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2004-09-22 - 11:49 a.m. - this is a true story. all names have been changed. Professor Drake (a right-wing conservative Christian white man age 61) teaches a class with Professor Leslie (an ultra left-wing liberal female age 57). They teach opposite viewpoints in this one class -- a cool idea for a class! Yesterday, they each got to speak about their opposite views -- to the kids -- on a book by a feminist atheist, the theme of which is that it is evil how conservative Christian white males in America enjoy priveleges that others do not enjoy. Professor Leslie went first and said, "It's all true. People like Professor Drake have all these privileges," and so forth. But when it was Professor Drake's turn, he said to the kids: "It may be true that white males have some privileges. I'm not saying they never do. But let me list off to you some of the priveleges that liberals live with every day, priveleges that I do not get to enjoy because I am not a liberal." He said: "If I were a liberal, I would be able to sit in a group of my Univeristy peers and feel confident that everyone around me agreed with me on all major issues. I do not have that privilege. "If I were a liberal, I would not have to sit at a table in a University meeting and have another University person openly say to me, "The person you're voting for for President should be taken out and shot."" And finally he said: "If I were a liberal, and I were eating lunch at a University which proclaims its tolerance of all viewpoints and its embracing of diversity -- I could do whatever I wanted before I ate and I would not be laughed at openly for doing it. "But when I, as a Christian, prayed before my meal, and crossed myself openly, at a table full of tolerant diversity-embracing liberals, I was laughed at. Laughed at out loud. If I were a liberal atheist, I would enjoy the privilege of not having people LAUGH AT ME for my beliefs. But I am not a liberal and I am not an atheist, and I do not enjoy the privileges of those groups. So when you talk about what privileges white Christian conservative males might enjoy, balance it please, with the privileges that we do not get to experience." |