A White author calculated just how much racism has benefited her. Here’s what she found

[Colonoscopy]

Still hilarious to me people think this makes any sense at all.

Journalist and author Tracie McMillan did the math: The advantages she’s gotten over her life from being White, she estimates, amount to $371,934.30.

To calculate that number, McMillan tallied those benefits and divided them into two categories: A family bonus, which includes money her parents spent on her college tuition, educational loans she got from her grandfather and an inheritance; and a social bonus, which includes jobs, apartments and access to credit she’s gotten throughout her life.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/22/us/the-white-bonus-book-tracie-mcmillan-cec/index.html

 

[TarponSpringsNole]

I think I’ve benefited at least $350.

 

[NDallasRuss]

I'll offer her a $69 "incentive" payment.

 

[Whiskeydeltadeltatango]

So does line item A come off her parents numbers?

 

[WisestIowan]

White people are the only people who's parents pay for their college sometimes?

 

[BioHawk]

Yeah....no.

Racism isn't having those things. Institutional racism is putting up barriers so black people and minorities could not have those things.

 

[Colonoscopy]

The backwards part of the thinking is that some people (apparently) view this as a zero sum situation. White people hogging all the benefits.

Obviously society would be better off if black people (on average) had the same "advantages" white people did. The problem is they don't.

 

[Tom Paris]

Yeah....no.

Racism isn't having those things. Institutional racism is putting up barriers so black people and minorities could not have those things.

In before Republicans join the thread telling us this isn't a thing.

 

[stanzithemanzi12]

I calculated how much it cost me not being the son of really black Michael Jordan, and I came up with $669,669,669.69.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

$371,934.30.? That's a pretty precise number.

 

[Colonoscopy]

$371,934.30.? That's a pretty precise number.

It's white people somehow making the topic of black disadvantage about themselves.

 

[Aardvark86]

$371,934.30.? That's a pretty precise number.

Also...

1. Is that present value, or value of investment at her birth, which I assume from the thesis was like 20 years ago?
2. Your parents did these things for you because they loved you.
3. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that average black parents also expend their resources, and perhaps more importantly, their time, to support their children. Curiously (though this may be a function of the simpleton at CNN who wrote the story, and may be addressed in the book which of course I will neither buy nor read), there does not seem to be any reference to a "comparator figure" of black resource expenditures. Is the $300k the delta or a gross number? (I have a guess)

 

[seminole97]

$371,934.30.? That's a pretty precise number.

She rounded off to the nearest dime.

 

[Chuck C]

It looks like a lot of it that she claims is due more to economic privilege than anything.

 

[TunzaHawk]

How’s this work in Iowa where it’s crackers everywhere?

 

[ICWestfan]

How’s this work in Iowa where it’s crackers everywhere?

Well....in 1981 for HS graduation my Mom and Dad gave me a suitcase, a shave kit, and the title to a 1970 VW Bug that had a rusted out floor. I went to college, and in order to do that, I had to take out loans. The no pic went to college, her dad owned a construction company, her Gparents were farmers. She got exactly $0.00 from her parents, although her Gmother sold her a POS Ford Maverick for like $500 so she had a vehicle while on campus. She worked 3 jobs and took out loans to pay for college. Both of us repaid those loans after college, and while paying off loans, bought a house. Our interest rate on the loan in 1986 was 13.5%.

Our children rec'd exactly $0.00 from us to go to college, they took out loans, although the Gparents tossed them like a total of $4,000 a year, as long as they maintained a certain GPA.

We may be the exception, I don't know. But we asked for nothing, and got nothing in return. I figure based on Student Loan forgiveness, we are owed in the neighborhood of $80-100K.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

😭 Cue the stories about how hard white folks had it.

 

[TennNole17]

As a white male, I feel like I missed out on these monetary benefits. And I don’t care

 

[ICWestfan]

😭 Cue the stories about how hard white folks had it.

You don't believe white folk have had it hard?

 

[ClarindaA's]

😭 Cue the stories about how hard white folks had it.

Is not a race thing, it’s have and have not thing

 

[Chuck C]

😭 Cue the stories about how hard white folks had it.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Is not a race thing, it’s have and have not thing

Well, no shit. Now, trade places with a group that was systematically denied loans for homes and businesses - whose entire neighborhoods were either destroyed or deliberately cut off from their own city through strategically routed highway projects. Who - when they actually built wealth - were burned out and murdered. Who were denied the right to vote in the lifetimes of people still breathing today and who are STILL seeing their voting power diluted through extreme gerrymandering. smh

 

[ClarindaA's]

Well, no shit. Now, trade places with a group that was systematically denied loans for homes and businesses - whose entire neighborhoods were either destroyed or deliberately cut off from their own city through strategically routed highway projects. Who - when they actually built wealth - were burned out and murdered. Who were denied the right to vote in the lifetimes of people still breathing today and who are STILL seeing their voting power diluted through extreme gerrymandering. smh

Please tell me how you fix it now. We’ve had affirmative action, we’ve seen tests no longer necessary, George Floyd and Michael Brown are now martyrs. Doesn’t some onus fall on the black community focusing on education?

 

[abby97]

In before Republicans join the thread telling us this isn't a thing.

It isn't, unless you are referring to the article, the article is a thing. A nonsensical collection of crap, but a thing none the less.

 

[The Tradition]

I just feel awful about my white privilege after reading that.

Man, I really suck because of the color of my skin...

