Tuesday, July 27, 2010
On Webb’s “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege”
Words Larry Yates
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 10:24 am
In an age when so many politicians hardly dare think a thought that some fundraiser has not endorsed, the Junior Senator from our state of Virginia, Jim Webb, stands out as not afraid to say what he thinks.
He cares deeply about the frontline serviceman and servicewoman, and he certainly makes that known. Recently, he has spoken up on the catastrophe that is our “justice system,” and I think he might actually spur some action with this bold initiative from an unexpected direction.
But anyone who speaks passionately and on many topics will sometimes wander onto shaky ground. This is what he has done, I believe, in his comments on affirmative action and related issues in his Wall Street Journal essay “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege.”
Senator Webb.
Jim Webb is a passionate man. Aside from his military experience, his passion for service clearly grows out of his experiences in Southwest Virginia and his Scots-Irish background.
I first visited Southwest Virginia in 1981, and have been back many times, including during the hotly contested Pittston coal strike of 1989. There are many striking things about the region, aside from its amazing physical beauty. The coal industry has visibly built it up and brought it down. Tiny communities and old traditions still survive back in the hollers. But as an organizer working around the Commonwealth, the first thing I noticed was a society that was, despite hard class issues, tightly knit by longstanding kin and communal connections – and almost undivided by race.
Southwest Virginia is the whitest region of Virginia. This does not mean it is the most prejudiced region. It certainly does not mean that Senator Webb is racially prejudiced, especially given his interracial marriage and his military and public service. But it does mean that his emotional and political starting point is that of white working people who, on a day to day basis, do not interact with African-Americans.
Working statewide, and having been a blue-collar worker in Richmond in the 1970s, I can testify that working-class whites in other parts of Virginia do in fact have privileges in relation to African-Americans, whether we are talking about government services, access to jobs, or financing to buy and maintain a home.
Obviously, though, I am not going to make my case by a personal experience contest with Senator Webb. But I can make my case by doing what the Senator barely did – focusing on the facts.
Throughout the article, Senator Webb made assertions with no facts to back them up.
The most striking example is his statement that “a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers.” He fails to back up what he must consider self-evident. Unfortunately, this statement is simply wrong.
In a 2002 review of available scientific and polling sources, University of Maryland sociologist Fred Pincus highlighted the following facts:
- While half or more of all white males believe that their group experiences discrimination, only 2-13% report personally experiencing it, and only 2 to 5% of all discrimination complaints are filed by whites claiming racial discrimination or by males claiming gender discrimination.
- Of those complaints which make it through the process to disposition, “reverse discrimination” claims are much less likely to be upheld. In one study, one third of these claims were upheld, while 58% of “regular” cases were upheld. In 1994, only 1% of reverse discrimination cases filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission were deemed credible.
- Prof. Pincus ultimately suggests that a small number — less than 5% — of white males do experience some kind of race or gender based discrimination, and notes that of those, many “could make use of various antidiscrimination policies and laws in order to seek justice.”
LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act.
In other words, Senator Webb has built his thesis on very shaky ground. “Reverse discrimination,” despite its media glamour, is a very minor phenomenon, and that part of it attributable to government policy must be even smaller.
On the other hand, he minimizes discrimination that does exist, stating that “Those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government…” It is true that immigrants arriving after the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act should not have experienced de jure discrimination. But does he really believe that immigrant people of color have not experienced de facto discrimination in services or other government actions? This leaves out, of course, discrimination by private actors, which was the main focus of most of the civil rights laws. The fact that, if discriminated against by their local merchants, landlords, and employers, a recent immigrant can come to the government and have an equal right to complain is hardly an indicator of equal status with white neighbors.
Even more importantly, Senator Webb fails to make his case that the problem that affirmative action sought to solve has been dealt with – that there is equality of status today between African-Americans and whites. He does make a solid case that many white groups are as limited in formal education as African-Americans. But he does not even mention wages, incomes, or the most important economic status determinant, family wealth.
My father grew up in rural Georgia. During the Great Depression, his father mortgaged his mules; they were apparently worth more than his acreage. But that 120 or so acres stayed in the family – unlike in many systematically looted African-American families – and my father recently sold his one-sixth share for a substantial amount. With the help of the G.I. bill and FHA lending, both resources much less available to African-Americans and other dark-skinned minorities, my father in the meantime had a professional career, and gave me an upper middle class upbringing. In other words, white privilege played a critical role in the southern rural side of my family history.
What path to equality? (Photo | Rick Dikeman)
Wealth matters, and the difference between white and black wealth is large and well-documented.
