“Your actions, not your race, determine your level of success”
April 20, 2017
At the end of last semester, I gave a presentation as part of a class requirement. In this presentation, I posited the argument that the government should not be in the business of regulating speech, regardless of how “hateful” some may perceive certain speech.
Midway through my presentation, while making a related argument, my professor had the audacity to interrupt me and proclaim in front of the entire class that I was not qualified to speak on the subject because of my “white privilege.” Fearing that any retort may adversely impact my grade, I did not respond. But had I responded, I would have posited the notion that “white privilege” as it is commonly used, does not exist.
Privilege itself is a very real concept; it mostly manifests in individual socioeconomic status. For example, if you were born incredibly wealthy, you are more likely to become successful. “White privilege,” however, is the idea that white people are inherently treated better and receive societal benefits purely because of their skin color. This concept is nothing short of asinine. Attributing success purely to skin color is inherently racist and carries no basis in fact.
Different aspects of our legal and political systems protect against laws that discriminate against a citizen based on race. If a legislative body changes such a law, we have judicial remedies that protect people from being targeted for their race.
But the idea of “white privilege” assumes that even though we have these systems and safety nets, there is still some sort of sinister, invisible force of racism that is propping up white citizens, specifically white men.
Proponents of “white privilege” will have you believe that this sort of evil system exists, but can point to no particularized evidence. They feel, however, that this force exists and therefore that trumps the fact that they cannot back up claims of white privilege with any supporting facts, statistical or otherwise. These proponents attribute differing outcomes to skin color as opposed to individual accountability.
Success, or lack thereof, is almost always a direct result of personal decisions. Everybody, regardless of skin color, faces numerous challenges and obstacles in their lives.
In responding to these obstacles, people make certain decisions. Time after time, those who either make good decisions or learn from bad decisions come out on top. Conversely, those who make bad choices normally end up wildly unsuccessful. This is how the world works. Your actions, not your race, determine your level of success in life.
Jessica Marie • Sep 28, 2020 at 12:10 pm
You know, if you’re getting invited to an interview, the person interviewing you saw potential in you to invite you in the first place, right? If you keep getting passed over for a job, maybe one should look at how they are interviewing. Black people have privilege too. I agree with Brian: “Affirmative action, minority quotas, scholarships, the Rooney rule. But, that is not the author’s point. I have no idea your ethnicity. But this victim or guilt mentality has to stop.”
Brian • Aug 14, 2020 at 4:20 pm
You lost me about a paragraph in. The author made very good points that America is a land of opportunity for all if you are willing to work for it. Is life fair? Or equal? No. Are White’s privileged? Again, No. I could write a ridiculously long post like yours on Black privilege. Affirmative action, minority quotas, scholarships, the Rooney rule. But, that is not the author’s point. I have no idea your ethnicity. But this victim or guilt mentality has to stop.
Anonymous • Mar 18, 2020 at 2:28 pm
This level of indifference is alarming. Laws might protect citizen of color, but microagressions and unspoken discrimination is stilll very much prevalent. Shame on you.
R8 • Oct 4, 2020 at 9:37 am
Against ugly people and short men. They are the only ones discriminated against. White privilege doesn’t exist. We are just more successful at raising families and competent adults. Asians even more so.
Cara Van Dorn • May 26, 2017 at 3:34 pm
Very nicely said.
tdaly29 • May 15, 2017 at 10:45 am
On May 2nd a great book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America was published. For anyone who doubts white privilege should read it. It details how the federal, state and local authorities throughout the country helped white America move to the suburbs while fencing African Americans into segregated housing, via the VA, FHA and the courts from the New deal through the 1960s and 1970s. In addition the lack of VA and FHA loans meant that African Americans paid higher interest on loans when they could get them. This has continued in the “free market” with the subprime loans that targeted African Americans in the build up to the Bush/Cheney recession in 2008.
The Color of Law contains all the statistics and examples to prove one of the major pieces of white privilege
Caleb Rash • Apr 25, 2017 at 5:22 pm
Feel free to disagree with his opinion, but saying it is “blatantly racist” is absurd. The left constructs a racial paradigm (white privilege) and prohibits any criticism or dissidence? Very open-minded indeed.
