I'm a white person who grew up with significant disadvantages, however if I were black...

[hfojvt]

63. I would

because I think it is too generic.

"It's tougher being black than white" seems false to me in the same way that "W is greater than B" seems false to me IF I can easily find examples where B is greater than W. And not just one or two examples - multiple millions of them.

So going back to black and white. Would you, and most DUers agree that "It's tougher being poor than being rich"?

So now I pull out the census of wealth for 2011 where I find that a whopping 3.2 million black households have more than $250,000 in wealth. And I also find that there are 16.9 million white non hispanic households with less than $5,000 in wealth.

True or false? The statement "It is tougher being black than white" means that those 3.2 million blacks have it tougher than those 16.9 million whites. That somehow W (with less than $5,000 in wealth) is greater than B (with more than $250,000 in wealth).

If false, then how?

One might object and say "I am only comparing blacks and whites with the SAME income/wealth when I make that statement about race. So don't compare yourself to Tiger Woods or Oprah, look at the guy down the street. Look at the fact that 48% of black households have less than $5,000 in wealth compared to only 20.5% of WNH households. Right THERE is your white privilege (dammit)!"

Okay, let me try a crude analogy. Imagine that 20.5% of white people are living 50 feet underground, in a big hole where other people dump their excrement. (being poor means life deals you a LOT of crap) and that 48% of black people are down in this hole too. (By the way that means that the population of the hole is STILL 70% WHITE). Then you are asking that person in the hole to just IGNORE, to pay no attention to, all those people NOT living in the hole. Just look around and bask in the fact that you are lord of the hole. What a privilege THAT is.

Bring in the numbers again. You are then asking these white people who are poor to just ignore the 73 million people (60% of the US population) who are substantially better off than they are to show that "white privilege" exists. Yep, they are privileged if you ignore 60% of the country and just look at their fellow poor people. Or maybe look at all the rich white guys in Congress and corporate board rooms (like their whiteness trickles down to other white people).

I don't see how a statement can be true, if proving it requires you to ignore 60% of the data.