Two different race-based generalisations

Racism is generalizing about the nature of a race of people. You know, “Black people act/think/feel/smell like this, white people act/think/feel/smell like that.” The interesting thing about this sort of generalization is that half the time, it’s straight-up false — confirmation bias, skewed sampling, whatever — and the other half, it’s a valid observation about culture being dishonestly packaged as one about genetics. Empirically speaking, if you look for cases where race itself — not culture or class or life history — determines a person’s behavior, thoughts, feelings and so on, you just won’t find any.

But then there’s this other kind of generalization, where you talk about the treatment of a race of people. You know, “Black people are hired/fired/trusted/paid/filmed/indicted at this rate, white people are hired/fired/trusted/paid/filmed/indicted at that rate.” Generalizations of this sort are often correct. If you look at the data, even adjusting for class and life history and so on, white people are more likely to get the job, make the grade, be waved through customs or what have you.

Talk about “white privilege” falls into the second kind of generalization. It doesn’t involve the claim that white people are assholes, or that they think bad thoughts, or that they smell funny, or whatever. It just involves the claim that white people are, as a group, treated differently. And that’s just demonstrably true.

??nebulawindphone, Metafilter – i can has privilij???