Caleb Rash • Apr 25, 2017 at 5:13 pm
The Brookings Institute published a report detailing 3 simple steps to avoid poverty: 1) Finish high school; 2) Be able to keep a job when you find one; 3) Wait until marriage to have kids.
Of course this nation has a shameful history of racial prejudice, but the white privilege framework is both counterproductive and inaccurate. The simple truth is that voluntary decisions affect life outcomes more so than mere demographics. The black community, for example, experiences higher HS drop out rates and childbirth out of wedlock. In addition, blacks comprise 13% of the population yet commit half of violent crimes. This is a dangerous combination for people who want to achieve success.
If whites are so privileged, then why are Asian-Americans dominating whites in basically every category. Even Nigerian-Americans and Ghanaian-Americans have more wealth than whites. Using the same measures used to argue for white privilege, Asian privilege is far more apparent and dominant. These examples prove that success has everything to do with culture and decisions.
The entire privilege concept is a political instrument wielded by leftists intended to compel support for government redistributionist agenda. If you want to see how truly tolerant and accepting the left is, then observe how minorities are treated who speak out against the prescribed narrative of racial oppression. Racial prejudice certainly exists, and it thrives in leftist circles that prey on insecurities to win votes.
Drew Culler • Apr 22, 2017 at 4:01 pm
White privilege is this author having a platform to say that white privilege doesn’t exist because no one can support it by data or statistics while simultaneously not supporting his point by any data or statistics.
Caleb Rash • Apr 25, 2017 at 5:23 pm
Cute refrigerator quotes and bumper stickers aren’t really helpful in meaningful discussions like this.
Doriyon Glass • Apr 22, 2017 at 1:45 pm
Dylan and Sammie’s posts sufficiently made clear how ridiculous this article is. But I’ll add a little more context, as someone who was also in the class when this took place. The presentation was on the law that protects against registering disparaging trademarks. I believe the presentation at some point showed some of the racially offensive trademarks that people have attempted to register, like the “N” word. At the end of each presentation there is a Q & A session. During that time the professor asked what Zach suggested be done about the issues with this law that he presented. He responded that he would get rid of this law completely. The professor said that is white privilege speaking, because he is not one of the people impacted by what this law aims to protect against. She didn’t say he was wrong, or that he was not qualified to speak on the matter. She simply responded to his opinion with her own. Zach, you seem shocked that she had the “audacity” to do this, to give her opinion. Well I was shocked that you had the audacity to a give presentation showing that this law prevents federal registration of racial epithets as vile as the “N” word, but then suggested that the law be completely removed. I was especially shocked because there were black students in the classroom. But there were only three of us, so maybe you didn’t see us like you don’t see white privilege.
Andrew Allsup • Apr 22, 2017 at 12:05 pm
Please excuse me while I laugh hysterically at the idea that you actually thought you could disprove white privilege in 20 sentences and with zero evidence.
Daniel Jones • Apr 22, 2017 at 11:59 am
The simple fact that you were too much of a coward to speak up for what your beliefs are in front of the professor and that you didn’t attempt to have a conversation in that moment, but then wrote an article disrespecting her knowing that you wouldn’t have to see her face-to-face tells me everything about the kind of person you are.
As for your actual argument…”They cannot back up claims if white privilege with any supporting facts, statistical or otherwise.”
– Prison industrial complex
– Police brutality
– Housing discrimination
Start with those. Google is your friend. Get back to me if you need more.
Sammi Rippetoe • Apr 22, 2017 at 11:12 am
This is the reason why students of color do not feel welcome at Wake Forest. It seems you are a person of privilege, not only because you are a white man, but also because you attend Wake Forest University, possibly private high school and college before this. These experiences might make you believe that class is the biggest factor when determining success because you know that you are at top schools that require top dollar. But what you fail to realize is the fact that there is a reason why in your classes you might only encounter 1 black student. At WFU alone, only 6.3% of the student population is black compared to the 73.7% that is white (https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/wake-forest-university/student-life/diversity/). You occupy spaces where you are compared to other people that mostly look like you, and so blatant racism (like this post) is hardly ever questioned or recognized because of the demographic you often find yourself.
