White Yale Student Accepts His Privilege in Op-Ed
“let’s have a chat about empathy and listening”
Yale Student Patrick Sullivan has apparently accepted the fact that he’s a horrible human being because he’s white and male.
He writes in the Yale Daily News:
SULLIVAN: Dear white boy…
In a sense, I am unsure about writing this column. I’m just another white boy putting my voice in a space dominated by white boys. And as we will see later, my premise is that white boys should be listening more and speaking less.
I am writing this piece because I want to accept the challenge that has been laid down by our community: To think about the ways masculinity, straightness, whiteness and histories of privilege allow our voices to be heard at the expense of silencing others. To be clear, I am not offering definitive answers nor a full solution. But I do want us white boys to think about the ways we can actively combat those histories in our everyday lives. To the white boys who are unwilling or unable to accept this challenge, let’s have a chat about empathy and listening:
Where do we start? A first step is to think about empathy and active listening in every part of our lives. To me, empathy is opening your heart to someone and welcoming them with a hug. Opening your heart does not mean speaking about your sadness and pain. There is a time and a place for that, but this is not it.
Also, that hug doesn’t always mean literally hugging someone else. Be careful with your body because it can be imposing and a lot of people don’t want to be near it. Now that I’m on the subject of bodies, make yourself small when you enter a room. Like really small. Cross your legs, or at least put them together a little more.
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Comments
He’s not writing to white boys, he’s writing to other pansies like himself ~
He could give his spot to a deserving minority and become a barista, but he won’t.
Chicken *squid* entitled pansy child of wealth.
I wonder if his health plan covers testosterone shots.
I know students like him – the’re trying to get more attention by doing such a things. I mean “Oh look at me, I’m writing column about serious things and i want to say – we’re living in a cruel world. I am the one who can see this, I am the one who can tell you, animals to stop being jerks” i mean c’mon. He can write a few words once a year or maybe in 5 years, while another medias write about people students like him for example Huffingtonpost (about students who would like to pay instead of studying) or the guardian recently have smth similar (can’t find sorry). False-big-hearted ;(