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I think that the "superior" thought that all white ppl think alike. this was not true in my friends' case. He didn't stay at that place very long b/c of this incident. It still happens so blatantly, eh? when Obama was elected Pres, my hope was that that kind of thinking or lack thereof would disappear.
The fact that Obama was elected shows that our thinking has progressed, but no president can shape the direction society takes much less the opinions of individuals.
I don't think anyone is saying it does not exist but not to the extent as some may think. Is it still a slight advantage to be white? Sure but not nearly what it was 30 years ago.
My larger point is to prove that Whites have gained from favorable laws in the past, but this advantage while still slightly better, is slowly eroding and 50-100 years from now will probably not be very noticeable.
dorock99,
The median net worth of a white family in 2007 was $170K. That of a non-white family was $27K. White families had 6.3 times the wealth of non-white families. This from http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/b.../pdf/scf09.pdf
I wouldn't call that advantage "slight".
The disparity would even be greater if the non-white category excluded Asians. Asians have net worths at par with whites, but since they are too few in number, the non-white median is pulled down by blacks and Hispanics.
Some 20 years ago, a white friend in austin, texas was asked to pore through some resumes for qualified candidates for a position with an insurance co that he worked for. when he gave the qualified resumes to his superior, he was told to discard one of them b/c the name sounded like a "black" name. my friend was dumbfounded since I guess he never witnessed such blatant prejudice. Does this kind of thing still go on? that would be an example of "white privilege" in my mind.
That's more of a class thing than a racial thing, since poor blacks are more likely to give their sons rather odd names than middle, upper middle class or wealthy blacks (or wealthy whites for that matter). There seems to be less of a class difference amongst African-Americans when it comes to naming daughters, however. Poor blacks are one of three groups in the US that give their children unusual names - the others being wealthy white celebrities (not just entertainment industry types and Mormons.
As for white privilege, it DEFINITELY existed at one time. Nowadays it's more class privilege than racial privilege. The US is more classist than racist these days despite what some may think reading the C-D boards. There may still be some minor remnants of white privilege especially in small cities and towns but that's probably more of an "old boy's network" mentality.
The median net worth of a white family in 2007 was $170K. That of a non-white family was $27K. White families had 6.3 times the wealth of non-white families. This from http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/b.../pdf/scf09.pdf
I wouldn't call that advantage "slight".
The disparity would even be greater if the non-white category excluded Asians. Asians have net worths at par with whites, but since they are too few in number, the non-white median is pulled down by blacks and Hispanics.
Net worth encompass income, houses, cars, stocks, etc. I think the better question is why? It is not income it is NET WORTH so why do whites have a higher one? Could it be that they buy houses and invest and others don't? Could it be that they save and others don't? A person gains net worth based on what they DO with their money NOT the color of their skin.
As for white privilege, it DEFINITELY existed at one time. Nowadays it's more class privilege than racial privilege. The US is more classist than racist these days despite what some may think reading the C-D boards. There may still be some minor remnants of white privilege especially in small cities and towns but that's probably more of an "old boy's network" mentality.
Said by a white person in denial and completely unaware of the reality that exists for others outside their own race.
Whites are all privileged, they just take it for granted, and assume that the rest of us are even moreso privileged even though we just recently got a ****ing leg up in society.
The median net worth of a white family in 2007 was $170K. That of a non-white family was $27K. White families had 6.3 times the wealth of non-white families. This from http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/b.../pdf/scf09.pdf
I wouldn't call that advantage "slight".
The disparity would even be greater if the non-white category excluded Asians. Asians have net worths at par with whites, but since they are too few in number, the non-white median is pulled down by blacks and Hispanics.
ndfmnlf, thank you again for a very thoughtful post backed up with facts. I do not disagree with you in relation to hard assets, but again, my larger point is i need to see the numbers or i need to see how much the 170k median deviates from the mean. If i could find the standard deviation it would make the 170k much more meaningful. Why you ask?
Well, for starters let's say we have 6 people with assets totaling
Person 1 - 500k
Person 2- 20k
Person 3 - 15k
Person 4- 80k
Person 5 -100k
Person 6- 45k
The median net worth is 80k
However, the standard deviation from the mean is fairly high, which indicates the mean is not very reflective of the various individuals net worth.
The closer to zero the more accurate the median number is in indicating net worth, but the further away from zero the less accurate it becomes.
Sadly to say while this is a great link, it does not provide me with hardcore numbers and totals, which is what i really need to make a more valid decision on the data. It is very mis-leading and a great example of using statistics to be purposely mis-leading. It is like stating 55% of Americans own some form of Stocks or Bonds, but when you dig deeper into the numbers the actual value or total number of stocks and bonds they actually own differs significantly from what the 55% mean would indicate. I'm not saying that there is not clearly a difference in asset accumulation between the races, but i suspect, most whites/blacks are much closer than the median would indicate in terms of overall asset accumulation in your link from the Federal Reserve.
If you have a similar survey with numbers for each race broken down that would be much better. For example
50-70k net worth 1,000 people
80-100k net worth 300 people
etc
Now the last question is do you think the wealth accumulation is directly due to "white privilege" or a number of other factors, not limited to, but including white privilege?
We get free coffee at Starbucks and free gas at the gas stations if there are no minorities in sight. Just keep that a secret though.
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