What you are missing from your analysis is asking why is it that I don’t know or see many black people in my classes? What are the barriers that might prevent them from being here in the first place? And yes, class is a barrier, but how that class is distributed is also a pretty big indicator that race has an impact on quality of life for Americans. For example, a 2016 study showed that the college graduation gap continues to grow between black and white students, with graduates being only 31.2% black and 53.9% white (https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/03/23/study-college-graduation-gap-between-blacks-whites-still-growing). And then after college when students go to start their careers, white men make on average $21 hourly in the US, compared to the $15 for black men, and $13 for black women (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/01/racial-gender-wage-gaps-persist-in-u-s-despite-some-progress/). So it’s clearly not just how much money one has that determines life success, but WHO get’s the wealth and how that wealth is distributed (and it’s mostly to white people). This proves that it is more than your actions that determine your success, and that race is a major influence on your ability to be successful.
And then you make an argument about how the law can regulate discrimination on race. Do not forget that the United States was built upon the labor of black slaves, and though slavery does not exist today, the ramifications for it does. Slavery was abolished, Jim Crow laws were created and enforced, once those were repealed the prison industrial complex made sure that black people were still at a disadvantage, where black folks are incarcerated 5.1 times higher than those of whites (http://www.businessinsider.com/study-finds-huge-racial-disparity-in-americas-prisons-2016-6). This also shows up in racist practices of law enforcement, one example would be police brutality where more than 250 black people were killed by police in 2016 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-people-killed-by-police-america_us_577da633e4b0c590f7e7fb17), and the results of laws like Stop and Frisk result in racist practices where in 2016 5,401 black people were stopped compared to the 1,042 white people in New York. (https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data). So the fact that there are laws that mitigate discrimination cannot stop racism, since the application of the law results in targeting non white people.
As a person that received an internship through a diversity initiative (YOU, Mr. Rhines), I would think that you would take the time to think about, and research, what it means to create a safe community for people of all backgrounds, and especially those that have been historically disenfranchised. White people that make bad decisions are still able to get ahead based on the color of their skin, over more qualified and more intelligent people of color, (our current president, for example). Class is not the only determining factor, merely an identity marker that complicates privilege. The major difference is: a person can hide the fact that they are poor, one cannot hide the fact they are black.
It is our responsibility as white people to acknowledge our privilege and use it to make sure that those around us feel safe and welcome. This article, and the righteousness that you felt when you had it posted, only shows that you have decided to ignore facts (you’ll notice my response had evidence, where your article did not) in favor of feeling comfortable and justified in living off of your white privilege, instead of trying to learn something in this class where this conversation first started. Your actions only further disenfranchise people, and justify things like the rise hate speech and violence that happened after President Trump was elected (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hate-on-the-rise-after-trumps-election) AND SPECIFICALLY ON OUR CAMPUS (http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime/report-students-shouted-n-word-on-wake-forest-campus-on/article_94b55396-a813-11e6-a644-8f5099567797.html). I hope you are able to take this moment as one that is humbling, perhaps where you first learned that you could be wrong, and have an obligation as someone that privileges from the white supremacy to try and make the world more equitable to your peers of color.
I am more than willing to have a public conversation about this issue. But I want to make it very clear, the evidence that says that racism exists is exhaustive and alarming. It is because of your white privilege you have not been exposed to it.
And if the paper takes down my comment again, I would really like justification considering you have my information.
Jessica Marie • Sep 28, 2020 at 12:17 pm
You know that’s nonsense right? If you have a felony as a white person, you aren’t getting a job. If you don’t drive and a company has a policy that you must possess a driver’s license to have that job, you’re not getting that job. Many lose their licenses due to circumstances and that could be why they make less. I don’t drive, anxiety keeps me from driving, and I’m stuck in low end jobs that don’t require a license. A lot of the top paying jobs do require it OR if they don’t, they want you to have experiences, experiences that are usually brought on by jobs that require a license. Sometimes being poor and mentally ill isn’t fun either.
R8 • Oct 4, 2020 at 9:46 am
The US was not just built by black slaves, thats totally rediculous. Who’s building it now for example? Mostly white men. Just like western Europe. See many women out there building? Maybe thats women privilege never having to do the rough jobs. Unless you are really attractive most people get discriminated against because of the way they look at some time or another, I certainly have. Yet everyone else manages to get on with life. Blacks think because they don’t get something it must be racism rather than themselves or their own entitled culture.
