# White Privilage **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 9, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511 "2018-02-09T14:26:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/301 "2018-02-14T20:54:00Z")
> [@TommyzNR](#): > > My point is that you validated his claim of 87% with data and then told him to examine the data more closely. It appeared that you did not understand what you were posting since you did not do the math you just let it ride for us to do the work. That’s not what I did at all. He was saying that because of that data, that I did not disagree with (a quibble, as he rounded up), there would be no difference in arrest rates if drugs were legalized. He was trying to make it seem as though drug arrests were a minor thing that isn’t worth bothering or thinking about how they may be disportionately applied in a racial manner, and therefore ruin people’s lives in a disproportionate manner based on race. Even though they only constitute 14% of arrests, they are still the thing that have the highest number of arrests, so not insignificant. That is the part I was disagreeing on, not the math. ETA: AS I was not disagreeing with the math, and I put all the numbers out there, all the work needed was to put them into a calculator and divide. I wasn’t really making you “do the work” as there really was no work to be done. ---
**Author:** ![TommyzNR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@TommyzNR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyzNR)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/302 "2018-02-14T21:47:46Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > That’s not what I did at all. > > He was saying that because of that data, that I did not disagree with (a quibble, as he rounded up), there would be no difference in arrest rates if drugs were legalized. > > He was trying to make it seem as though drug arrests were a minor thing that isn’t worth bothering or thinking about how they may be disportionately applied in a racial manner, and therefore ruin people’s lives in a disproportionate manner based on race. > > Even though they only constitute 14% of arrests, they are still the thing that have the highest number of arrests, so not insignificant. > > That is the part I was disagreeing on, not the math. > ETA: AS I was not disagreeing with the math, and I put all the numbers out there, all the work needed was to put them into a calculator and divide. I wasn’t really making you “do the work” as there really was no work to be done. I caught it without the calculator. My impression was that you put a number out around 1.4 million arrests and say that the FBI doesn’t find it to be insignificant. Again, implying that the big number is impressive vs the original claim. It’s all good. You say a lot in subsequent posts what you did not say or necessarily imply in the actual post. As the reader of the original post, I had no idea what the data you provided supported since you did not make a claim. I was left to guess which put you on the defensive. ETA: Also, I am not sure he is saying what you claim he is saying. I will leave it to him confirm or deny your claim. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/303 "2018-02-14T22:00:34Z")
Speaking of city neighborhoods, here’s another [timely article from the NYRB](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/02/22/when-government-drew-the-color-line/) about another way that American whites continue to benefit from the legacy of racist policies: > [@](#): > > […] “racially explicit policies of federal, state, and local governments…segregated every metropolitan area in the United States.” Government agencies used public housing to clear mixed neighborhoods and create segregated ones. Governments built highways as buffers to keep the races apart. They used federal mortgage insurance to usher in an era of suburbanization on the condition that developers keep blacks out. […] > > A New Deal agency, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, drew color-coded maps with neighborhoods occupied by whites shaded green and approved for loans and black areas marked red and denied credit—the original “redlining.” The FHA financed Levittown, the emblem of postwar suburbanization, on the condition that none of its 17,500 homes be sold to blacks. […] > > Among the government’s tools for imposing segregation, few were as powerful as public housing, which both reinforced color lines and drew them where they hadn’t existed. Public housing typically conjures high-rise black ghettos. But it started during the Depression mostly to help working-class whites. […] The first project, Techwood Homes in Atlanta, destroyed a racially mixed neighborhood of 1,600 families and built 600 apartments for whites. […] > > Zoning laws gave governments another way to impose segregation. The first codes were openly racial, simply banning blacks from buying houses on white blocks. […] But most codes switched to economic criteria to achieve the same goals; they banned apartment buildings in certain parts of town or allowed only single-family houses. […] > > Not least among the ways in which government supported segregation was through collusion in vigilante violence. […] In a famous Louisville case from the 1950s, a white couple, Carl and Anne Braden, bought a house in a white neighborhood for black friends, Andrew and Charlotte Wade. White crowds threw rocks through the Wades’ window, shot at the house, and finally dynamited it. The bomber went free, but Andrew Wade was arrested for disturbing the peace and Carl Braden prosecuted for “sedition.” […] > > One legacy of housing segregation is the large racial disparity in wealth. Most Americans get their wealth