Is it a privilege to be born white? Do blacks have disadvantages?

[Red]

"Is it a privilege to be born white? Do blacks have disadvantages?" This is not a racial flamefest... it is simply a question of personal belief based on personal experiences.

This topic is going to be discussed in my African-American studies class this afternoon.

I believe my answer is going to be that yes... it is an advantage to being born white because blacks are born into byproducts of slavery (racism, discrimination, prejudice). If slavery hadn't existed, these byproducts would not still be around today.

EDIT: BTW, this class is tought by a black adjunct professor who is one of the best teachers I've ever had. He is extremely thorough and passionate about African-American studies.

 

[Spooner]

I'm not touching this one.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Spooner
I'm not touching this one.

/pulls up Nomex(TM) lawnchair

/puts on sunglasses

Popcorn, Spooner?

- M4H

 

[Mr N8]

A lot of that depends on where you live.

I think in areas like NYC, Chicago, etc, it either doesn't make a difference or it becomes an advantage to be black when entering higer education of the workforce. In vanilla rural communities, there are most likely tons of prejudices to overcome. I started out in Vanillaville, IL, with 2 black families in town. I hated the fact that people in that town didn't see that these families were the most friendly families in town. I grew up being best friends with one of their kids.

FF to now, I live in a moderate sizeds city (~90k). Race is hardly an issue, except to people that visit the city from surrounding rural areas.

 

[theNEOone]

well it's not a disadvantage to be born black per se, however it is a disadvantage to come from a lower social class. unfortunately many blacks belong to the working class and are underprovileged because of it. this goes for other ethnicities as well - lower class whites and hispanics are also at a disadvantage. i would argue though, that a lower class black/hispanic has more opportunities available than a lower class white.



=|

 

[spliffstar69]

Originally posted by: Spooner
I'm not touching this one.

ditto

 

[rudder]

Who has more of an advantage... the black son of a successful business owner or the white son of welfare abusing trailer dweller?

 

[iamwiz82]

life is how you make it. If you keep telling yourself that you are disadvantaged because of your skin color then it will happen. Too many people are focused on the past instead of the future.

 

[conjur]

I'd toss out it's better to be born a minority. In some cases, it's easier to get, say, a gov't contract if you have a minority-owned business.

And, as we've seen, it's sometimes a ticket into college over someone else who's better qualified (based on test scores.)

NO ONE is born advantaged or disadvantaged. It's what one makes of oneself throughout life. I'm sure there are people born to millionaires and billionaires who've had a golden road laid before them and screw it up and are complete wastes of life. Then, there are people born with literally nothing, in a third world country and grow to become successful or emigrate to the U.S. and startup a business or something and make something of themselves.

 

[StageLeft]

Yes, but it's almost entirely impossible to identify with numbers this trend, although I believe it to be so. While a person's color may make them more or less likely to have a certain job or criminal history, or whatever else, there are also cultural reasons and their upbringing, so if a person says that there are 4 times as many blacks in jail as whites (for instance), one can't presume to think that judges are far more biased against blacks to account for that, just as one can't presume that blacks are exactly 4 times as likely to commit a crime (or even more since they are a minority of the population). Many different factors affect it all!

 

[Red]

Originally posted by: MogulMonster
A lot of that depends on where you live.

I think in areas like NYC, Chicago, etc, it either doesn't make a difference or it becomes an advantage to be black when entering higer education of the workforce. In vanilla rural communities, there are most likely tons of prejudices to overcome. I started out in Vanillaville, IL, with 2 black families in town. I hated the fact that people in that town didn't see that these families were the most friendly families in town. I grew up being best friends with one of their kids.

FF to now, I live in a moderate sizeds city (~90k). Race is hardly an issue, except to people that visit the city from surrounding rural areas.

Ok, good points. So you think it is easier for black students to be accepted into a graduate program in large cities? Or do you think higher educated blacks have an easier time entering the workforce? Please describe what you believe based on what you have seen or experienced.

 

[Spooner]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Spooner
I'm not touching this one.

/pulls up Nomex(TM) lawnchair
/puts on sunglasses
Popcorn, Spooner?
- M4H

I'll bring the beer, my friend.

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer: a 6pack to get us started....

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Spooner

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Spooner
I'm not touching this one.

/pulls up Nomex(TM) lawnchair
/puts on sunglasses
Popcorn, Spooner?
- M4H

I'll bring the beer, my friend.

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer: a 6pack to get us started....

ill bring the coke

 

[StageLeft]

NO ONE is born advantaged or disadvantaged. It's what one makes of oneself throughout life. I'm sure there are people born to millionaires and billionaires who've had a golden road laid before them and screw it up and are complete wastes of life. Then, there are people born with literally nothing, in a third world country and grow to become successful or emigrate to the U.S. and startup a business or something and make something of themselves.

That's idealistic and seems to indicate that you think we all start off with a clean slate, which isn't true. A child of a doctor and lawyer is far more likely to have themselves such a profession than a child of two janitors. The former child will have more encouragement to excel in their studies, more money thrown at them for private schooling, university, etc.

 

[GasX]

I'd rather be born rich and black than poor and white....

Is this one of those sit around and talk about how fvcked up the world is without doing anything to correct the problem classes?

 

[Hooligan]

yes, being white is priveleged, if you don't believe that spend your day as a person of color. in this country blacks have all the disadvantages. yes, the color of your skin gives you a lot of disadvantages.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: ChineseSkaterNoRice
yes, being white is priveleged, if you don't believe that spend your day as a person of color. in this country blacks have all the disadvantages. yes, the color of your skin gives you a lot of disadvantages.

once again, social class has disadvantages. I know quite a few black people who are very successful who dont believe they are disadvantaged.

