We love this new Privilege Denying Dude Tumblr, which is going to sound awfully familiar to our readers, or anyone who's tried to discuss this stuff. And you can make your own!
"Look, I wasn't around when all that bad stuff happened," the "Dude" explains. "All I know is I got to where I am solely by hard work. Discrimination? I'm not going to listen to this. You obviously can't hear me: my reality is the only reality." He's just telling it like it is!
It's the brainchild of one Diana, who describes herself as "20 years old in Southern California. I try to post on race, feminism, animal rights, atheism, disability, class, gender, and Latin-America."
Here are some of our favorites, some user-generated.
And our own contribution:
Update: We've become aware that the model used in this meme has been insulted in real life because people think he personally endorses the meme. This is not the case. The person is a model and is not related to the messages being communicated here.
Privilege-Denying Dude [Tumblr]
Privilege Denying Dude [MemeGenerator
Jazzonia [Tumblr]
DISCUSSION
I'm no fun. I find myself wondering why "Privilege-Denying Dude" is so fun to take aim at. Is it because it's easier to cast privilege-denying as dude behavior? Because it seems to me, in a commenting community that's home to PLENTY of privilege deniers of the female persuasion, that this meme tells us quite a bit about what people are comfortable calling out and what they are not. It makes me wonder if "Privilege-Denying Chick" would have similar cachet — because I've read a lot of the race-related comments ascribed to "privilege-denying dudes" in Jezebel comment threads.
This is not to deny the need to call dudes out (or that there isn't good reason for making the privilege denier a dude), but there's a smugness when it comes to the race and class stuff that is not necessarily warranted here.