Sammi Rippetoe • Apr 22, 2017 at 9:19 am
This is the reason why students of color do not feel welcome at Wake Forest. It seems you are a person of privilege, not only because you are a white man, but also because you attend Wake Forest University, possibly private high school and college before this. These experiences might make you believe that class is the biggest factor when determining success because you know that you are at top schools that require top dollar. But what you fail to realize is the fact that there is a reason why in your classes you might only encounter 1 black student. At WFU alone, only 6.3% of the student population is black compared to the 73.7% that is white (https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/wake-forest-university/student-life/diversity/). You occupy spaces where you are compared to other people that mostly look like you, and so blatant racism (like this post) is hardly ever questioned or recognized because of the demographic you often find yourself.
What you are missing from your analysis is asking why is it that I don’t know or see many black people in my classes? What are the barriers that might prevent them from being here in the first place? And yes, class is a barrier, but how that class is distributed is also a pretty big indicator that race has an impact on quality of life for Americans. For example, a 2016 study showed that the college graduation gap continues to grow between black and white students, with graduates being only 31.2% black and 53.9% white (https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/03/23/study-college-graduation-gap-between-blacks-whites-still-growing). And then after college when students go to start their careers, white men make on average $21 hourly in the US, compared to the $15 for black men, and $13 for black women (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/01/racial-gender-wage-gaps-persist-in-u-s-despite-some-progress/). So it’s clearly not just how much money one has that determines life success, but WHO get’s the wealth and how that wealth is distributed (and it’s mostly to white people). This proves that it is more than your actions that determine your success, and that race is a major influence on your ability to be successful.
And then you make an argument about how the law can regulate discrimination on race. Do not forget that the United States was built upon the labor of black slaves, and though slavery does not exist today, the ramifications for it does. Slavery was abolished, Jim Crow laws were created and enforced, once those were repealed the prison industrial complex made sure that black people were still at a disadvantage, where black folks are incarcerated 5.1 times higher than those of whites (http://www.businessinsider.com/study-finds-huge-racial-disparity-in-americas-prisons-2016-6). This also shows up in racist practices of law enforcement, one example would be police brutality where more than 250 black people were killed by police in 2016 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-people-killed-by-police-america_us_577da633e4b0c590f7e7fb17), and the results of laws like Stop and Frisk result in racist practices where in 2016 5,401 black people were stopped compared to the 1,042 white people in New York. (https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data). So the fact that there are laws that mitigate discrimination cannot stop racism, since the application of the law results in targeting non white people.
As a person that received an internship through a diversity initiative (YOU, Mr. Rhines), I would think that you would take the time to think about, and research, what it means to create a safe community for people of all backgrounds, and especially those that have been historically disenfranchised. White people that make bad decisions are still able to get ahead based on the color of their skin, over more qualified and more intelligent people of color, (our current president, for example). Class is not the only determining factor, merely an identity marker that complicates privilege. The major difference is: a person can hide the fact that they are poor, one cannot hide the fact they are black.
It is our responsibility as white people to acknowledge our privilege and use it to make sure that those around us feel safe and welcome. This article, and the righteousness that you felt when you had it posted, only shows that you have decided to ignore facts (you’ll notice my response had evidence, where your article did not) in favor of feeling comfortable and justified in living off of your white privilege, instead of trying to learn something in this class where this conversation first started. Your actions only further disenfranchise people, and justify things like the rise hate speech and violence that happened after President Trump was elected (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hate-on-the-rise-after-trumps-election) AND SPECIFICALLY ON OUR CAMPUS (http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime/report-students-shouted-n-word-on-wake-forest-campus-on/article_94b55396-a813-11e6-a644-8f5099567797.html). I hope you are able to take this moment as one that is humbling, perhaps where you first learned that you could be wrong, and have an obligation as someone that privileges from the white supremacy to try and make the world more equitable to your peers of color.
I am more than willing to have a public conversation about this issue. But I want to make it very clear, the evidence that says that racism exists is exhaustive and alarming. It is because of your white privilege you have not been exposed to it.
And if the paper takes down my comment again, I would really like justification considering you have my information.
