Is any given minority class underprivileged or is the majority class over privileged

[Warningdown]

Question - as far as social advantage and what not, is any given minority class underprivileged or is the majority class over privileged?
1. The Majority Is Over privileged
2. The Minority is Underprivileged
3. It Depends upon vantage point
4. It has nothing to do with privilege


Lets just assumed that This is a society which is stratified by race. Let us also assume that the assumptions of the question are correct and the minority and majority privileges are so appropriated. I am not trying to get at the difference between minority and majority. More the nature of Privilege

[NoJingoLingo]

What do you mean by privileged? Everyone in America has the same opportunity. Taking advantage of that opportunity might have challenges or obstructions for a particular demographic.

[samsara15]

There are lots of individual classes of people that are relatively under-privileged or over-privileged in America. Define which one(s) you wish for us to address.

[Apeman81]

What could possibly make anyone "over" privileged?

What should be denied the individual because someone else cannot avail themselves of it?

[Diogenes]

I agree it is pretty vague...but I'll give it a shot.

One could argue that the opportunities that exist today are available to everyone. And that would be, for the most part , true.

This however does not take into account the disparity created by the past which is still affecting segments of the population today. The lack or absence of opportunity in the past has created a society that is not on an equal footing even though the opportunity to achieve is present.

And I'm not referring to just minorities, but the poor and disenfranchised as a whole.

Then there are other factors to consider such as the availability of these opportunities. Even though they might exist they are not equally accessible to everyone.

And the disparity between rich and poor is evident...if it's ' old money ' chances are it was gained through the slavery of others, or through the virtual slavery of others , as was the case of many ( ie. the Irish, Welsh, Poles, etc.... ).

In short...yes there is both an under-privileged class and an over-privileged class...and there always will be until the past is addressed properly.

[samsara15]

Are the unions, to be specific, 'government workers', military retirees, police retirees, over-privileged? I see them as getting salaries and benefits above and beyond what is available in private employment? Am I wrong?

[NoJingoLingo]

I have to go with - The minority is over privileged. As of 2007, wealth consolidation reveals that the top 10% owns 72% and the top 1% owns 37%.

[Angry Citizen]

Class has nothing to do with this, nor does privilege. I come from a working class family, and I am pursuing higher education. I am doing this without coming from some high class private school, or any school at all. If I can change classes, anyone can.

Furthermore, who the hell wants to be in the top 1%? Who wants to be in the top 10%? I'll be more than happy being in the top 25% (if that), having come from the top 50% (if that).

People talk of this class warfare idiocy like being a 50-billionaire is the ultimate goal in life.

[NoJingoLingo]

Class has nothing to do with this, nor does privilege. I come from a working class family, and I am pursuing higher education. I am doing this without coming from some high class private school, or any school at all. If I can change classes, anyone can.

Furthermore, who the hell wants to be in the top 1%? Who wants to be in the top 10%? I'll be more than happy being in the top 25% (if that), having come from the top 50% (if that).

People talk of this class warfare idiocy like being a 50-billionaire is the ultimate goal in life.

You obviously don't know what it's like to be from the bottom half. Go volunteer in a poor area to get an idea, because you seem to lack empathy for anyone or anything outside your sphere of knowledge.

[notthecheatr]

Define underprivileged.
Define overprivileged.

[Angry Citizen]

Have you? You're on a computer. That means you're one of the wealthy elite, or the bourgeoisie, or whatever silly Marxist term you want to use. Maybe we just disagree.

I lack empathy for those who bitch about their standing in society without doing anything about it, as long as they're able to do something about it. The bottom 25% are in a terrible rut, but all welfare seems to do is allow it to perpetuate, rather than to end it. Everyone else likely doesn't deserve anything better.

You, for instance. I bitch about you, because you whine and complain that the top 1% hold so much wealth, with the implication that you don't. Is your life miserable? Is it a living hell imposed on you by evil capitalist pigs? I think not.

[Diogenes]

Our society is based upon a pyramid system...

this system only allows a limited room for advancement...ie. there can only be so many supervisors, managers, owners, etc...

it has the added problem of flooding...ie. if too many Doctors graduate and saturate the market then all Doctors would suffer...

so not only is it a pyramid system allowing so much advancement, but it is also a system that is restricted by saturation.

So it's easy to say, if I could pull my boots up why can't they, but another thing entirely in practice...yes, some can, and it's usually the ones most aggressive to succeed ( not to say that others lack that same motivation ) that manage to find that hole to climb out...

it's like 300 people applying for the same job...one succeeds the other 299 fail...they may all be motivated, they may all have the same qualifications, they may all may equally desire the opportunity...

but no matter how you slice the dice...only one is going to get the job.

......................

And just as a note: in my case I have lived with the very poor in very violent neighborhoods...ie. SOMA area down by the 3000 block of Third Street San Fran...I was maybe one of a half-dozen whites in a predominately black-Hispanic neighborhood during the Rodney King riots...I worked in an area, off of Third Street, where there were crips on one corner and homeless living in an abandoned car lot on the other...we were broken into and robbed three times in two years...once when I was sleeping at the shop...Jack should be able to fill you in on the area...I also worked at the old Navy shipyard.

So I've seen, first hand, the situation minorities face...and in many cases it's more than just pulling up your bootstraps.

OH, and let Jack tell you about the Tenderloin District...a place I frequented a lot. I was even published in the Tenderloin Times.