The Myth of White Privilege?

Last week, James Webb (D-VA) published a fiery column in the Wall Street Journal. He wrote that diversity programs should be done away with because Latinos and other minorities are receiving benefits from affirmative action programs more than black people, the very people the programs were designed to benefit in the first place. He argued that those are the only people the programs should help, blantantly taking a poke at other minorities who, despite not having a history of slavery, face other discriminatory practices that are just as detrimental to personal achievement.

Webb wrote: "memo to my fellow politicians: Drop the Procrustean policies and allow harmony to invade the public mindset. Fairness will happen, and bitterness will fade away."

Fairness has not happened with these diversity policies in place, why would it without? And the bitterness he speaks of is his own bitterness around possible missed opportunities because a minority took it.

But Webb's anger parallels my feelings when I applied for college: resentment toward minorities for a perceived unfair advantage.

When I was applying for college, I wished I were black. I thought I probably would not have been deferred from UNC Chapel Hill (considered the most prestigious public school in my home state of North Carolina). But after a few months of thinking like that, I changed my mind. I still got into a good state school and couldn’t blame my race for the reason I did not get in to other schools. I might have actually just been less qualified by other candidates. Being angry was taking the easy way out.

After reading Webb’s column, those old feelings were stirred.

He wrote, “Forty years ago, as the United States experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served as the whipping post for almost every debate about power and status in America. After a full generation of such debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers. The time has come to cease the false arguments and allow every American the benefit of a fair chance at the future.”

But a look at numbers proves Webb wrong, despite his claim that “those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government.” There are still glaring discrepancies between the majority race (white) and minorities (every other race).

1. Black women represent 66 percent of all new HIV cases each year among women, a study conducted in five major cities found that 46 percent of gay and bisexual Black men have contracted HIV, compared to 21 percent of similar White men. And while Black teenagers are only 15 percent of U.S. teen population, they account for 68 percent of all new AIDS cases among teens, according to a recent CDC report.
2. In 2003 blacks with a bachelor's degree had a median income of $36,694. This is 95 percent of the median income of whites with a bachelor's degree, which stood at $38,667, according to the 2004 Census. It’s still not equal, and anything less than equal can’t be fair.
3. For every dollar the median white family owns, the median Latino family owns 12 cents and the median black family, a dime, according to the Federal Reserve Board in 2007.
4. Since the recession began in December 2007, Latino unemployment has risen 4.7 percentage points, to 10.9 percent. Black unemployment has risen 4.5 points, to 13.4 percent. White unemployment has risen 2.9 points, to 7.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
5. Poverty rates remained statistically unchanged for blacks nationally (24.9 percent) and Hispanics (21.8 percent). The poverty rate decreased for non-Hispanic whites (8.3 percent in 2005, down from 8.7 percent in 2004), according to the Census.

There are still inequalities that deserve the affirmative action programs Webb discounts. For every time a white person is allegedly passed over in college admissions for a black person, he or she is afforded another opportunity simply because he/she is white. And just like whites have no idea if the reason we didn’t get that job is because of an affirmative action program, we cannot know when we get treated to our advantage because of our skin.

Lisa Gillespie is a former staff writer for Campus Progress as well as the Managing Editor & New Media Director at Street Sense. She graduated from the University of North Carolina–Asheville.