from home equity. Shunted to segregated developments and forced to pay higher borrowing costs, African-Americans for the most part lost out on the gains that benefited many whites. […] > > […] a black trucker and World War II veteran named Vince Mereday […] carried building supplies to Levittown but was barred by government policy from buying a home there. Rebuffed, he bought in a black subdivision called Lakeview, with a large down payment and a higher interest rate since he couldn’t get FHA insurance. Lakeview […] properties have enjoyed only a fifth of the appreciation of Levittown. That means a family like the Meredays would have missed $200,000 in gains over three generations, simply because of the color of their skin. > [@Shodan](#): > > If you want to see someone act insulted, suggest that the problems of blacks in America shouldn’t be blamed on white people. If what you’re suggesting is that white people bear **no** responsibility for the continuing problems of blacks in America, then sure, any reasonably well-informed person with a low bullshit tolerance **would** be insulted at being expected to swallow such an egregious lie. As the above-linked article makes very clear, white Americans spent centuries deliberately, systematically creating and enforcing ways to disadvantage black Americans, and the consequences of those actions still profoundly affect many people today. Anybody bleating about how unfair it is to “blame the problems of blacks on white people” needs to take a good hard clear-eyed look at those historical facts. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/304 "2018-02-14T22:14:49Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Worst actually means something. Perhaps. By what determination? > [@](#): > > Is/was the USA racist? Yes. Was our country more racist than SA? No. Was SA apartheid more racist than Germany? No. Germany practiced its own apartheid and finally genocide. Chattel slavery (which permitted the rape and murder of one’s “property”) was legal for the first eight decades of the USA’s existence. Subsequently, for several more decades, thousands of African-Americans were lynched. YMMV, but personally I doubt whether it makes much difference to the victim that is being enslaved, raped, and ultimately killed whether or not their suffering was brought about in a “planned and willful manner”. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/305 "2018-02-14T22:25:28Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > They most definitely called for harsh drug law enforcement. You just haven’t paid attention. Shifting the goalposts. The statement to which you responded noted that no one in affected neighborhoods demanded stop and frisk–which did nothing to curb the distribution of crack, heroin, or other damaging drugs. Calling for efforts to reduce drug use does not equate to calling for stop and frisk. ---
**Author:** ![proudfootz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@proudfootz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/proudfootz)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/306 "2018-02-14T22:49:24Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Not so much “insulting” as “inaccurate”. The whole history of the United States argues against your ‘point’. > [@](#): > > If you want to see someone act insulted, suggest that the problems of blacks in America shouldn’t be blamed on white people. I can just read this thread and see people acting insulted at the very idea that ‘black’ people might have disadvantages to ‘white’ people. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/307 "2018-02-15T02:55:11Z")
> [@Fuji](#): > > Perhaps. By what determination? > > Chattel slavery (which permitted the rape and murder of one’s “property”) was legal for the first eight decades of the USA’s existence. Subsequently, for several more decades, thousands of African-Americans were lynched. > > YMMV, but personally I doubt whether it makes much difference to the victim that is being enslaved, raped, and ultimately killed whether or not their suffering was brought about in a “planned and willful manner”. Who murdered the slaves systematically? No one. They had tangible value as property as cynical as that is. I didn’t say the USA wasn’t racist; I was responding to another quote that they were the most racist society ever which is nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/308 "2018-02-15T04:05:48Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > I didn’t say the USA wasn’t racist; I was responding to another quote that they were the most racist society ever which is nonsense. Uh, no. You responded to another poster referring to the US’s history of “the worst kind of racism” by saying: > [@madsircool](#): > > The worst kind of racism never existed in this country, the kind that leads to planned and willful extermination. Nobody has claimed that the US is or has been “the most racist society ever”. (That particular shitty trophy of shittiness would be very hard to pick a single recipient for, given how many societies in human history have been so massively racist.) What was claimed was just that the history of the US has included “the worst kind of racism”. And your disagreement with that claim is not very persuasive. For one thing, as **LHoD** noted, there were plenty of white Americans who **did** support “planned and willful extermination” of native peoples. And for another thing, it’s a matter of opinion whether and in what way(s) the racism that produces genocide is objectively and quantifiably “worse” than the racism that produces massively inhumane chattel slavery. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/309 "2018-02-15T05:02:28Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Worst actually means something. Is/was the USA racist? Yes. Was our country more racist than SA? No. Errm, not so fast, there…we’d never fought an open civil war over the right to hold one race in slavery. And [what happened to the Cherokee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears) is worse than [anything](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid#Forced_removals)done under Apartheid. So immediately we see your judgement on “worse” is biased. So we should now trust it on “worst”? ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/310 "2018-02-15T19:45:22Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > So, what is your point? Did I say otherwise? > > I was responding to this “If every drug was legalized tomorrow it would have almost no difference in the different rates than blacks and whites are arrested.” Which he justifies by saying that 87% of arrests are not drug related. > > So, if he has a point to make about that, then since 96% of arrests are not related to a violent crime, legalizing violent crime would have even less difference in the rate blacks and whites are arrested. Your point was that disparities in crime rates are caused by the police treating drug offenders differently because of race. The fact that 87-86% of arrests are not drug related disproves your theory. Your point about violent crime is a non-sequitur. Since black people commit more of every type of crime except fraud, legalizing almost any crime would have no affect on those rates. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/311 "2018-02-15T19:51:52Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I’ve shared this story in another thread about privilege, maybe it would be useful again: > > Friend of mine (call her S) is a black female psychologist. Upon graduating with her Psy D, S applied for jobs with various therapy groups. One in particular (a family therapy group) liked her a lot – they had 60 candidates, but they told S that she was by far their favorite. But there was a problem – they were seriously worried about how they would get patients to sign up with her – that many patients would not want a black therapist. They had no non white therapists, and this is the DC area - certainly not a place in which educated non white people are impossible to find. They were open with her about this worry. > > Side-discussion 1: S is a very intelligent and qualified therapist. Her would-be employers showed no apparent sign of racial bias – and yet they were worried about their business, and that hiring a black therapist might not be the best move for their business. White applicants had the privilege of there being no concern about their race potentially harming the business of the prospective employer. > > They ended up hiring her despite these concerns because they were so impressed by her interview (and academic history). They put up her picture on their therapy group website. She is an attractive woman who wore her hair naturally. For the first few months, she had zero patients. Her employers were extremely concerned. Someone had the idea of a new picture – she dressed very conservatively, had her hair styled in a more European (i.e. straightened) fashion, wore glasses (despite no need for glasses), and had the picture taken. Since then, she slowly built up a base of patients and now has as many as her co-therapists (including, paradoxically, an openly racist drug addict who swears that she is the only therapist who can keep him clean). > > Side discussion 2: S is a skilled therapist and an attractive woman, but her picture (even when professionally taken) dissuaded potential patients from choosing her as their therapist. Her white co-therapists have the privilege of being able to present themselves on their website naturally (with their natural hair style) without dissuading patients and harming their business. > > There is a happy ending – S is very content with her therapy group and has plenty of patients. She’s not a victim and never has been. This is just (in my view, at least) a realistic description of the challenges she faced due to various forms of privilege, or lack therof. > > Conclusions: Privilege is generally about society, and not so much about individual prejudice. S’s therapy group shows no evidence of racial prejudice, but because their business is in a society in which there can be racial aspects to things as varying as patients choosing a therapist, they were concerned about hiring a black woman. S didn’t have to just be a good therapist – she had to be the best out of a group of 60, and even then there was a good chance she would not have been hired. She doesn’t just have to dress well and be attractive, she has to chemically alter her hair, wear glasses she doesn’t need, and dress more conservatively then her co-therapists, to get enough patients to be viable. > > So if one of her white colleagues were to complain that all that’s needed to succeed in society is hard work, she might respond that this kind of statement probably comes from a place of privilege, and demonstrates a lack of understanding of the actual hardships that so many people who are not white and male face. This is a great example of what white privilege is in that it is real and utterly trivial. Because of white privilege a black woman had to changer her hairstyle. She is someone who is in the top 1% of the top 1% of people who ever lived in terms of privilege and yet her having to change her haircut and manner of dress is called a hardship. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/312 "2018-02-15T20:00:32Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > This is a great example of what white privilege is in that it is real and utterly trivial. Because of white privilege a black woman had to changer her hairstyle. She is someone who is in the top 1% of the top 1% of people who ever lived in terms of privilege and yet her having to change her haircut and manner of dress is called a hardship. I guess you missed the fact that her employers were reluctant to hire a black therapist (which they admitted), since they believed patients were less likely to want a black therapist? And did you miss that they were probably correct, as evidenced by the particularly long time (longer than her colleagues) it took for her to get a base of patients? Did you miss that she didn’t just have to be better than the white applicants, but overwhelmingly better, to have a chance at the position, and even then she was only hired by a hair (again, according to her employers, who were open with her about this)? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/313 "2018-02-15T20:12:40Z")
White privilege doesn’t mean every non-white person will fail, it just means that there are many additional obstacles that non-white people typically face that white people don’t. A white therapist won’t have to worry that therapy groups will be reluctant to hire them due to their race because they’re worried their race will dissuade patients. A black therapist will have this worry, quite reasonably. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/314 "2018-02-15T20:12:47Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Your point was that disparities in crime rates are caused by the police treating drug offenders differently because of race. The fact that 87-86% of arrests are not drug related disproves your theory. Your point about violent crime is a non-sequitur. Since black people commit more of every type of crime except fraud, legalizing almost any crime would have no affect on those rates. That actually was not my point, nor had anything to do with what I said. My point is that people’s lives are destroyed disproportionately. That the kid in the nice neighborhood dealing drugs stays in school, graduates, goes to college, gets a job, and a nice house of his own, and the kid in the “bad” neighborhood gets busted for doing the same thing, gets in trouble with the justice system, which causes problems in school. Even if he graduates, having a drug charge means he is not eligible for any financial assistance, he is not eligible for many jobs that pay well, and even if he has the money, he is not eligible to move into any of the nice places to live. That “only” 13% of arrests are for drugs has nothing to do with that. Though I would venture to say that if they actually treated the people in the nice areas the same as they treated the people in the “bad” areas, the number of drug arrests would go up quite a bit. That also in no way addresses the other issues I brought up. That kids in the “bad” area get hassled by the police if they are walking down the street, while the kids in the nice areas just get a friendly wave. Don’t you think that randomly stopping teenagers, and demanding that they line up against a wall so that you can put your hands on them because you know that they are up to _something_ causes those kids to not have that much respect for police? If a kid is walking along, and for the third time that day (and the umpteenth time that month), a cop stops him and demands that he submit to a search, and the kid, in his frustration, mouths off, or even knocks the cop’s hand away when he is grabbed, getting him a “resisting arrest” or “obstruction” charge, pretty much ruining his life, do you really think that the kid is the one to blame? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/315 "2018-02-15T20:14:03Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > This is a great example of what white privilege is in that it is real and utterly trivial. Because of white privilege a black woman had to changer her hairstyle. She is someone who is in the top 1% of the top 1% of people who ever lived in terms of privilege and yet her having to change her haircut and manner of dress is called a hardship. I ask this in all sincerity, because I think it explains a lot about differences in viewpoints: were you just being flip in that response, or is that seriously what you took away from that story? ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/316 "2018-02-15T21:23:59Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I guess you missed the fact that her employers were reluctant to hire a black therapist (which they admitted), since they believed patients were less likely to want a black therapist? And did you miss that they were probably correct, as evidenced by the particularly long time (longer than her colleagues) it took for her to get a base of patients? Did you miss that she didn’t just have to be better than the white applicants, but overwhelmingly better, to have a chance at the position, and even then she was only hired by a hair (again, according to her employers, who were open with her about this)? I guessed you missed the fact that she was hired. They hired the best person available for the job, which is how things are supposed to work. What if she had not been hired by that agency? Back to the ghetto to sell crack? Of course not, if she works hard she can get as good a job somewhere else and if she is a good therapist she will be a success. So what she had to wait a couple of months to get as many clients as she wanted, there are people in the world with actual problems. