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[TygrBright]

92. Exactly the way all caucasians benefit from institutionalized racism.

And yes, I'm a caucasian. And I think racism is HORRID. And I try very hard to be conscious of how it shapes the world I live in, and to counter it any way I can.

But I STILL benefit from a culture that values my melanin deficiency above the pigmented skin of other people who are kinder, smarter, harder-working, more talented, creative, loving, funny, motivated human beings than I am. I just DO.

And the very, very, VERY minor "down side" that some people of color make negative assumptions about me because of my melanin deficiency doesn't even begin to offset the level of benefit I experience because the society I live in has been substantially shaped by racism and has not yet re-shaped itself (and won't for a few more generations at best) to eliminate those institutionalized assumptions about race.

Look, Scalzi says it way better than I can:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/

helpfully,
Bright