Racism is a societal issue that plagues humanity’s ability to advance and develop in a healthy, equal way. This societal issue is arguably one that has not gotten better but has instead changed shape generation after generation. With this post, I hope to illustrate just how real white privilege is, even in 2019.
This topic may seem obvious to some readers. If so, feel free to click on the link provided. There I talk about what can be done to stop this systematic issue and how each and everyone one of us can make a difference.
First, I would like to explain a common white space view and its flaws. When defining this term, Elijah Anderson says, “A white space is a situation that reinforces a normative sensibility in settings in which black people are typically absent, not expected, or marginalized when present. This situation is explained to vary from neighborhoods to churches to any public setting, yet always have the overwhelming presence of white people.” This is essentially saying that a white space is when there is a clear majority of white people, so much that it creates expectations that black people are exempt from. When referring to this issue Victor M. Rios says, “The sheer majority of white citizens has created a self-perpetuating system of inequality for minorities of all types throughout the United States.”
The flaw with these white spaces is the misconception that arises with the absence of a solid black presence. I am not saying many of these white space individuals will deny racism, but I have instead found a common belief that misinterprets where the issue comes from. In these environments, there seems to exist the prominent belief that racial problems are strictly derived from economic issues. In other words, rather than seeing these two separate issues, people instead see them as one.
Using the same example from my first post, the average African-American appears less qualified in the job market when compared to their white counterparts. This is directly correlated with the worse education and minimal opportunities the average black American is provided. These are all objective facts, but what I misunderstood at the time was why this difference in education came to be. At first, I thought that’s just how things were because better education is directly connected with wealth, which the average black American has less of when compared to their white peers. Yet, after reading on the subject, I have discovered deliberate segregation between the quality of education young American’s receive, which I went into detail for my second post.
In the example above, the white space individuals would see the inequality of education as bad luck. When in reality, the inequality is through deliberate segregation fueled by racial motives. Therefore, rather than believing racism is actively happening throughout society, the common belief is that societal racism is a thing of the past and people of color simply need to economically catch up.
With this misconception defined and understood, I believe the next question is to wonder just how big the United States white space is. From my personal experience of growing up in Upstate New York, I can attest it is prominent in a lot of small towns. Yet I would also argue the issue is much bigger than just that. I believe the simplest way to illustrate this idea is to point out the fact that when a black American is asked their race, they will most likely say African-American. Alternately, when a white American is asked, they will most likely respond by saying that they are American. They will not say European-American, as they probably are, but will instead respond strictly with American.
This ties to the idea of double consciousness, where people of color must identify as an American, but also as a person of color. They must acknowledge their multiple identities since different expectations exist with each identity. These multiple identities are destructive when there are negative stereotypes associated with them, and you can bet white spacing will make sure to do that.
Another way I can think to clearly show that the United States is a huge white space is simply by using statistics. Black Americans make 58% of what the average white American makes every year. How do you explain that? Is it simply bad luck or is there something else at play?
The statistics continue when looking at the chart to the right. With black and Hispanic groups only taking up 28% of the United States population, it is a mystery to how they take up 56% of the prison population. This is a catastrophic number. This roughly implies that a black American citizen is six times more likely to serve time in prison than his or her white counterpart.
All these issues are real, few will deny that, but they do not necessarily prove that racism is an issue separate from economic inequality. One could continue to say that all these problems are simply due to the aftermath of slavery. Yet, I find that mindset to be incorrect for two main reason. One, because of implicit racism (I encourage you to click on the hyperlink. There I go into detail about the effects of and how implicit bias works). And the second is because of the laws and actions that individuals have done deliberately against people of color.
One example of this was accidentally found by Michelle Alexander when analyzing data on Reagan’s War on Drugs. She was surprised to find that the use of illegal drugs was declining before the “war” was declared. Not only that, but once the “war” was declared, a steady increase in illegal drug use proceeded with each year that followed. To top off these surprises, she found that the media was very successful at covering stories and headlines ringing keywords like, ‘crack whores’ and ‘crack dealers. And “coincidentally” everyone who made these notorious headlines were people of color (Alexander, 2012).
Now one could attempt to state that regardless of all these claims the fact still remains that the dealers and criminals of the 1970s were mostly all people of color… but that too is a skewed perception of reality. Another researcher, by the name of Richard Delgado, found that the amount of capital stolen or destroyed through crime was less severe from the average black offender, compared to the average white offender (Delgado, 1995). In other words, the average black criminal stole or destroyed less than the average white criminal. So, all of the breaking news headlines of ‘crack whores’ were in fact targeted and limited into showing part of the crime happening thought out the country. And don’t forget that crime began to uptick once the “war” against it was declared.
I’m also sad to say this policy actually worked. As the last thirty years have shown, incarceration rates have gone through the roof. For the last three decades the U.S. prison population has grown five times as fast as U.S. population. And as previously said, that increased incarceration rate is not being shared equally. To bring in new data, a black person is almost four times more likely to be arrest for marijuana possession than a white person. Yet, statistically both groups smoke about the same amount of marijuana per person.
Racism is not just a passive afterglow of slavery as many people think. It is an active issue within a system that encourages and reinforces it. With these distinctions in identities, it is obvious that people of color are in many ways living a different life than their white counterparts. They are living a life of less income, with a higher probability of being criminalized, and implicit bias that even they themselves cannot escape from.
Therefore, Don’t think for one more second this is something that will simply fade away. Actions and policies like the War on Drugs, redlining, stop-and-frisk, the New Deal, and so much more, are all continuing this cycle of inequality. The white space of America is a place with very minimal pockets of true equality. Let us ban together and acknowledge that this issue is actively happening, and therefore requires active action to improve.
The Whole Series is Now Available:
Bridging Our Understanding of Racism (Part 1)
How Unnatural Racism Is (Part 3)
Implicit Racism, the Racism you Never Knew About (Part 4)
Just How Present is Racism? (Part 6)
It’s Time to Take Action Against Racism (Part 7)
Work Cited
Alexander, Michelle. “Introduction.” The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2012): 1-19.
Delgado, Richard. “Rodrigo’s Eight Chronicle. Black Crime, White Fears – On the Social Construction of Threat.” Rodrigo Chronicles (1995): 164-189.
Gramlich, John. “Gap between Number of Blacks, Whites in Prison Narrows.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 12 Jan. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/12/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/.
Victor M. Rios (2015) Decolonizing the White Space in Urban Ethnography City and Community Pages (258-261)