https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/neaz ... WhEKu2EwQE
The Disturbing Thing I Learned Studying White Privilege and Liberals
I found a blind spot in my empathy, and our study confirmed it.
here is the takeaway:
We recruited 650 liberals and conservatives, the majority of whom were white (68.8%) or Black (16%), from across the United States to complete our study online. At the start of the study, we randomly divided participants into two groups. One group read about white privilege and were asked to list several privileges experienced by white people in America (e.g., “White people are never asked to speak for all people of their racial group”). The other group did not learn about white privilege at all.
Participants then read about either a poor white man, or a poor Black man. All of the participants learned that the man’s name was Kevin, that he lived in NYC, was raised by a single mom, struggled with poverty his whole life, and was currently receiving welfare assistance. The only difference was his race.
As we expected, liberals who learned about white privilege expressed more sympathy toward Kevin when he was described as Black (vs. white). In contrast, conservatives expressed relatively low levels of sympathy for the poor regardless of race and regardless of whether they read about white privilege.
However, what we found startling was that white privilege lessons didn’t increase liberals’ sympathy for poor Black people. Instead, these lessons decreased liberals’ sympathy for poor white people, which led them to blame white people more for their own poverty. They seemed to think that if a person is poor despite all the privileges of being white, there must really be something wrong with them.
Emphasis mine.
These findings felt both personal and frustrating. Personal, because they suggested that being liberal may have contributed to my struggle to fully sympathize with poor white men—even the one I was falling in love with. Frustrating, because they suggested that discussing white privilege may not always increase sympathy for struggling Black people—an important part of my work.
The United States has become increasingly politically polarized in recent years. And, I share the concern of many about increasing divisions in our country and especially the increasing amount of open hate toward others based on their race/ethnicity. Yet, I also need to question the role that I may play in amplifying these divisions. My prior insensitivity to the experiences of poor white people might be just the type of attitude that contributes to an increasingly polarized US political climate—a climate that ultimately causes further harm to Black people too.
*FF7 Victory music*
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
We got one. We actually got through to one.
I can't believe it, I-
I feel strongly that white privilege lessons are still important because they highlight the fact that racism persists in our society. In fact, across several studies, which we are preparing for publication, we find that teaching people about white privilege leads both liberals and conservatives to be more likely to perceive racism when Black (vs. white) men are shot by police. Thus, instead of trying to decide whether white privilege lessons are “good” or “bad,” we should think more about whether they are likely to have the effects we intend.
One possibility is that discussions of privilege may benefit from taking a more intersectional lens. For example, although privilege certainly occurs because of race, it can also emerge based on social class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, nationality, and so on. Because of this, most of us have experienced both privilege and marginalization at some point.
*Sigh.*
They're gone. We lost them. The cycle of nonsensical rationalizations reclaimed them.
Just in case you think this is a solution, this is what you guys already try and do.
So, NSG, discuss?
How shocked are you by this study?
Was it already obvious to literally everyone except the type of people who talk about white privilege?
I think so. As i've pointed out before, the privilege narrative does not actually provide an emotional impetus for anything except resenting white people by placing the focus with them, instead of on disadvantages others face.
The concept of privilege makes people dislike the privileged group, rather than increasing support for the disadvantaged group.
It is not pro-minority, or pro-equality, but anti-white. The data shows that to be the case.
