48108cd2@news.povray.org...
> Gilles Tran <gil### [at] agroparistechfr> wrote:
>> (***) http://www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf
>
>  Maybe it's a cultural thing (ie. I don't live in the US), but I didn't
> understand what she is talking about.

Now that's surprising :D
The damn knapsack is *** invisible *** for those who wear it. That's the 
whole point of the essay.

She's just saying that people who are born with a certain set of privileges 
have a hard time understanding that they have it in the first place (that's 
the social and cultural capital). It's invisible to them, they were born 
with it, so they can pretend (rightfully) that it doesn't exist.
However, people who don't have it not only can see it all right but are 
reminded every minute of the loss.

>  Maybe it isn't, but it just *sounds* like heavy multiculturalist
> propaganda (ie. white westerners are all racists, even without knowing).

The text was written with regard to the particular white/black US situation 
in the 80s but you can transpose it anywhere with local modifications (i.e. 
Kurds in Turkey etc.) and replace "race" by whatever gradient of 
socio-economic status is available where you live.

G.

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