Tough Questions Series #1: Is White Privilege Still a Real Thing in America?

So, is white privilege is a real thing? I actually don't know right now, but by the end of this article, hopefully you and I will find out together! I will simply investigate the facts, report my findings, and share my imperfect interpretation of the data. Just a heads up though, my initial bias leads me to believe that white privilege is not a real thing anymore. This will be a long article, so bear with me please, as I promise you'll find it informative. However, if you don't want to look through my arguments, feel free to skip down to the conclusion paragraph below!

Going into this, we'll have to first define what white privilege is, which I'll define as: white people being treated superior by society based on the color of their skin. Based off my definition,  we can clearly identify that white privilege is a real thing that was extremely prevalent in the past. So then, the question we should really be asking is if it's STILL a real thing. Well, let's look at some of the popular arguments supporting the idea that white privilege is still existent and thriving in America, and see if they stand up to the facts.

1. Poverty rates for African Americans (24.1%) are substantially higher than those of White Americans (9.1%)

According to brookings.edu, there are 3 rules to essentially avoid being in poverty, and holding footing in at least the middle class. These 3 rules are: graduating high school, get a full-time job, and wait until at least the age of 21 to get married and have children. Only 2% of people in poverty have followed these rules and still had no luck in making it out. The most common reason that I've found as to why kids don't graduate high school, is because of poverty, so it's quite a circular argument. It's reasonable to correlate the fact that African American students have the lowest high school graduation rates with the fact that they typically come from a more impoverished background. This doesn't help us answer the main question though. Unemployment rates are twice as high for African Americans (8.8%) as compared to White Americans (4.3%) as well, but this is also a circular argument, as this also stems from the fact that there is a much higher percentage of African Americans that don't graduate from high school. This leaves us with the 3rd rule, which is waiting until the age of 21 to get married and have children. Poverty statistics tell us that roughly 25% of all single parent families are in poverty, whereas only about 5% of married couples fall under that poverty line. A poll found on Politifact states that "67% of all African American children living in America are raised in a single parent home." Is it fair to blame "white privilege" on the fact that African American couples aren't staying together to raise their children? Of course not. The fact is that African American couples are not staying together at much higher rates as compared to other ethnicities, which, as we can confirm from other statistics, directly correlates into higher rates of poverty.

So how did African Americans come to be generally poorer than White Americans? Where did this all start, and what factors have contributed to this? Well, if you go back in history, you'll find that there are lots of factors such as generations of discrimination, which include redlining, mass incarceration and predatory finance, and as a result, they have prevented African Americans from building up wealth on a general scale. My reasoning is leading me to assume that the advantages that whites have had throughout American history still generally impact present-day African Americans in a negative way. African Americans really do have it worse in this country generally. I use the word generally, because obviously there are many affluent African Americans in our society, however, the history of racism and discriminatory acts from the past, still leave a mark on the general population of present day African Americans. Does this contribute entirely to the current poverty problem amongst the African American community? No. As mentioned earlier, a major key contributor to black poverty is the fact that 67% of children in African American families are raised in single parent homes, which is becoming an epidemic that the black community must take a stand against, especially those already coming from an impoverished background. 

The opposite logic can be applied to white people in America as well. Why are only 9% of White Americans living in poverty, the lowest percentage in America? Well following our three rules, white people must be graduating high school at a high rate, finding full time jobs, and getting married after the age of 21. How are white people graduating at such a high rate? Because they have the lowest poverty rate in America! The circular argument again leads us to look way back in the past to see how this came to be. America is structured like this because through out the history of the United States, the majority of the wealth and property had been accumlulated by white men. So when there is a history like that, each generation will typically pass their wealth on to the next generation, so yes, we can conclude that white people in America generally do have an advantage here as compared to people of other races.

So, in conclusion, point #1 does indeed support the idea of "white privilege." My original hypothesis was incorrect when I assumed that white privilege doesn't exist. However, I still feel that this idea is entirely boosted. I think our current society currently tries to benefit more African Americans and Mexicans, with one specific example coming from looking at college admissions. It's been reported that African Americans get 230 points added to their overall SAT scores, and Mexican Americans get 185 points added to their SAT scores. There's a lot of emphasis of adding diversity to the workforce in America nowadays, leading to possibly less qualified individuals getting hired due to the color of their skin. White privilege is certainly a real thing of the past which still benefits White Americans today, however, this emphasis of white privilege in the media and by the people still seems overblown to me, however, I acknowledge that my mind could still easily change after looking at more arguments and facts. I know I only touched on one of the arguments as well supporting white privilege, so I will do a part two of this article if this garners any interest from yall.

Remember, the only way you can open yourself to learning is if you keep an open mind for the facts, and let the facts dictate your beliefs, rather than pre-conceived biases. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, and please comment any thoughts you may have :)

Authored by: Kevin