 

[Aardvark86]

😭 Cue the stories about how hard white folks had it.

Yeah my grandfather had one of those cushy coal miner jobs, complete with the meso parting gift. He didn’t give my dad much, other than his work ethic and values. My dad did go to college on the gi bill, but that came with it own cost of admission.

 

[TennNole17]

😭 Cue the stories about how hard white folks had it.

Some did- I think there’s a large swath of white people who don’t “get ahead” by their skin color. I mean, look at Alabama.

That doesn’t dilute what black people have had to deal with, but it’s an unnecessary guilt thing to paint all these white people as privileged?

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Yeah my grandfather had one of those cushy coal miner jobs, complete with the meso parting gift. He didn’t give my dad much, other than his work ethic and values. My dad did go to college on the gi bill, but that came with it own cost of admission.

And black veterans who served their country paid the same price but were denied the same benefit. Your father built wealth that was denied to others. Is that “white privilege” or something else?

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Please tell me how you fix it now. We’ve had affirmative action, we’ve seen tests no longer necessary, George Floyd and Michael Brown are now martyrs. Doesn’t some onus fall on the black community focusing on education?

I have no idea how to fix it. I also have absolutely no problem acknowledging that I have benefited from being born white. My father went to college on the GI Bill and became a pharmacist. He bought a house with a VA loan (another benefit denied to black veterans of WWII). What’s interesting is watching others fall all over themselves to demonstrate how difficult their lives were - just as I predicted in that op. And not one of them would trade places with a random black person because they know their lives would become far more difficult.

Being able to recognize that doesn’t diminish me in any way. I don’t have a clue why it’s so difficult for others.

 

[Aardvark86]

And black veterans who served their country paid the same price but were denied the same benefit. Your father built wealth that was denied to others. Is that “white privilege” or something else?

Lol. My dad was laughed out of multiple banks when he sought his first home loan as a teacher.

Incidentally, the denial was not because of the gi bill. It was because of bankers.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Lol. My dad was laughed out of multiple banks when he sought his first home loan as a teacher.

Incidentally, the denial was not because of the gi bill. It was because of bankers.

Your father was eligible for a VA home loan of $4,000 in 1945 that could be accessed up to ten years after the end of the war.

 

[Mufasa94]

And black veterans who served their country paid the same price but were denied the same benefit. Your father built wealth that was denied to others. Is that “white privilege” or something else?

What do you call the past 5 decades of affirmative action in schools, scholarships and recruitment (for actual students) available to only certain minorities, disadvantaged business programs, required minority quotas in government design and construction contracts, etc?

What’s interesting is watching others fall all over themselves to demonstrate how difficult their lives were - just as I predicted in that op.

The arrogance you show in attempting to tell others they have had a privileged background when you don’t know anything about them is pretty high.

And not one of them would trade places with a random black person because they know their lives would become far more difficult.

What a sad life you must have contemplating the desire of others to trade places with someone else.

 

[abby97]

I have no idea how to fix it. I also have absolutely no problem acknowledging that I have benefited from being born white. My father went to college on the GI Bill and became a pharmacist. He bought a house with a VA loan (another benefit denied to black veterans of WWII). What’s interesting is watching others fall all over themselves to demonstrate how difficult their lives were - just as I predicted in that op. And not one of them would trade places with a random black person because they know their lives would become far more difficult.

Being able to recognize that doesn’t diminish me in any way. I don’t have a clue why it’s so difficult for others.

Because I don't feel guilty for the actions of others born before me. I had no say it what was done in the past and nothing I do today can change what happened in the past. If you want to wallow in you white guilt, be me guest, but I believe a more productive strategy would be to make sure everyone has opportunity going forward and no one is denied anything today and in the future unless that denial was due to a lack of merit and nothing else.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

The arrogance you show in attempting to tell others they have had a privileged background when you don’t know anything about them is pretty high.

lol...I haven't told anyone anything. I made a prediction and it came true just as expected. Mention the words "white privilege" and you get a barrage of people calling BS and regaling us with stories of how tough their lives were as if that somehow cancels out the history of this country. You have a poster admitting his own father had access to a college education that was denied to fellow black soldiers but who doesn't acknowledge THAT'S privilege as if to do so somehow diminishes what his father did.

That's arrogance.

 

[hawkedoff]

I wonder if she has any clue that there are more white people in poverty in this country than any other race. She should calculate their privilege as well

The funny thing about calculated privilege like this is it translates to not needing to give a shit about poor white people. They obviously deserve to be poor because they haven't taken advantage of their whiteness.

 

[hawkedoff]

lol...I haven't told anyone anything. I made a prediction and it came true just as expected. Mention the words "white privilege" and you get a barrage of people calling BS and regaling us with stories of how tough their lives were as if that somehow cancels out the history of this country. You have a poster admitting his own father had access to a college education that was denied to fellow black soldiers but who doesn't acknowledge THAT'S privilege as if to do so somehow diminishes what his father did.

That's arrogance.

**** off.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

I wonder if she has any clue that there are more white people in poverty in this country than any other race. She should calculate their privilege as well

The funny thing about calculated privilege like this is it translates to not needing to give a shit about poor white people. They obviously deserve to be poor because they haven't taken advantage of their whiteness.

What are the percentages? Is there a higher PERCENTAGE of white people living in poverty? When you make up about half of a population, you're going to dominate most of the statistical categories just by sheer numbers.

I suspect you know that.