How

White People
CanWork
for Racial

UPROOTN
IG
Justice

RACISM
REVISED AND EXPANDED 3R" EDITION

PAULKRIEL

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NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS
 White Benefits, Middle-class Privilege

I T I S N O T N E C E S S A R I LY A P R I V I L E G E T O B E W H I T E , b u t i t c e r t a i n l y h a s i t s
benefits. That's why so many of our families gave up their unique histo-
ries, primary languages, accents, distinctive dress, family names and cultural
expressions. It seemed like a small price to pay for acceptance in the circle of
whiteness. Even with these sacrifices, it wasn't easy to pass as white if we were
Italian, Greek, Irish, Jewish, Spanish, Hungarian or Polish. Sometimes it took
generations before our families were fully accepted, and then it was usually
because white society had an even greater fear of darker-skinned people.
Privileges are the economic extras that those of us who are middle-class
and wealthy gain at the expense of poor and working-class people of all races.
Benefits, on the other hand, are the advantages that all white people gain at the
expense of people of color regardless of economic position.' Talk about racial
benefits can ring false to many of us who don't have the economic privileges
that we see others in this society enjoying. But though we don't have substan-
tial economic privileges, we do enjoy many of the benefits of being white.
We can generally count on police protection rather than harassment.
Depending on our financial situation, we can choose where we want to live
and choose safer neighborhoods with better schools. We are given more atten-
tion, respect and status in conversations than people of color. Nothing that
we do is qualified, limited, discredited or acclaimed simply because of our
racial background. We don't have to represent our race, and nothing we do
is judged as a credit to our race or as confirmation of its shortcomings or
inferiority.
These benefits start early. Others will have higher expectations for us as
children, both at home and at school. We will have more money spent on our
education, we will be called on more in school and given more opportunity
and resources to learn. We will see people like us in textbooks. If we get into

31
3 2 U P R O O T I N G RACISM

trouble, adults will expect us to be able to change and improve and therefore
will discipline or penalize us less harshly than children of color.
These benefits accrue and work to the direct economic advantage of every
white person in the United States. First of all, we will earn more in our life-
time than a person of color of similar qualifications. We will be paid $1.00
for every $.60 that a person of color makes.2 We will advance faster and more
reliably and, on average, accumulate eight times as much wealth. A white fam-
ily will, on average accumulate $170,000 in assets, a black family $17,000,
and a Latino/a family $21,000.3 The gap for single women-headed house-
holds is even more stark i n 2007 a white female-headed household had
on average $41,000 in assets, a black female-headed household $100, and a
Latina-headed household $120.4
There are historically derived economic benefits too. All the land in the US
was taken from Native Americans. Much of the infrastructure of this country
was built by slave labor, incredibly low-paid labor or by prison labor per-
formed by men and women of color. Much of the housecleaning, childcare,
cooking and maintenance of our society has been done by low-wage-earning
women of color. Today men and women and children of color still do the
hardest, lowest-paid, most dangerous work throughout the US. And white
people enjoy plentiful and inexpensive food, clothing and consumer goods
because of that exploitation.
We have been taught history through a white-tinted lens that has mini-
mized our exploitation of people of color and extolled the hardworking,
courageous qualities of white people. For example, many of our foreparents
gained a foothold in the US by finding work in such trades as railroads, street-
cars, construction, shipbuilding, wagon and coach driving, house painting,
tailoring, longshore work, bricklaying, table waiting, working in the mills or
dressmaking. These were all occupations that blacks, who had begun entering
many such skilled and unskilled jobs, were either excluded from or pushed out
of in the 19th century. Exclusion and discrimination, coupled with immigrant
mob violence against blacks in many northern cities (such as the anti-black
draft riots of 1863), meant that recent immigrants had economic opportuni-
ties that blacks did not. These gains were consolidated by explicitly racist trade
union practices and policies that kept blacks in the most unskilled labor and
lowest-paid work.5
It is not that white Americans have not worked hard and built much. We
have. But we did not start out from scratch. We went to segregated schools
 WHITE BENEFITS. MIDDLE-CLASS PRIVILEGE I 3 3

and universities built with public money. We received school loans, Veterans
Administration (VA) loans, housing and auto loans unavailable to people of
color. We received federal jobs, apprenticeships and training when only whites
were allowed.
Much of the rhetoric against more active policies for racial justice stem
from the misconception that all people are given equal opportunities and
start from a level playing field. We often don't even see the benefits we have
received from racism. We claim that they are not there.

Notes
1. See the important work on privilege done by Peggy McIntosh. White Privilege and Male Privilege:
A Personal Account of Coming to SeeCorrespondences Through Work in Women's Studies. Wellesley
College, Center for Research on Women, 1988 as well as material from Allan Creighton with
Paul Kivel. Helping Teens Stop Violence, rev. ed. Hunter House, 2011; and George Lipsitz. The
Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Polities. Temple
University', 1998.
2. I n 2007 black families earned 59 cents, Latino families earned 62 cents. and American Indian/
Alaska Native families made 59 cents for every dollar in income earned by a white family. For
women-headed households the gaps were even larger. Nationally, Asian American income was
$1.10 but was highly variably based on geography and ethnicity. Check the Color Line: 2009
Income Report. Applied Research Center, 2009. [Online]. [cited February 8, 2011]. colorlines.
com/pdf/2009_Check ColorhineIncome.pdf.
3. Insight Center for Community Economic Development. Laying the Foundation for National
Prosperdy: The Imperative of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap. March, 2009. [online]. [cited
February 8, 2011]. insightccechorg/uploads/CRWG/
LayingTheFoundationForNationalProsperity-MeizhuLuiO309.pdE
4. Insight Center for Community Economic Development. Lifting AsWe Climb: Women of Color,
Wealth, and America's Future. Spring, 2010. [online]. [citted February 8, 2011]. insightccechote
uploads/CRWG/LiftingAsWeClimb-WomenWealth-Report- InsightCenter-Spring2010.pdf.
5. For an extended history of the relationship between the white working class and workers of
color, see David R. Ruediger. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American
Working Class. Verso, 1991.
 WHITE BENEFITS? A PERSONAL ASSESSMENT 3 9

