If you’re an unmarried white woman below 30, you’re more likely to go to university and have a a better paid job than your male classmate. You are also often less likely to be hurt by financial downturns that affect more male-based jobs.

And if you’re a white male left-handed electrician susceptible to gout named “Stan” then you have a nearly 100% chance of having an inoperable brain tumor.  So you see Millie, sometimes it IS hard to be a white male.

I’m not saying that life is all that easy for women either, but young women acting like they have an uphill battle because their parents’ generation had/has a large amount of income disparity and blaming it all on men is not very credible.

Seriously dude.  Just look up the statistics on M/F pay disparity on the states.  More salient to male privilege, look up the statistics on rape and sexual assault.  And remember that both those crimes are horrendously under reported.

How long has this stupid game been out? If this is a new game, then the metaphor is outdated and 16-bit.  How many hundreds of years have people of all races been playing this white developed game? Are non whites mistaking their identities for those of whites now? What with coconuts, bananas and the ‘white on the inside’ group of people out there. A molatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido… Personally I love women of all colors.

Transference of culture is an interesting question. It’s the basis of our next generation game system. Console. The one we can all play together, on hard mode. No cheating, no short cuts with a game genie. Feeling left out? What is ethnic in this day and age? Yes, I’m a white guy and I had a jerk pork roti for lunch, a fantastic black food. Does food define what is ethnic or skin color? I was wondering about that.

Is this game about capital gains or territory? Who is the president of the company publishing this game? How did he get to be President?

In practice, it is not case that “there is no ‘us and them’, there is only you and me.”

There will be “us and them” until we live in a society that does not systematically discriminate and oppress people based on “us and them”.  It is up to us to transform our society, and we can’t do that without talking about the categories which have already been created.

My fellow white folks crack me up.  People point out that outcomes for white people are statistically better than outcomes for black people even after adjusting for income.  The white folks’ response?  “That’s racist!”  Or even better, reverse racist — ’cause only whites know how to be racist the right way around.

Perhaps you disagree.  Perhaps you think you should work hard at leveling up your WoW char instead.  Well, the purpose of this article is to explain why that’s not so.

Thank you.  It is also good to not go into a situation assuming that someone will  have a certain trait due to age/color/class/etc.  Sure, know that they exist, and react when they show up, but to pre-assume is a form of prejudice too.

“I doubt there are many BoingBoingers here that aren’t already socially conscious…”

I’d love to think so, but the comments on this thread alone are enough to prove otherwise.  Which pretty much underlies millie’s point.

Because, @Michael: Admitting that there’s a problem is the most important thing people want you to do about it.  The most frustrating thing about not being in a privileged position is that your concerns get ignored.  Admitting that I have privilege is the most important first step in not perpetuating it.  (The second is teaching others who haven’t admitted there’s a problem.)

Just because you’re a beneficiary of white privilege doesn’t mean that it’s making your life better.  A society which oppresses people on the basis of stupid shit like race is a sick, dysfunctional society, and everyone feels consequences from that, even white people.

White people fear race riots and crime, we feel guilty sometimes, we feel unwelcome in non-white communities, we miss out on cultural connections and friendships because of race.  We live in communities ravaged by poverty, drugs, abuse – much of which is linked to racial oppression.  We know deep down that the pleasures we enjoy often come at someone else’s expense, and that cheapens them.  We may get to be king of the hill, but it’s not really much of a hill.

Imagine your life in a society without all those things.  Sure, it might mean that you don’t get the perks you get now, but the trade would be worth it, wouldn’t it?

Problem is, it’s not a simple trade.  It’s hard work to dismantle systemic racism, and white people are especially important in that fight, because we’re the supposed beneficiaries.  This whole system of injustice is set up to make people like us happy!  Well it’s not making me happy, and I’m guessing not you either.  We need to speak out and take action, because our voices mean a lot in that discussion.

Try being a white female panhandler. Especially a young, pretty one.

Sounds like a dream-come-true, so long as you enjoy being horribly raped on a regular basis.

Here’s another experiment from 2006 on mailing employers identical resumes with “white” names or “black” names of the applicants. Minorities were only 66% as likely as whites to receive a job offer.

Here’s a study (Times article)  from 2009 about racial discrimination in the hiring of waiters. Again, identical resumes, different names, minorities were only 56% as likely to be hired.

Jumping categories, this 2002 study shows identically-qualified black applicants are less likely to be given a mortgage, and when they are they are charged a higher interest rate, then their white equivalents. Again, the study used fictitious people who were assigned identical incomes and credit histories.

You keep saying correlation doesn’t imply causation. Explain these experiments — maybe the job rejections somehow reversed time and caused the fictitious people to have “black” names?

Now can you please stop pretending that there don’t exist any advantages for a lower-class white man compared with a lower-class black man? If you’re out of work and you send a potential employer a resume, you’re more likely to be hired with the name “Greg” on it instead of “Jamal.” So stop complaining that there isn’t a “White Bureau of Commerce.”

Racism exists, it isn’t fair that it does. But  it’s one of those human behaviour problems that can  be diminished by education and awareness. Also, the article isn’t about racism so much as it is about members of a specific race being unaware of the challenges that they don’t face.

I understand it just fine if; the people of similar backgrounds — one being a straight white male (SWM), and the other being a gay/transgendered minority woman (G/TMW)–the SWM will win out every time.

Yes! That’s all we’re saying!! So why the hell do you keep arguing the point?? It’s called an “advantage,” not a “guarantee to win in every conceivable situation.”

…there are plenty of other considerations (e.g. mental health or physical disabilities, or class, or sexual abuse)…

Of course, but herein lies the difference: if someone said “being a rich able-bodied person gives you an inherent advantage over impoverished schizophrenic paraplegics” then few people would argue the point.

Why do you disregard the plight of the mentally handicapped, disabled, or deformed by not listing ‘with no birth defects?’

For one thing, I can’t recall meeting any able-bodied people who refuse to acknowledge that they have at least some inherent advantage over the disabled.

As soon as money is thrown into the mix, everything else goes out the window.