TGW wrote:Simple question nate, since you think there's no white privilege in this country. If you had a choice tomorrow to wake up as a white male or a black male, which would you choose?
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That's an interesting and fair question, TGW.
I don't believe that I stated that there was no "white privilege" in this country. I think there is. I just don't think very much of it (if any) is attributable to slavery 7 generations ago.
I think there is prejudice against blacks in the country simply because people are rational human beings who, when faced with limited information, play the averages. If you are picking first on the basketball court and you don't know anybody, you take the black guy. This is clearly prejudice, but it's also rational since blacks tend to have, on average, a superior quick twitch athleticism and split-second kinetic intelligence that make them better basketball players. Obviously, one can still be wrong in choosing the black guy first, but in the absence of information, you make the best choice you can.
Obviously, those prejudices work the other way as well. The unfortunate truth, documented with lots of scientific research, is that blacks, on average, are more likely to be violent than whites (or Asians). We see this in crime statistics in every country in the world. Blacks, on average, are more likely to have a lower education. Blacks, on average, even have a lower IQ. Human beings are wired to recognize patterns. They are aware of these things. They see that blacks get in more fights than whites in high school, even the girls. They see that the smartest kids in the class tend to be East Asian or Indian, with some whites in the mix, and blacks tend to do worse. Many on this board will act shocked or indignant at these last few sentences. They will characterize it as blatant racism because I'm willing to say these things out loud; but every single one of them has privately noted these patterns and has adjusted their lives accordingly. How many of the good people on this board have moved away from predominately black neighborhoods to send their kids to "good schools"? How many have elected to pay massively higher prices for homes in white neighborhoods instead of cheaper black neighborhoods that are closer to where they work? At least I'm not a hypocrite.
Now, a sufficiently intelligent, rational person is well aware that statistics apply to groups and have much less predictive powers when dealing with individuals. A rational person with enough time to get to know any individual (such as a job interview) should be able to evaluate a person on his or her merits rather than on general racial statistics. Unfortunately, sometimes people don't have the time. And more importantly, lots of people are neither sufficiently intelligent or sufficiently rational to understand the fallacy of applying group statistical differences to individuals. The end result is white privilege, or outright racism - the default belief that whites are better able to do the job, or to be safer company, or better neighbors than blacks. I think most white people are able to set aside their prejudices after they get to know any individual black person, but the prejudices certainly exist before they get to know them.
So, the answer to your question is I would prefer to remain a white person. I readily cede that "white privilege" exists. I even support modest affirmative action policies designed to combat white privilege where it is most harmful to blacks. I just reject the notion that white privilege is inherently composed out of blind hatred of black people. It is a rational response when limited information is available.
