Race Lesson 6: Wages of Whiteness and Institutional Implicit Racism

HW: Read  Jonathon Metzel's Dying of Whiteness 


Hi classes!  Sorry I am out today.  Please read the lesson below and answer the embedded questions in the Google Form.  

Besides race being used explicitly it can also be something that is less noticeable or subconscious. This type of racism also called implicit racism.  

Implicit racism 

Prejudices and stereotypes exist in our subconscious.  These hidden biases are called implicit bias.  Although implicit bias can be about myriad topics (gender, occupation, age), it can also promote racism.  Here is an explanation from Teaching Tolerance:

While the brain isn’t wired to be racist, it uses biases as unconscious defensive shortcuts.  As human beings, we are not naturally racist. But because of the way our brains are wired, we are naturally "groupist." The brain has a strong need for relatedness.  This wiring for “groupism” usually leads the dominant culture (the in-group) in a race-based society to create “out-groups” based on race, gender, language and sexual orientation. A system of inequity is maintained by negative social messages that dehumanize people of color, women and LGBT people as “the other.” For folks in the in-group, the brain takes in these messages and downloads them like software into the brain’s fear system. This leads to implicit bias: the unconscious attitudes and beliefs that shape our behavior toward someone perceived as inferior or as a threatening outsider.

The passage above is connecting race to ingroups and outgroups that we learned about in unit 1.   If the ingroup has power then this can result in viewing groups without power with mistrust, fear, and stereotypes.  When that ingroup perceives itself as a "race" (such as "white") then it becomes implicit racism.  

1.  Can you explain what implicit racism is?

Google Form for answering is here.


W.E.B. Du Bois's Wages of Whiteness and Implicit Racism

From the NAACP history website, William Edgar Burghardt Du Bois became the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard University (1895).  Du Bois became an assistant instructor in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. There he conducted the pioneering sociological study of an urban community, published as The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). These first two works assured Du Bois’s place among America’s leading scholars.

From 1934 to 1944 Du Bois was chairman of the department of sociology at Atlanta University.  Du Bois published numerous works of academic research on African Americans.  His body of work was considered the greatest study of African Americans at that time and it still remains respected.

From the Social Science Research Council (SSRC),

Du Bois famously argues that whiteness serves as a “public and psychological wage,” delivering to poor whites in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a valuable social status derived from their classification as “not-black.” The claims embedded in this thesis—that whiteness provides meaningful “compensation” (Du Bois’s term) for citizens otherwise exploited by the organization of capitalism; that the value of whiteness depends on the devaluation of black existence; and that the benefits enjoyed by whites are not strictly monetary—shaped subsequent efforts to theorize white identity and to grasp the (non)formation of political coalitions in the United States.

An excerpt from DuBois is here:

Most persons do not realize how far [the view that common oppression would create interracial solidarity] failed to work in the South, and it failed to work because the theory of race was supplemented by a carefully planned and slowly evolved method, which drove such a wedge between the white and black workers  that there probably are not today in the world two groups of workers with practically identical interests who hate and fear each other so deeply and persistently and who are kept so far apart that neither sees anything of common interest. 

It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had small effect upon the economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal treatment and the deference shown them. White schoolhouses were the best in the community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule. (Black Reconstruction [1935], 700-701)

Dubois wrote this in 1935, but I still think it applies today.  For example, when reading about the racist tweets towards Nina Davuluri, it sends the message that she might be pretty and successful and born in the United States, but she is not and will never be a real American.  For the millions of poor Whites who feel powerless, that small act of racism might make them feel good about being White, being a "true American."  This is another reason why all of the immigrant groups have tried to become White over the years.  It was not just for explicit benefits, it was also for these implicit benefits, or psychological wages of whiteness.  It constructs a reality where whites feel and experience life differently because they are White.  White is the majority group in the United States so it comes with a feeling of power and belonging.  This is true even for Whites who might not have a lot of real power in society - low-income Whites with less education.  So, for them, even though they are at the lowest end of the social class ladder, at least they are White.  And, many sociologists hypothesize that this benefits the ruling class of power elites because it keeps the middle/working classes from being a united front that could band together to demand more political control, more power, and better wages.  As we saw in our social class unit, if this was a purpose, it certainly has worked.


