & acceptance of the sanctity of life, the mutual respect of neighbors/others and their property, the desire for truth & justice, the undeniable need to discover, to understand, to create.

We are able maintain huge populations, living in peace & safety with both the opportunity & freedom to choose and control our individual paths.

Call it whatever you will but electricity, the number of protons in carbon, the melting point of tungsten, the double-helix structure of DNA; these will not change.

[ronniesgal]

what a dumb b!tch.

[P-Marlowe]

Is she suggesting that white kids need to start wearing blackface?

[FamiliarFace]

To my mind, they already are in charge. We’re fighting back.

[Dr. Sivana]

“When their son is walking down the street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot.”

This issue is very real to me, as I have a black adopted son who is now 11 years old.

There is something to the idea that if you look, move and behave like a thug, you will be taken as a thug. In real life, EVERYONE has to make concessions small and large to make allowances to the perception of others in society.

I'm a very white man, and grew up as a Dodger fan in Connecticut. Hence, when I wear a baseball cap it is likely to be an L.A. Dodger cap. I'm thinking of childhood heroes like Rick Monday, Reggie Smith, Burt Hooten and Manny Mota. When my son played church leaghue baseball, I left my cap home, despite it being 110 degrees and sunny. Why? Because his team is called the Red Sox, and one of the other teams is called the Dodgers, wearing similar hats. I didn't want to be misidentified with supporting the other team.

I will also leave the hat home if we ever make a trip to Santa Clarita, California to visit my sister-in-law. Baseball caps like mine are gang symbols in that vicinity, and I don't know the region well enough to know where and when it is okay to wear it.

I also have a tie, with rainbow colored diagonal stripes. I am circumspect with where and when I wear it, as I do not wish for it to be mistaken for support of perversion.

And so I instruct my son that he is always to wear his cap forwards, unless he is playing catcher, working under a car, or acting the part of Oscar Madison.

I also discourage him wearing hoodies (when we lived in Illinois/Wisconsin, they were actually pretty practical to wear in late fall/early spring, but we are in Phoenix, where they are more of a fashion statement.

We buy him clothes that fit.

He has been taught proper diction, and to speak respectfully to adults (that one always needs constant reinforcement, but at least he has a natural respect for policemen).

All of these things are good in and of themselves. My wife and I have to fight the "popular culture" everywhere. Even video games and newer movies and TV shows that don't have serious content issues are still saturated with that hip-hop crap. Unfortunately, simply exposing children to classical or even classy jazz music, ragtime or swing music doesn't guarantee that they will prefer it to the music that is all around them, but we try.

And yes, I have already had "the talk" with him that if he dresses and act a certain way, that police and others will keep a closer eye on him, and it is better not to mimic such behavior. If police wrongly give him a hard time, that is not the time to escalate it. Go along and pursue other venues to work things out. Sometimes you even have to patiently bear injustice.

If I went back to the 1920s, and wore a pinstripe suit, a fedora, a white tie on a black shirt, and carried a violin case, folks might think I was a mobster. James O'Keefe got far portraying himself outlandishly as a pimp, and people who do business with pimps bought it.

So is there "white privilege"? I don't know. I just want to set up my son to the opportunity to succeed. I know that he is living in a time where if he acts civilized, that there is no shortage of good people who will give him just that.

[cymbeline]

If I moved to Japan I’d expect to be “not Japanese”, not part of their culture, and that I would be subordinate to their culture. The Japanese have “Japanese privilege”.

If I moved there with intent to change their culture, the Japanese locals have every right to resist that. It would be tougher for them to resist if a million or so of us foreigners were there agitating to change their culture.

The Japanese locals are acting honorably when they defend themselves against a culture-changing invasion.

[HotHunt]

".... Where is the Facepalm guy?..."

[Moltke]

his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot

Is that quote accurate? Protection from not being shot sounds contradictory. Wouldn't it be much better to be protected from being shot? I think I'll hand in my whiteness and live a bit longer...

[dfwgator]

[dfwgator]

I won’t be here.

[Blogatron]

It’s the neighborhood/culture not some imaginary advantage.

[Mom MD]

No. The fact that he is walking in daylight peacefully in a decent neighborhood is what protects him from getting shot. Any black brown or purple kid could walk down my street in a hoodie with a bag of m & ms and it he was minding his own business and not trying doors or looking in windows he would not be bothered. conversely if my white kid was walking in shadows and trying doors there is a good chance he would be shot. And walking in the hood while white is probably the most dangerous of all. Gillebrand can shut up now.

[48th SPS Crusader]

When their son is walking down the street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot.”

That is the most ignorant, stupid and racist statement I have ever heard. This alone should disqualify you from ever holding public office!

[simpson96]

My God, how did this fool get to be a U.S. Senator?