Matt Hurst • Apr 22, 2017 at 12:38 am
I saw it, and she didn’t interrupt you. She argued in the alternative. Something that you clearly didn’t learn in your three years at Wake. You should have talked to her after class instead of stewing over it for six months and then posting about it because you didn’t like her perspective.
Dylan Tucker • Apr 22, 2017 at 12:23 am
stop deleting my comment.
Dylan Tucker • Apr 21, 2017 at 11:14 pm
Unfortunately it seems that you have a distorted understanding of the argument behind “white privilege.” Don’t worry, you are not alone—just look to fox news. I’d like to deconstruct your argument for a moment.
First you say: “Privilege itself is a very real concept; it mostly manifests in individual socioeconomic status.” I would disagree with the second clause. That is, gender privilege, Christian privilege, race privilege, and heterosexual privilege all quickly come to mind as major sources of privilege, outside of just Socio Economic privilege.
Next, you assert that “Attributing success purely to skin color is inherently racist and carries no basis in fact.” I would in fact agree with you (*gasp*) that attributing success “purely” to skin color doesn’t make much sense. Thankfully, this is not the argument that “proponents of white privilege” make. You are indeed right that White people must work for their success—in fact, depending on who you are comparing, many White people may have to work harder than certain Black people, depending on socio-economic status etc. However, again, this is not the argument. The argument looks instead at the benefits received by individuals who are a part of the group in power. Since the birth of our nation, Whites have controlled nearly all systems and major institutions, from congress to the media. White privilege is an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted to those of us who, by race, resemble the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions. Let’s look at an example. The news media is largely controlled by Whites. Broadcast stations give disproportionate coverage to crime stories involving Black suspects. That is, the news reports on subjects that are Black at a significantly higher rate than Blacks are actually arrested for the crimes being reported on. This contributes heavily to the association between Blacks and criminality. Privilege is the ability to maneuver in your day-to-day life without people implicitly associating you with crime….that’s all. So, how does this influence success? Simple—A White person named “Zach” doesn’t have to worry about walking into a job interview at a White-controlled law-firm and having the interviewer implicitly questioning whether or not he will be lazy or incompetent simply because of the stereotypes attached to his skin color. Thus, it is not that being White grants you success and being Black doesn’t, as Zach still may very well not get the job…it’s simply that you carry around certain privileges that arise from you, by race, resembling the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions.
The last point I want to touch upon is your contention that “Proponents of ‘white privilege’ will have you believe that this sort of evil system exists, but can point to no particularized evidence.” Unfortunately, this is misguided as well. All it takes is a few brief moments on google to find real evidence of White privilege. Take policing for example: when NYC had its stop-and-frisk laws, a report published relayed that the primary reason a specific person gets stopped is her race. Subsequently, in 2011, 685,724 people were stopped, 84 percent of whom were people of color. This is significant given they only make up roughly 25 percent of New York’s population. It is also important to note that Whites were more likely to have illegal items in their possession. Let’s move to education—Black children, even as young as preschool age, are more than 3 times as likely to receive out-of-school suspension or expulsion when engaging in the same level and frequency of misbehavior as White children. This is just a taste. So, of course, it is not the case that the privileges stemming from Whiteness inherently create success and deny it to Blacks. Race is just one factor of many that contributes to success, and the role it plays may vary dramatically depending on the person and their environment/circumstances. White privilege is nothing to feel guilty or ashamed of, nor does it take away from any of your accomplishments. It’s something to merely be mindful of, allowing you to fight for equality when opportunities arise. It is important, however, to not allow the fact that you have never had to exist in a Black body blind you to the struggles of others who have. Allowing yourself to consider other perspectives might help you avoid getting called out in front of your class in the future.
Sammi Rippetoe • Apr 21, 2017 at 9:43 pm
This is the reason why students of color do not feel welcome at Wake Forest. It seems you are a person of privilege, not only because you are a white man, but also because you attend Wake Forest University, possibly private high school and college before this. These experiences might make you believe that class is the biggest factor when determining success because you know that you are at top schools that require top dollar. But what you fail to realize is the fact that there is a reason why in your classes you might only encounter 1 black student. At WFU alone, only 6.3% of the student population is black compared to the 73.7% that is white (https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/wake-forest-university/student-life/diversity/). You occupy spaces where you are compared to other people that mostly look like you, and so blatant racism (like this post) is hardly ever questioned or recognized because of the demographic you often find yourself.