2.  Can you explain what DuBois' Wages of Whiteness are?


Peggy McIntosh's Interpretation of Implicit Racism

About 50 years after Dubois, Peggy McIntosh wrote about Dubois's psychological wages which she called the Invisible Knapsack that explained these "hidden wages" show up in a number of different ways in everyday life.  McIntosh called these "privileges".  This is how the term "white privilege" came about as part of our public discourse.   The essence of McIntosh's claim is that whites can live their daily life in the United States without having being judged for their race.  This includes meeting new neighbors, shopping, getting a promotion, etc... All of these are more likely to be viewed with individualism for whites and race-related for everyone else.  Essentially, it is saying that minority race becomes a master status for everyone who is not white.

McIntosh is not saying that whites have been handed everything on a silver spoon or that they have not worked hard for what they have.  She is simply saying that race is not a factor that white people have to overcome to be successful.  Many policies, institutions and individuals have used both explicit and implicit racism to get and maintain power.  Whites were privileged to be on the benefitting end of that power whether psychologically or materially.  However, many whites emigrated to the U.S. and worked hard to get by and make a better life for their future generations.  My grandpa was one of them.  He came from Italy in 1916 when he was just 15 years old.  He had no money and no immediate family in the U.S.  He worked whatever job he could find and eventually enlisted in the US Army.  He struggled, but eventually was able to buy a small house and retire.  He was just fortunate to not have to overcome racism as part of his uphill struggle.  He had white privilege.  As do I. And as do many of my students.  This does not mean that whites are supposed to feel guilty about this privilege. They are not supposed to apologize for it. This is a lesson that simply acknowledges that it exists. Remember, sociology is about how individuals are shaped by their society and their social position in it. Being a certain race shapes how society treats you – what advantages or disadvantages you have.

3.  Can you explain what Peggy McIntosh means by "white privilege"?

4.  Are whites supposed to feel guilty about white privilege? 

5.  Are whites supposed to apologize about white privilege?


Tangible Privilege

Michael Harriot who has an MBA degree in international business from Auburn thinks that not only is privilege psychological, but it is also measurable.  The institutional advantages that we learned about yesterday lasted for hundreds of years.  This meant that generations of whites could pass on down their wealth and benefits to future generations.  Over time, this allowed an accumulation of wealth and privilege that continues to this day.  

Read the essay Yes, You Can Measure White Privilege below by Harriot and answer the questions embedded within the reading.  

Yes, You Can Measure White Privilege by Michael Harriot

Whenever anyone slips the words “white privilege” into a conversation, it immediately builds an impenetrable wall. For some white people, the words elicit an uneasy feeling because, for them, the term is accusatory without being specific. It is a nebulous concept that seemingly reduces the complex mishmash of history, racism and social phenomena to a nonspecific groupthink phrase.

6.  Does talking about white privilege give you a defensive/uneasy reaction? Be honest about your feelings. 

But white privilege is real.
Instead of using it as a touchy-feely phrase that gives white people the heebie-jeebies because it conjures up images of Caucasians sitting on plantation porches drinking mint juleps while they watch the Negroes toil in the Southern sun, we should use it as a proper noun, with a clear definition. White privilege does not mean that any white person who achieved anything didn’t work hard for it. It is an irrefutable, concrete phenomenon that manifests itself in real, measurable values, and we should use it as such.


7. Does white privilege mean that white people did not work for whatever they have achieved?
Imagine the entire history of the United States as a 500-year-old relay race, where whites began running as soon as the gun sounded, but blacks had to stay in the starting blocks until they were allowed to run. If the finish line is the same for everyone, then the time and distance advantage between the two runners is white privilege. Not only can we see it, but we can actually measure it. If we begin viewing it as an economic term—the same way we use “trickle-down economics”—then it might be debatable, but it becomes a real, definable thing that we can acknowledge, explain and work toward eliminating.  Race might be a social construct, but white privilege is an economic theory that we should define as such:

White privilege: n. The quantitative advantage of whiteness

Here are four examples that explain white privilege in economic terms.


Education
If education is the key to success, then there is no debate that whites have the advantage in America. In 2012, the U. S. Department of Education reported that about 33 percent of all white students attend a low-poverty school, while only 6 percent attend high-poverty schools. In comparison, only 10 percent of black students attend a low-poverty school, while more than 40 percent of black students attend high-poverty schools.

This means that black students are more than six times more likely than white students to attend a high-poverty school, while white students are more than three times more likely than black students to attend a low-poverty school.

8.  What percent of blacks and whites attend a high-poverty school?

9. Did you personally choose to live in district 125? Did your parents ask you if you wanted to go to district 125 before they moved into district? 

