Most claims about "white privilege" are complete nonsense, but pointing out that some non-white groups have a higher average income than whites doesn't refute a sophisticated proponent of "white privilege theory". 1/n
It's compatible with the claim that, *other things being equal*, white people are privileged. It's possible that, were it not for white privilege, those groups would make even more, because they are more educated, work harder or whatnot. 2/n
The problem is that many people who talk about "white privilege" don't seem to be saying merely that, *other things being equal*, white people are advantaged, but that *every* white person is all things considered advantaged relative to *every* non-white person. 3/n
For instance, I once dated a black woman in the US who made this claim, so I asked her whether she thought that Michael Jordan was worse off than a white redneck in the Appalachians and she said yes 🙃 4/n
No matter how much I insisted, by pointing out that Michael Jordan's wealth gave him a lot of advantages, she wouldn't retract her claim and continued to insist that, since the redneck was white, he was still better off despite his poverty, lack of education, etc. 5/n
I don't think she was the exception, I have head many other people say the same thing. Still, it's true that sophisticated proponents of "white privilege theory" don't make such a ridiculous claim, but it doesn't mean what they say is true. 6/n
The problem is that, in my opinion, even sophisticated proponents of the theory make unrealistic claims, because although it's no doubt true that, to the extent that it exists, white privilege doesn't explain nearly as much as they seem to think. 7/n
I have no doubt that, in some contexts, white people are advantaged just in virtue of being white. There is plenty of evidence that it's the case, so it's idiotic to deny that. 8/n
But *many* other factors beside race affect people's outcomes and, compared to those factors taken collectively or even sometimes in isolation, race doesn't explain much for most outcomes. But that's not what even sophisticated "white privilege theorists" seem to think. 9/n
For instance, they seem to think that, if black people are incarcerated at several times the rate of white people, it's mostly because of racism *in the criminal justice system*. But as I argued in this post, this claim doesn't pass even a smell test. 10/n necpluribusimpar.net/racial-dispari…
Black people and especially black men no doubt *are* victim of bias in the criminal justice system, and it can even be substantial, but this only explains a relatively small part of their overincarceration. 11/n
Mostly they are incarcerated more often because they commit serious crimes at much higher rates. This may ultimately be the result of racism in society, but in any case it's not mainly because of racism *in the criminal justice system*. 12/n
Many of them also seem to think that police violence against blacks is ubiquitous, but actually the evidence shows that it's pretty rare. 13/n necpluribusimpar.net/reality-police…
In this post, I calculated that in the US a black man was ~44 times more likely to suffer a traffic-related injury than to be injured by the police, and about as likely to be struck by lightning as to be killed by the police if unarmed. 14/n
For another example, just take this study about anti-black discrimination by local public officials in the US that was widely heralded as proving white privilege, even though the effect is very small and its interpretation unclear. 15/n necpluribusimpar.net/scourge-white-…
Moreover, as I also point out in that post, in some contexts (such as admission to elite schools or hiring in prestigious law firms), blacks are actually *advantaged* relative to whites and in this case the effect is actually huge. 16/n
Crucially, it's not blacks from disaffected ghettos who benefit from this pro-black bias, but rather middle-class/upper middle-class blacks, which goes to show that ignoring the role of social class leads to a severely distorted picture of society. 17/n
Of course, social class doesn't only matter among blacks, it affects people's outcomes across racial groups. This is why a white redneck living in a trailer park in the Appalachians is not actually privileged, all things considered, relative to Michael Jordan... 18/n
There may be some contexts in which, in some respects, he *is* privileged relative to Jordan, but this doesn't change the fact that he is obviously worse off all things considered. 19/n
Again, sophisticated proponents of "white privilege theory" don't make this ridiculous claim, but as I noted above they still wildy exaggerate how much racial bias explains. Furthermore they also make very strong claims that are not supported by the evidence they adduce. 20/n
*This* is the problem with claims about "white privilege", not the idea that, in many contexts, white people are — other things being equal — advantaged, which should be uncontroversial even though reasonable people can disagree about how much and in what contexts exactly. 20/20
I realize this may not have been clear, but when I talk about "advantage" in this thread, I really mean *unfair* advantage. It's not easy to unpack the distinction, especially on Twitter, but hopefully people get the idea.
