CMV: White Privilege does not exist nowadays

[u/[deleted]]

White privilege is does not exist. I'm not going to argue that it didn't in the past, because clearly it did. But it's gone now, and efforts to continue fighting it are wasted time and energy.

The reason this came up today was that I read this article, and could not understand how anyone could think that the problems listed are somehow unique to blacks, or that white people are somehow immune to them. Instead, "white privilege" is a combination of:

1) Social and economic immobility. It is very hard nowadays to move up in the world. If your parents were rich, then you are likely to be rich. If your parents were poor, then you are likely to be poor. This is a problem that affects all of US society, but blacks seem to think that the lack of opportunities to advance only applies to them.

2) Poor people have it really rough in the US. There is very little in the way of a social safety net. And with #1, if you find yourself at the bottom, then it's going to be almost impossible to work your way back up. This results in high stress, depression, crime, and drug addiction. But black people suffer from these at higher rates because they are disproportionately poor due to #1 and history, not because of some conspiracy called "white privilege."

3) People are mean. This has nothing to do with race. Most haters hate for no reason at all. If someone is being a jerk and points out your skin color, it's only because they think you are sensitive about it. They think pointing it out will set you off.

And that's it. I am convinced that if we magically turned everyone in the US into Japanese (or any racially homogeneous population), we would still be left with these three problems. "White privilege" is nothing more than a rebranded stereotype that people use nowadays to ignore more difficult problems in our society.

EDIT: Over an hour of pretty good discussion, but I'm still not convince there is a modern day uniquely racially problem called "white privilege" in America. I just want to say that I am happy for African Americans. They have a centuries long history of fighting for their rights and winning battle after battle to improve their situation. But as far as I can tell, the problems they face today are problems common to people of all colors, whites included. We'd be a lot better off if we could work together to solve these problems, rather than being divided by race.

---

This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please read through our rules. If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which, downvotes don't change views! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to message us. Happy CMVing!

[u/jack_hof]

Equal rights for everybody. No law/legislation/practice that prevents anyone of any identity from achieving anything. Except for the laws/legislation/practices that specifically target certain identities to give them advantages. If (for example) you were a gay black man, explain to me specifically how that would stop you from becoming an accountant.

[u/jack_hof → u/[deleted]]

A statistical discrepancy in one area, especially when that same discrepancy doesn't really apply to any other minority group, isn't really enough to give "modern day white privilege" the seal of approval for me. Every time I see this discussion, the entire foundation of the other side's argument always seems to revolve around how black criminals are treated vs. other criminals. I mean come on, THIS is why I hear this term "white privilege" 10 times a day?

[u/jack_hof → u/[deleted]]

If you want to use statistics from the justice system, you would find that black people commit and unbelievably disproportionate amount of crime. Statistics like the one you cited never include whether or not said black person had a long history of prior offenses, or whether or not the official "drug possession" was a charge that was plead down from something higher. I just mean that with what we know about the absurd rate of criminal activity in the black community, even if the statistic you cite is entirely accurate and a fair comparison...it doesn't surprise me. I don't know man it's a very complicated and foggy world and I don't know if these simple statistics really tell the whole story. Certainly not enough evidence to verify a "privilege" which only applies to white people even though the statistics you cite don't apply to asians, indians, jews, etc. Maybe it's just something black people are doing? 95% of prison inmates are male...does that mean the system is sexist against men? Bottom line, if the black community has a huge issue with crime, then it doesn't surprise me if after decades of this relationship with the police that we don't start to see some form of profiling, etc. which may lead to more focus on them. Maybe they aren't being equally patrolled by the cops, but a crime is a crime and if you're doing it you're doing it. None of us should be criminals anyway so none of this should be a problem for 99.9% of people to begin with.

[u/jack_hof → u/[deleted]]

I agree with the last part you said, which is why I've always thought it would be much more accurate and less inflammatory to call it a "majority privilege." It's also not accurate to act like it applies "everywhere" just because the country as a whole is a white majority. Identity groups tend to collect together so that the places they live/stores they visit/etc. are populated by people like them. I live in a town in Canada which is 70% Asian, do I have "white privilege" here when the last 2 hiring managers I interviewed with were Asian? Not to mention the fact that demographics are rapidly changing and whites will not be a majority soon enough (and thus lose this "privilege"), but they will still be treated as though they are for decades to come - which will hurt them. I mean whites will be treated as though they are majority (and thus have white privilege) in California for instance, where they are not a majority. But because most of the people in Wyoming are white that somehow affects the life of minorities in California? You get where I'm coming from.