- The Institute on Assets and Social Policy, in a May 2010 report, found that the dollar savings gap between whites and African-Americans had increased from $20,000 in 1984 to $95,000 in 2007.
- United for a Fair Economy, in its 2010 report on the State of the Dream, found that African-Americans had ten cents of net worth for every dollar of white net worth.
I believe that Senator Webb’s intention, in writing this article, was to make the case that the great economic disparities in this country do not only affect African-Americans, but that many whites in this country receive disparate treatment. This is not only an incontrovertible fact, but has been long recognized. For example, by the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commission, an entity that provides (far from adequate) development resources to a predominantly white area that has long been exploited economically.
We need justice for every person in the United States who has been denied opportunity, regardless of color or ethnicity or any other extraneous factor. Jim Webb is passionately in pursuit of this goal, as indicated by his recently being given the Andrew Jackson Presidential Award, given to those “who have demonstrated in their civic lives a dedication to the furtherance of our American democracy and to sound governance principles.”
But I believe, in common with social justice leaders from the AFL-CIO to the Catholic Church, that continuing to act affirmatively to end racism is not a distraction from, but an essential part of “the furtherance of our American democracy.” After all, the southern Freedom Movement, though it was initially seen as anti-white, is now universally understood to have brought economic progress to the South for everyone.
We are a great and complex nation, and we can recognize, and work on, more than one problem at a time. I have confidence that Senator Webb will correct the misstep he made in this article. He will come to understand that he need not deny ongoing racism, or stand in the way of the work against it, in order to advance the legitimate concerns he has about white working class people held back because of their class, region, or other factors.
""
COMMENTS
Facebook comments:
ABOUT THE WRITER
Larry Yates’ social justice and anti-racist commitment began in the mid-1960s working against housing segregation in Virginia’s Washington suburbs. While at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Larry was the first national organizer of tenants in at-risk privately owned assisted housing, and an early user of e-mail for organizing. He also served as the Grassroots Organizing Mentor at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, as founding Executive Director of the Virginia Housing Coalition, and most recently as Shenandoah Valley Organizer for the Virginia Organizing Project, a position he left in June 2010.
Larry’s other writing on race and related issues includes a chapter on the history of housing organizing is in A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda, his response to David Horowitz's attacks on reparations for slavery in The Debtors, published by Caucasians United for Emancipation and Reparations and a chapter in Accountability and White Anti-Racist Organizing: Stories From Our Work, to be published this fall by Crandall, Dostie and Douglass. He and his wife Carol moved to Winchester, Virginia in 2009. Larry previously lived in Richmond, the Washington suburbs and the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Larry belongs to the National Writers Union, the NAACP, and the National Organizers Alliance. His personal website is www.user.shentel.net/llyates.
Other posts by Larry Yates.
Other posts by Larry Yates.
RELATED POSTS
More Opinion Posts
RSS
Great article. I am very disappointed in Webb, but feel a little more comfortable supporting him for his other efforts (such as prison reform and telling Bush to fuck off when asked about his son). Also happy to be armed with citable information next time I get into one of those stupid debates with dumb friends who’ve been duped into fearing “reverse racism”. There should be no passive attitude towards inequality in any aspect of political thought. Ever.
The irony of a “”Andrew Jackson Presidential Award” given for those “who have demonstrated in their civic lives a dedication to the furtherance of our American democracy and to sound governance principles” is mind-boggling. Not because he got it, but because it is named after the mastermind behind the “Indian Removal Act”. Nothing says diversity and “sound governance principles” like the Trail of Tears.
Wow this is such a bad article.
First of all, the author doesn’t actually refute any of Webb’s points; he just makes assertions against them. For example, Webb says, “those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government, and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs.” Yates counters with “But does he really believe that immigrant people of color have not experienced de facto discrimination in services or other government actions?” Yes, he does. You can’t refute an argument with an incredulous question. There is no evidence the government systematically discriminated against immigrants post-1965.
Secondly, Yates argues against a straw-man. Webb isn’t arguing that ALL whites have suffered discrimination; he is only arguing that poor whites have suffered discrimination. Yates does not provide any evidence to refute this fact, which he can’t, because it’s true. In fact, Yates even accepts that poor whites have a hard go, but he spends about a sentence on that piddling point, which is actually the whole basis of Webb’s article. In reality, affirmative action programs don’t affect rich whites, but they pretty much starve out poor whites (this is part of the reason they are becoming so radicalized). See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/opinion/19douthat.html?_r=1&ref=rossdouthat. Secondly, Yates is responding to an argument that Webb didn’t make. Webb never argued that whites are discriminated against in day to day dealing with civilian actors, but in affirmative action programs administered by the government. None of the statistics that Yates presents talk about affirmative action programs administered by the government.