What you are missing from your analysis is asking why is it that I don’t know or see many black people in my classes? What are the barriers that might prevent them from being here in the first place? And yes, class is a barrier, but how that class is distributed is also a pretty big indicator that race has an impact on quality of life for Americans. College graduation rates between white and black students according to a 2016 study, where only 31.2 percent of graduates are black to the 53.9% of white students (https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/03/23/study-college-graduation-gap-between-blacks-whites-still-growing). And then after college when students go on to get careers, white men make on average $21 in the US, compared to the $15 for black men, and $13 for black women (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/01/racial-gender-wage-gaps-persist-in-u-s-despite-some-progress/). So it’s clearly not just how much money one has that determines life success, but WHO get’s the wealth and how that wealth is distributed (and it’s mostly to white people). So it’s apparent by this data alone that it isn’t only your actions that determine your success, but your race plays a significant factor too.
And then you make an argument about how the law can regulate discrimination on race. Do not forget that the United States was built upon the labor of black slaves, and though slavery does not exist today, the ramifications for that do. Slavery was abolished, Jim Crow laws were created and enforced, once those were repealed the prison industrial complex made sure that black people were still at a disadvantage, where black folks are incarcerated 5.1 times higher than those of whites (http://www.businessinsider.com/study-finds-huge-racial-disparity-in-americas-prisons-2016-6). This also shows up in racist practices of law enforcement, one example would be police brutality where more than 250 black people were killed by police in 2016 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-people-killed-by-police-america_us_577da633e4b0c590f7e7fb17), and the results of laws like Stop and Frisk result in racist practices where in 2016 5,401 black people were stopped compared to the 1,042 white people in New York. (https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data).
As a person that received an internship through a diversity initiative (YOU, Mr. Rhines), I would think that you would take the time to think about, and research, what it means to create a safe community for people of all backgrounds, and especially those that have been historically disenfranchised. White people that make bad decisions are still able to get ahead based on the color of their skin, over more qualified and more intelligent people of color, (our current president, for example). Class is not the only determining factor, merely an identity marker that complicates privilege. The major difference is: you can hide the fact you are poor, one cannot hide the fact they are black.
It is our responsibility as white people to acknowledge our privilege and use it to make sure that those around us feel safe and welcome. This article, and the righteousness that you felt when you had it posted, only shows that you have decided to ignore facts (you’ll notice my response had evidence, where your article did not) in favor of feeling comfortable and justified in living off of your white privilege, instead of trying to learn something in this class where this conversation first started. Your actions only further disenfranchise people, and justify things like the rise hate speech and violence that happened after President Trump was elected (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hate-on-the-rise-after-trumps-election) AND SPECIFICALLY ON OUR CAMPUS (http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime/report-students-shouted-n-word-on-wake-forest-campus-on/article_94b55396-a813-11e6-a644-8f5099567797.html). I hope you are able to take this moment as one that is humbling, perhaps where you first learned that you could be wrong, and have an obligation as someone that privileges from the white supremacy to try and make the world more equitable to your peers of color.
I am more than willing to have a public conversation about this issue. But I want to make it very clear, the evidence that says that racism exists is exhaustive and alarming. It is because of your white privilege you have not been exposed to it.
Dylan Tucker • Apr 21, 2017 at 8:49 pm
Unfortunately it seems that you have a distorted understanding of the argument behind “white privilege.” Don’t worry, you are not alone—just look to fox news. I’d like to deconstruct your argument for a moment.
First you say: “Privilege itself is a very real concept; it mostly manifests in individual socioeconomic status.” I would disagree with the second clause. That is, gender privilege, Christian privilege, race privilege, and heterosexual privilege all quickly come to mind as major sources of privilege, outside of just socio-economic privilege.