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/317 "2018-02-15T21:26:54Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > I guessed you missed the fact that she was hired. They hired the best person available for the job, which is how things are supposed to work. What if she had not been hired by that agency? Back to the ghetto to sell crack? Of course not, if she works hard she can get as good a job somewhere else and if she is a good therapist she will be a success. So what she had to wait a couple of months to get as many clients as she wanted, there are people in the world with actual problems. Well I think that answers your question, Asimovian. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/318 "2018-02-15T21:30:04Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Because of white privilege a black woman had to changer her hairstyle. She is someone who is in the top 1% of the top 1% of people who ever lived in terms of privilege and yet her having to change her haircut and manner of dress is called a hardship. The point is that she had to make those changes (and modifying one’s hairstyle and professional wardrobe can sometimes involve non-trivial expense, btw) **in order to get the same acceptance from clients that her white colleagues already received just on account of being white**. But if you’re demanding instances of white privilege making a much more drastic difference than that in people’s lives, I refer you to my post #285 where a law-abiding young black lawyer damn near got shot by cops just for sitting in his parked car (while black). From school grades to hiring to housing to one’s actual chances of survival, white privilege is influencing significant racial differences in life outcomes for millions of people all the time. Pretending it’s okay to disregard it just because sometimes its impacts are comparatively minor is merely a desperate attempt at a Hail Mary pass on the part of Team Ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/319 "2018-02-15T21:34:36Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > That actually was not my point, nor had anything to do with what I said. > > My point is that people’s lives are destroyed disproportionately. > > That the kid in the nice neighborhood dealing drugs stays in school, graduates, goes to college, gets a job, and a nice house of his own, and the kid in the “bad” neighborhood gets busted for doing the same thing, gets in trouble with the justice system, which causes problems in school. Even if he graduates, having a drug charge means he is not eligible for any financial assistance, he is not eligible for many jobs that pay well, and even if he has the money, he is not eligible to move into any of the nice places to live. > > That “only” 13% of arrests are for drugs has nothing to do with that. Though I would venture to say that if they actually treated the people in the nice areas the same as they treated the people in the “bad” areas, the number of drug arrests would go up quite a bit. > That also in no way addresses the other issues I brought up. That kids in the “bad” area get hassled by the police if they are walking down the street, while the kids in the nice areas just get a friendly wave. Don’t you think that randomly stopping teenagers, and demanding that they line up against a wall so that you can put your hands on them because you know that they are up to _something_ causes those kids to not have that much respect for police? > > If a kid is walking along, and for the third time that day (and the umpteenth time that month), a cop stops him and demands that he submit to a search, and the kid, in his frustration, mouths off, or even knocks the cop’s hand away when he is grabbed, getting him a “resisting arrest” or “obstruction” charge, pretty much ruining his life, do you really think that the kid is the one to blame? One drug arrest or an obstruction charge for mouthing off to a cop can ruin someone’s life? You seem to have a very low opinion of black youth if all it takes to ruin their lives is one arrest for a misdemeanor. In the real world what would happen is that the person would not even be charged and would be let go soon after being booked. If a person is charged, they would be pled down to a lesser offense and given probation, and if convicted for a minor offense, they would be put on probation and having the conviction expunged if they keep out of trouble. Even among felons only 41% are sentenced to additional prison time and 27% are sentenced to probation. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511/320 "2018-02-15T21:40:02Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > The point is that she had to make those changes (and modifying one’s hairstyle and professional wardrobe can sometimes involve non-trivial expense, btw) **in order to get the same acceptance from clients that her white colleagues already received just on account of being white**. > > But if you’re demanding instances of white privilege making a much more drastic difference than that in people’s lives, I refer you to my post #285 where a law-abiding young black lawyer damn near got shot by cops just for sitting in his parked car (while black). > > From school grades to hiring to housing to one’s actual chances of survival, white privilege is influencing significant racial differences in life outcomes for millions of people all the time. Pretending it’s okay to disregard it just because sometimes its impacts are comparatively minor is merely a desperate attempt at a Hail Mary pass on the part of Team Ignorance. The law abiding black man did not almost get shot, he got detained and his car was searched. He assumed with no evidence that it was because he was black. Like the therapist he is just another privileged person whining that something minor happened to him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-privilage/808511.md?page=17)