National Equality Atlas
The logical response to this is for whites to explain the disparity away with statistics of black unemployment and the minority wage gap, but that might not be true. In 2015, a research scientist named David Mosenkis examined 500 school districts in Pennsylvania and found that—regardless of the level of income—the more black students, the less money a school received. While this may not be true for every single school, people who study education funding say that they can predict a school’s level of funding by the percentage of minority students it has. Even though this is a complex issue that reveals how redlining and segregation decreased the property tax base in areas where blacks live—therefore decreasing funding—it underscores a simple fact:  White children get better educations, and that is a calculable advantage.

Employment
Even when black students manage to overcome the hurdles of unequal education, they still don’t get equal treatment when it comes to jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of Friday, April 7, the unemployment rate for African Americans was nearly double that of whites (8.1 percent for blacks, 4.3 percent for whites).

There are some who will say blacks should study harder, but this phenomenon can’t be explained by simple educational disparities. A 2015 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that whites with the exact same résumés as their black counterparts are hired at double the rate. In fact, a white man with a criminal history is more likely to be hired than an African American with no criminal past.

10.  Assuming that resumes are exactly the same, who is more likely to get hired, a white with a criminal history or an African American with no criminal history?  

EPI.org (Economic Policy Institute)
A similarly named, but different, organization—the Economic Policy Institute—examined 2015 data and discovered that at every level of education, whites were twice as likely to have jobs as blacks.

If it is statistically easier for whites to get a better education, and better jobs, then being born white must be an advantage in and of itself.

Income
But let’s say a black man somehow gets a great education and finds a job; surely that means the playing field is level, right?
Not so fast.

Pew Research/PewResearch.org
Researchers at EPI found that black men with 11-20 years of work experience earned 23.5 percent less than their white counterparts, and black women with 11-20 years of experience were paid 12.6 percent less than white women with the same experience. This disparity is not getting smaller. The wage gap between black and white workers was 18.1 percent in 1979, and steadily increased to 26.7 percent in 2015. When Pew Research controlled for education and just looked at income data, white men still surpassed every other group.  These income inequalities persist to create the disparities in wealth between races, manifesting in generational disadvantages. A black person with the same education and experience as a similar Caucasian, over the span of their lives, will earn significantly less.

11.  Assuming the education and work experience is the same, who is likely to get paid more, a minority or a person in the majority? 

Spending
It is a little-known fact that the average black person pays more for almost every item he or she purchases. While there is no discount Groupon that comes with white skin, there might as well be. A John Hopkins study (pdf) showed that supermarkets were less prevalent in poor black neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods with the same average income, leading to increased food costs. News organization ProPublica recently found that car-insurance companies charge people who live in black neighborhoods higher rates than people in predominantly white areas with the same risk.

When it comes to credit, it is even worse. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, The Atlantic reports, “even after controlling for general risk considerations, such as credit score, loan-to-value ratio, subordinate liens, and debt-to-income ratios, Hispanic Americans are 78 percent more likely to be given a high-cost mortgage, and black Americans are 105 percent more likely.” Even banks as large as Wells Fargo have lost cases for up-charging minorities.

According to the Wall Street Journal, large auto lenders have paid more than $200 million since 2013 to settle lawsuits for charging minorities higher rates, but in November, both Democrats and Republicans voted to reduce regulations on the financial institutions that offer auto loans. The National Consumer Law Center filed a 2007 lawsuit that exposed how “finance companies and banks put in place policies that allowed car dealers to mark up the interest rates on auto loans to minorities based on subjective criteria unrelated to their credit risk.”

Instead of hurling the term “white privilege” around as an imprecise catch-all to describe everything from police brutality to Pepsi commercials, perhaps its use as a definable phrase will make people less resistant. Maybe if they saw the numbers, they could acknowledge its existence. It is neither an insult nor an accusation; it is simply a measurable gap with real-world implications. It is the fiscal and economic disparity of black vs. white.

In America’s four-and-a-half-centuries-old relay race, the phrase “white privilege” does not mean that Caucasians can’t run fast; it is just a matter-of-fact acknowledgment that they got a head start.

12.  Which evidence from the essay did you find most compelling that there is a privilege that whites do not have to think about?

13.   If you choose to ignore or not acknowledge these statistics, are they still true?

14.  Questions or comments about implicit racism and white privilege?