Think about your grandparents and parents and where they grew up and lived as adults.
What work did they do? What are some of the benefits that have accrued to your family
through your foreoarents and to you directly because of racism?
Look at the following checklist.12 Put a check beside any benefit that you enjoythat a
person of color of your age, gender and class probably does not. Think about what effect
not having that benefit would have had on your life. (If you don't know the answer to any
of these questions, do research. Ask family members. Do what you can to discover the
answers.)

White Benefits Checklist

L:1 M y ancestors were legal immigrants to this country during a period when
immigrants from Asia, South and Central America or Africa were restricted.
f:J M y ancestors came to this country of their own free will and have never had
to relocate unwillingly once here.
• I live on land that formerly belonged to Native Americans.
• M y family received homesteading or landstaking claims from the federal
government.
• I or my family or relatives receive or received federal farm subsidies, farm
price supports, agricultural extension assistance or other federal benefits.
• I lived or live in a neighborhood that people of color were discouraged or
discriminated from living in.
El I lived or live in a city where red-lining prevents people of color getting
housing or other loans.
J M y parents or I went to racially segregated schools.
• I live in a school district or metropolitan area where more money is spent
on the schools that white children go to than on those that children of
color attend.
• l i v e in or went to a school district where children of color are more likely to
be disciplined than white children, or are more likely to be tracked into
non-academic programs.
J I live in or went to a school district where the textbooks and other
classroom materials reflected my race as normal and as heroes and
builders of the United States, and where there was little mention of the
contributions of people of color.
• I was encouraged to go on to college by teachers, parents or other advisors.
J I attended a publicly funded university or a heavily endowed private
university or college, and/or I received student loans.
I served in the military when it was still racially segregated, achieved a rank
where there were few people of color or served in a combat situation
where there were large numbers of people of color in dangerous combat
positions. is—
 4 0 I UPROOTING RACISM

White Benefits Checklist cont.

• M y ancestors were immigrants who took jobs in railroads, streetcars, construc-

tion, shipbuilding, wagon and coach driving, house painting, tailoring,
longshore work, bricklaying, table waiting, working in the mills, dressmaking or
any other trade or occupation where people of color were driven out or excluded.
I received job training in a program where there were few or no people of color.
• I have received a job, job interview, job training or internship through
personal connections of family or friends.
• I worked or work in a job where people of color made less for doing
comparable work or did more menial jobs.
LI I have worked in a job where people of color were hired last or fired first.
I i I work in a job, career or profession or in an agency or organization in which
there are few people of color.
• I received small business loans or credits, government contracts or
government assistance in my business.
▪ M y parents were able to vote in any election they wanted without worrying
about poll taxes, literacy requirements or other forms of discrimination.
J I can always vote for candidates who reflect my race.
J I live in a neighborhood that has better police protection and municipal
services and is safer than one where people of color live.
J The hospital and medical services close to me or which I use are better than
those of most people of color in the region in which I live.
• I have never had to worry that clearly labeled public facilities, such as
swimming pools, restrooms, restaurants and nightspots, were in fact not
open to me because of my skin color.
▪ I see people who look like me in a wide variety of roles on television and in movies.
• M y skin color needn't be a factor in where I choose to live.
A substantial percentage of the clothes I wear are made by poorly paid
women and children of color in the US and abroad.
• Most of the food I eat is grown, harvested, processed and/or cooked by
poorly paid people of color in this country and abroad.
I i The house, office building, school, hotels and motels or other buildings and
grounds I use are cleaned or maintained by people of color.
J Many of the electronic goods I use, such as TVs, cellphones and computers,
are made by people of color in the US and abroad.
J People of color have cared for me, other family members, friends or
colleagues of mine either at home or at a medical or convalescent facility.
J I don't need to think about race and racism every day. I can choose when
and where I want to respond to racism. de—
 WHITE BENEFITS? A PERSONAL ASSESSMENT I 4 1

What feelings come up for you when you think about the benefits that white people gain
from racism? Do you feel angry or resentful? Guilty or uncomfortable? Do you want to say
"Yes, but ? "

You may be thinking at this point, "If d o i n g so well, how come I'm
barely making it?" Some of the benefits listed above are money in the bank
for each and every one of us. Some of us have bigger bank accounts — much
bigger. According to 2007 figures, 1% of the population controls about 43%
of the net financial wealth of the US, and the top 20% own 93%.13 In 2009,
women generally made about 80 cents for every dollar that men made in an
average week of full-time work. African American women made 69 cents and
Latinas 60 cents.14 In studies looking at a 15-year period, WOMen'S income
averages just 35-40% of menls.15
Benefits from racism are amplified or diminished by our relative privilege.
People with disabilities, people with less formal education and people who are
lesbian, gay or bisexual are generally discriminated against in major ways. All
of us benefit in some ways from whiteness, but some of us have cornered the
market on significant benefits to the exclusion of others.