Explaining white privilege to a broke white person

[pnwmom]

71. Yes, money confers benefits. But it doesn't protect black people

the same way it protects white people.

Even if black people have enough money to live in a safe neighborhood and to send their kids to good schools, it doesn't mean they aren't afraid for their children every time they step out of their house. Afraid because of the police -- the same people white professionals trust to help them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/nyregion/for-black-parents-shielding-children-from-talk-of-ferguson-and-garner-cannot-protect-them.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

SNIP

They weigh on me and on many black parents, regardless of our station in life, regardless of how high we have climbed in our careers. When we hear about them, we think about our sons, and we feel vulnerable, even fearful. We worry that despite our degrees, despite our credentials, we will not be able to protect our boys from the indignities and dangers they may encounter at the hands of police.

Does it surprise you that a professional black woman should live with such anxieties in 2014? I have a master’s degree, a good job and a good salary. My husband and I own a comfortable home in New Jersey.

But I know what you may not: That black men — young and old — cannot assume that the police will treat them with the respect and courtesy that white professionals often take for granted.

Ask Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who said this year that he had been stopped and questioned by the police in Washington, “while I was running to catch a movie, even though I happened to be a federal prosecutor.”

SNIP