 

[Hooligan]

Originally posted by: conjur
I'd toss out it's better to be born a minority. In some cases, it's easier to get, say, a gov't contract if you have a minority-owned business.

And, as we've seen, it's sometimes a ticket into college over someone else who's better qualified (based on test scores.)

NO ONE is born advantaged or disadvantaged. It's what one makes of oneself throughout life. I'm sure there are people born to millionaires and billionaires who've had a golden road laid before them and screw it up and are complete wastes of life. Then, there are people born with literally nothing, in a third world country and grow to become successful or emigrate to the U.S. and startup a business or something and make something of themselves.

i think you're missing the point. the reasons that these things exist is to mediate the racism and the prejudice that have kept minority-owned businesses from flourishing. also presenting to people of color a more opportunistic chance of using the middle class pipeline (ie college).

 

[Hooligan]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: ChineseSkaterNoRice
yes, being white is priveleged, if you don't believe that spend your day as a person of color. in this country blacks have all the disadvantages. yes, the color of your skin gives you a lot of disadvantages.

once again, social class has disadvantages. I know quite a few black people who are very successful who dont believe they are disadvantaged.

i think the word that would best describe my point would be your use of "few".

 

[0roo0roo]

I believe my answer is going to be that yes... it is an advantage to being born white because blacks are born into byproducts of slavery (racism, discrimination, prejudice). If slavery hadn't existed, these byproducts would not still be around today.

bull. just look at other races in america that didn't get enslaved. chinese for one...couldn't own land, vote even after the blacks could.

look in africa, where black people of different ethnicities commit genocide against each other...and this is within the last 10 years.. hundreds of thousands slaughtered. one example? 800,000 tutsi's killed by hutus in rwanda. 1994.

racism discrimination prejudice are human nature.

 

[Red]

Yes, Conjur, I agree with you that a motivated, goal-oriented person can do anything they want..... HOWEVER, this is more of a class removed idea. IE...white person born into poor family vs. black person in same situation.... or... rich black baby vs. rich white baby.... privileges and disadvantages.

 

[Mr N8]

Originally posted by: Redhotjrm

Originally posted by: MogulMonster
A lot of that depends on where you live.

I think in areas like NYC, Chicago, etc, it either doesn't make a difference or it becomes an advantage to be black when entering higer education of the workforce. In vanilla rural communities, there are most likely tons of prejudices to overcome. I started out in Vanillaville, IL, with 2 black families in town. I hated the fact that people in that town didn't see that these families were the most friendly families in town. I grew up being best friends with one of their kids.

FF to now, I live in a moderate sized city (~90k). Race is hardly an issue, except to people that visit the city from surrounding rural areas.

Ok, good points. So you think it is easier for black students to be accepted into a graduate program in large cities? Or do you think higher educated blacks have an easier time entering the workforce? Please describe what you believe based on what you have seen or experienced.

I think that anyone with a higer education is going to be able to enter the workforce, if they are willing to. In the vanilla town I grew up in, it was harder for black students to do well, because none of the teachers expected them to do well. Therefore, they were not encouraged to excel. This leads to a lower GPA, and a harder time being accepted into a good college. I'm not saying this happens everywhere, but I do think that people live up to what other expect of them.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

NO ONE is born advantaged or disadvantaged. It's what one makes of oneself throughout life. I'm sure there are people born to millionaires and billionaires who've had a golden road laid before them and screw it up and are complete wastes of life. Then, there are people born with literally nothing, in a third world country and grow to become successful or emigrate to the U.S. and startup a business or something and make something of themselves.

That's idealistic and seems to indicate that you think we all start off with a clean slate, which isn't true. A child of a doctor and lawyer is far more likely to have themselves such a profession than a child of two janitors. The former child will have more encouragement to excel in their studies, more money thrown at them for private schooling, university, etc.

Money doesn't equal advantage. Opportunity equals advantage. Everyone has similar opportunites. It boils down to how much support and encouragement a child gets from its parents. Plenty of doctors, lawyers, CEOs, etc. made it thru public schools and state universities.

 

[Lizardman]

Another vote for life is what you make of it. Every CULTURE has been oppressed at some point in time. It just depends how far back you look. I say culture becuase I dont know about you but I am the same species and genus as everyone else posting on this forum. The only group that has been uniformly oppressed around the world all the time are women.

 

[Red]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Skoorb

NO ONE is born advantaged or disadvantaged. It's what one makes of oneself throughout life. I'm sure there are people born to millionaires and billionaires who've had a golden road laid before them and screw it up and are complete wastes of life. Then, there are people born with literally nothing, in a third world country and grow to become successful or emigrate to the U.S. and startup a business or something and make something of themselves.

That's idealistic and seems to indicate that you think we all start off with a clean slate, which isn't true. A child of a doctor and lawyer is far more likely to have themselves such a profession than a child of two janitors. The former child will have more encouragement to excel in their studies, more money thrown at them for private schooling, university, etc.

Money doesn't equal advantage. Opportunity equals advantage. Everyone has similar opportunites. It boils down to how much support and encouragement a child gets from its parents. Plenty of doctors, lawyers, CEOs, etc. made it thru public schools and state universities.

Conjur you're speaking idealistically and individually... which is fine, but try to look at it at a societal level, not an individual level.