Is the USA Designed to Privilege White People?
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, Peter Boghossian asked five people to consider the claim, “The US is designed to privilege white people.” Peter was the only white person participating in the conversation.
There was widespread agreement with the claim among the participants. They cited various systems that participate in racism against blacks, including policing, the judicial and university system, and the overall way that resources are distributed. The participants were candid in their assessments of race relations and shared views on racial stereotypes, the sources of racial animosity, and the particular problem of “white women.”
At the end of the conversation, Peter asks the group how white people could alleviate the expressed grievances.
One of the participants said that he just wasn’t aware that blacks can become doctors and, essentially, that the system will be systemically racists until there are as many black doctors as white doctors (in terms of proportion to race percentages in society). Unstated is the fact that there are yawning academic gaps between whites (and Asians) on the one hand and blacks in the other hand in secondary school, and before that in middle school, and before that in elementary school, and before that when kids first start school. It is frustrating that these factors are glossed over as if they are irrelevant -- or don’t even exist at all. And, instead, it’s all caused by “systemic racism.”
Yes, it is good to listen, and all four of the black participants were very articulate, and held similar beliefs.
As for you, yourself, I felt that you held back, maybe pulled some punches, and did not do what you usually do with similar groups.
I don’t think this went as planned, or as you expected.
How many of these people were Americans? Tourists?