Words of the Week: Liel Leibovitz

“But diversity, that sterling principle of our culture, is precisely what the privilege-checking throttles. To make an example of Fortgang once again, to assume that he, the grandson of a poor Jewish immigrant, stands shoulder-to-shoulder in the same privilege bracket as the grandson of, say, a well-heeled patrician just because both are white men whose parents can afford a good college is to assume that neither is able to transcend the happenstance of his birth and that both, despite having grown up in such radically different traditions, arrive at a conversation with precisely the same point of view, shaped exclusively by their skin, their cocks, and their cash. It is, in other words, to deny that diversity is even a possibility. And that, I hope it goes without saying, is a deeply illiberal thing to do.”

Source: Liel Leibovitz, “Liberals, Don’t Check Your Privilege,” via Tablet.

2 thoughts on “Words of the Week: Liel Leibovitz

  1. Ellen Halter says:

    Well put. I quite agree. Ellen

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      Well, Ellen, I thought it was a strong piece (and I still do). But obviously, not everyone agrees. What I like about this response (http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/172141/liel-liel-liel, from another Tablet writer) is that it’s civil and friendly. Which is a lot more than I can say about other commentaries that have emerged from the original post.

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