An interesting exchange about white privilege in the comments of the DWB story I posted earlier

[hedgehog]

20. A side issue here - but some of these comments touch on something

I'm seeing more and more of - economic privilege. If you are perceived as a poor and/or uneducated white, you get treated differently, too. We put six kids through college, so we drive whatever old banger my husband can keep on the road. He tends to wear work clothes when he's on his own time -( usually the uniforms too worn out for work!) This is a semi-rural area with a lot of white people near the poverty line. I know that walking into stores , we get treated differently depending on how we're dressed. We also get treated differently by medical people once we establish that we've both been to college and that my husband is an engineer.

I've heard other white people complain about their kids getting hassled by the police because they're not members of the "respectable" families.

I'm kind of unusual because I know and interact with people from both sides of the tracks. Believe me, people from the right side are totally unaware of their privileges!

Also - this is NOT to downplay the problems people of color have. My Dad lives in a suburb with a lot of people of color who are educated (college professors, doctors, lawyers) and fairly well off. These people ( and their teenage sons!) still get stopped for DWB.