Next, you assert that “Attributing success purely to skin color is inherently racist and carries no basis in fact.” I would in fact agree with you (*gasp*) that attributing success “purely” to skin color doesn’t make much sense. Thankfully, this is not the argument that “proponents of white privilege” make. You are indeed right that White people must work for their success—in fact, depending on who you are comparing, many White people may have to work harder than certain Black people, depending on socio-economic status etc. However, again, this is not the argument. The argument looks instead at the benefits received by individuals who are a part of the group in power. Since the birth of our nation, Whites have controlled nearly all systems and major institutions, from congress to the media. White privilege is an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted to those of us who, by race, resemble the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions. Let’s look at an example. The news media is largely controlled by Whites. Broadcast stations give disproportionate coverage to crime stories involving Black suspects. That is, the news reports on suspects that are Black at a significantly higher rate than Blacks are actually arrested for the crimes being reported on. This contributes heavily to the association between Blacks and criminality. Privilege is the ability to maneuver in your day-to-day life without people implicitly associating you with crime….that’s all. So, how does this influence success? Simple—A White person named “Zach” doesn’t have to worry about walking into a job interview at a White-controlled law-firm and having the interviewer implicitly questioning whether or not he will be lazy or incompetent simply because of the stereotypes attached to his skin color. Thus, it is not that being White grants you success and being Black doesn’t, as Zach still may very well not get the job…it’s simply that you carry around certain privileges that arise from you, by race, resembling the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions.
The last point I want to touch upon is your contention that “Proponents of ‘white privilege’ will have you believe that this sort of evil system exists, but can point to no particularized evidence.” Unfortunately, this is misguided as well. All it takes is a few brief moments on google to find real evidence of White privilege. Take policing for example: when NYC had its stop-and-frisk laws, a report published relayed that the primary reason a specific person gets stopped is her race. Subsequently, in 2011, 685,724 people were stopped, 84 percent of whom were people of color. This is significant given they only make up roughly 25 percent of New York’s population. It is also important to note that Whites were more likely to have illegal items in their possession. Let’s move to education—Black children, even as young as preschool age, are more than 3 times as likely to receive out-of-school suspension or expulsion when engaging in the same level and frequency of misbehavior as White children. This is just a taste.
So, of course, it is not the case that the privileges stemming from Whiteness inherently create success and deny it to Blacks. Race is just one factor of many that contributes to success, and the role it plays may vary dramatically depending on the person and their environment/circumstances. White privilege is nothing to feel guilty or ashamed of, nor does it take away from any of your accomplishments. It’s something to merely be mindful of, allowing you to fight for equality when opportunities arise. It is important, however, to not allow the fact that you have never had to exist in a Black body blind you to the struggles of others who have. Allowing yourself to consider other perspectives might help you avoid getting called out in front of your class in the future.
tdaly • Apr 21, 2017 at 10:48 am
God I wish the headline were true – but it is not.
How i wish Dr Martin Luther King’s statement was now true; “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
But we find out that banks recently were more likely to put African Americans in high cost and risky mortgages even with the same income as whites.
You also might want to read a 538 article “Patterns Of Death In The South Still Show The Outlines Of Slavery”, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mortality-black-belt/ Then contemplate the effect of enslaving people and then having the governments enforce Jim Crow laws.
Take it from an old white guy – you and I are still given a head start because of our color.
aNoN • Apr 21, 2017 at 12:16 am
“Success, or lack thereof, is almost always a direct result of personal decisions.” I think you are forgetting that there are things in life that we cannot control. Such as where we live, the schools we attend as children, or the family we are born into. I believe that your understanding of white privilege is lacking in taking into consideration that whites have historically made minority groups live in lower quality living areas, made them attend schools which provided a lower quality education which forced these students to be unable to climb up the social ladder since the policies put in place by white males segregated the black community into a lower class. Sure modern policies have made some advancements in shortening the racial divide but the damage that whites have done to the African-American community will take years to correct. Look at any map where income and race, gerrymandering and race, or education level and race. Every time you would see the same thing; minority groups would be in the lower rated areas while whites will be mostly found in the higher ranks. I am not calling you a racist or a bigot of any sort but I would like to point out that your argument has no evidence and really you have failed to actually enter the conversation about race relations and white privilege at all. All that I see when I read your article is someone who is upset that they were called out on an unsupported argument while giving a presentation in class. I hope you will do research on the history of how whites have impacted the lives of minority communities and how history has affected our lives today. If you want to have a good argument against white privilege, at least have some evidence to support it.