Yes, things are complicated, and there are white people who are struggling in their lives and for them to hear they are "privileged" compared to some millionaire who isn't white would be understandably difficult to stomach. But I think people are treated differently due to their race (in terms of hiring, schooling, housing, policing/sentencing, etc.), and this shows up systemically when you look at effects at the population-level. In some narrow contexts, you could say that black people are "privileged" relative to white people or brown people, but generally speaking I think they tend to be disadvantaged along the dimensions that impact economic and social upward mobility.
I believe in white privilege but it does not benefit anybody using that term. In the year 20/20 it's much more of a class issue than a race one when it comes to privilege in my mind.
The 19 yr old author doesn't show distinction between being a minority with parents who chose to be here vs a minority whose ancestors were forcibly brought over or conquered (former parts of Mexico). He even brought up Nigerians as an example but glossed over the significance of it. Yes, it's simplistic to say that if he's brown, he'll get randomly pulled over (in Canada?), but lets see him fly his ass over to Disneyland and not get randomly searched. Anyways, I can understand his pleas for moderation, but it's those same pleas that has been heard over the decades and the same kind of half-truths that the alt-right, like Stephen Miller, hides behind ( “we need to have generous, but reasonable limits on our immigration system”) to enact even harsher forms of racism, and in Miller's case extreme anti-immigration policies. To the old pearl clutchers out there, the "woke left" seems to be rabid and extreme, but it's really a pendulum shift that broke past frustration into rage in the age of Trump and post George Floyd. These pleas for moderation are now brushed off as delay tactics, and if results are the ultimate indicator of a genuine response, can you blame them? Republicans who have been silent over Trump's bigotry and cruelty have no one to blame except themselves when their newfound voices are met with deaf ears. On the meta level, Asians are always in the middle when it comes to meritocracy/assimilation. I would tend to believe meritocracy works considering how much my parents sacrificed, but I'd also have to be blind to the massive amounts of racism they overcame or the lottery-esque luck for me to be born into parrents that "made it". That straddles between different kinds of privilege and having a pro-institutional bias is definitely an advantage and a privilege, no matter how much that 19 year old "works hard" and "pulls up his own bootstraps".
The article makes a big deal about minority immigrant populations performing better than white Americans along various factors. This does not delegitamize arguments that race confers certain advantages/disadvantages. Obviously, children of immigrants tend to have privileges owing to their parents being highly educated and/or industrious. I know that was the case for me.
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/fiscal-fact/median-value-wealth-race-ff03112019 "EmPiRiCaL DaTa" BTW, there is a very obvious reason for that gap and it has to do with an event right after WW2 and yes the reason is racist as ****. @Os Trigonum , any guess?
People can still be privileged and fail. A sports analogy are super athletic NBA prospects that just don't work hard enough to even get close to their potential. White privilege isn't that every white person succeeds, it's that you are given more chances, opportunities, and treated overall better because of your race. Unfortunately, this is just a fact, bore out by several different stats that we could really get into if anyone likes. The easiest one is just how people are treated based on their name. His entire argument is destroyed by himself I believe. He then goes on to talk about immigrant groups...when yes, we know that immigrant groups do better than native-born groups because immigration itself is a filter. You can't immigrate if you don't have money or an education and if you are fleeing from a crappy situation and cross a border, well, it likely means you're determined as hell to succeed. The argument against this is always "Well, I've done this, so others can too..." which no one is refuting.
I thought this was a very insightful perspective:- "Fundamentally, privileges of all kinds exist: able-bodiedness, wealth, education, moral values, facial symmetry, tallness (or in other contexts, shortness), health, stamina, safety, economic mobility, and importantly, living in a free, diverse society. Rather than “whiteness,” an exponentially more predictive privilege in life is growing up with two parents." The last sentence is a microcosm of modern society.
Nice speech, but it is difficult to see a well dressed, energetic, keen and appropriately educated black person being passed over for a white person who does not measure up to the black person. Employers are not stupid.
Comparing immigrants who come here though a selection filter to gen pop is stupid. @Os Trigonum please find articles that have more merit in discussion that aren't easily torn apart.
That's not where the privlege lies. The privlege is having a higher statistical probability of being born in a stable household with parents who own rather than rent and live in better funded school districts due to 300 years of rigging the rules to disproportionately benefit white people and harm black people.
This argument works both ways - will a black employer prefer black employees? Or Asian? See how that works? Personally, I believe in the intelligence of employers to hire the best candidate for the job - regardless of their skin colour.
I did not believe in the concept of white entitlement for a long time. I was keenly aware of racism and felt it was wrong. However I primarily viewed as an economic issue. However as I got older I noticed on my own that male entitlement was a very real thing. I then began to see similar patterns when it came to white people (primarily males) in the USA. When I hear someone (95% of the time a white male) claim there is no such thing as white entitlement.... I point to the current President of the USA... and I ask, “Can you think of any circumstance where a woman or black man would be elected with the history President Trump has?”.... the answer is almost always silence and then an effort to change the topic. White males in the USA have entitlements that others do not. White males have made the rules, largely interpret and enforce the laws and control the means of production. Even when there is no malicious intent, there is still a bias.... I say this as a white male that has benefitted from white entitlement, as someone born poor... as someone that has been given opportunities by other white men in positions of authority and has succeeded in a world largely dominated by white men.
Dude, even I as a non-white American have privilege due to the fact I was born to two educated parents who could afford to live in neighborhoods with high property values and therefore higher quality public education. My dad made enough money to where my mom could be a full time stay at home parent. These are all privileges I had where if I didn't have them I have no clue where I would end up. Entire urban black communities do not have that privlege.
Most people will acknowledge there is some white privilege but it is nowhere near the level some would advocate. There is likely black privilege or Asian privilege among black or Asian employers, etc, but again, which employer in his right mind is going to pass up on a better candidate because he is the wrong skin colour?
Yes, I see how that works, since most people in power are white, according to this logic, that means white people will benefit more. So, you should then support diversity at the top, right? You support AA for colleges then too, right? Otherwise, you're just filling all the positions of power with white people who according to your argument (since it works both ways) are just going to be biased in favor of other white people.
Absolutely. And the dominance of white males in highest positions is decreasing with increasing women (of all races) and men of other races as well. When you can prove that the white men currently in high positions did not work hard or educate themselves appropriately for those positions, I will give your argument more credibility - otherwise it is nothing more than tall poppy syndrome.