Lastly, Yates talks in platitudes like most liberals do. He talks about “justice,” which he never defines. Apparently, he believes that discriminating against people because of their race is justice. He also says that affirmative action’s goal is to bring about an “equality of status” between whites and blacks. What does that mean? If equality of status he means equality of property that goes against what America is about. America is all about giving people equal opportunities, not guaranteeing equal outcomes. I am not suggesting that blacks and whites get equal opportunities right now, but I am suggesting that the problems of poor whites should not be swept under the rug so easily.
I agree with many of the points that Yates makes in this fine article. When I read Webb’s Wall Street Journal article, prompted by a column in thegrio.com, I was really taken aback by his ultimate conclusion that affirmative action and related progams should end. I have a really, really difficult time believing that any significant portion of white males suffer any kind of credible racial discrimation by Affirmative Action programs. And there is no “credible” evidence that even suggests that they do. Affirmative Action programs are simply a safeguard to ensure a requisite amount of equal access for people of color and women, in response to decades of clear discrimation, most often at the hands of white men. Funny then, that now some white men feel oppressed, when the large majority of power in this country is still clearly held by elite white men. Besides, no intelligent person has ever claimed that being born into poverty doesn’t present numerous obstacles, regardless of race. But to suggest that working class whites don’t have the benefit of white privilege in this country, is simply a croc of bull. Try being poor and black for a day.
Larry,
First and foremost, thank you for sharing your perspective here. After reading Webb’s full opinion article and your own, I take a number of good thoughts from each. I registered mild disappointment, though, because Webb’s article fails to address some issues surrounding “the white privilege” just as yours ignores legitimate issues raised by Webb. As is so often the case, people seem to be talking across one another. Is this progress?
For example, you write: “Webb fails to make his case that the problem that affirmative action sought to solve has been dealt with.” My read is very different; I don’t see where Webb makes this claim. Webb’s central argument is much more about white people, very specifically southern, protestant, poor, white people, whom he claims have suffered economically at about the same rate as black people. What are your feelings about this specific notion? Can this be untangled from the issue of discrimination, which Webb completely ignores, or have they truly grown together?
I believe race to be a central, defining issue throughout American history, and in the way we’ve addressed it, uniquely American. So let’s keep talking about it. And not to give ourselves pats on the back for deep-seated feelings, but everyone sitting at the table needs to acknowledge that differing perspectives can be mutually valid.
I know this wasn’t ever a central point for either article, but I take issue with Webb’s claim that Baptists and Catholics are ‘ethnic’ groups within Whites, comparable to Black people. He fails to account for the fact that there are a lot of Baptist churches in poor places (because of history and because of how the denomination is organized), whereas Catholic churches tend to be in larger, and thus generally wealthier places. Denomination is not an ethnic group, and not at all comparable to race.
An ethnic group is a group of people that identify with each other through a shared culture, language, history, and often religion. Under that definition, its proper to call white Catholics and white Baptists different ethnic groups because they have had very different histories and have very different cultures. Just because the color of their skin is the same does not mean they are the same ethnic group.
There is a deep divide between denominations in the U.S. It doesn’t come out much in the media, but there is a clear class-based difference between Baptists and Episcopalians, etc… Up until the 50′s Catholics were discriminated against in many places in the U.S. A Baptist black person and white person may share more in common than a Catholic white person and a Baptist white person.
A couple issues with your piece.
First, you seem to think that Webb’s opinion piece was about ending “reverse discrimination.” While alot on the media has jumped on this bandwagon Webb is actually arguing for programs that can help disadvantaged African Americans, instead of a general set of programs that treat all ethnic (read-different colored skin) groups alike-regardless of any historical or present racism.
Second, your conclusion states “He will come to understand that he need not deny ongoing racism, or stand in the way of the work against it, in order to advance the legitimate concerns he has about white working class people held back because of their class, region, or other factors.”
Deny ongoing racism? Ok, I read and reread Webb’s piece and never saw a denial of ongoing racism. What Webb seemed to be saying was that affirmative action, aimed at helping African Americans overcome the institutional and cultural hinderances has expanded so far beyond it’s original intent that those who have been subjected to prevelant and systematic racism no longer recieve the assistance that the law was intended to afford.
The other arguments, that there are systematic disadvantages amongst some white populations in the United States and that affirmitive action laws assist some people groups that didn’t/aren’t suffering from the same racism as African Americans.
Sure, he doesn’t use a lot of numbers or facts to back up his claims. Such is life when writing an opinion piece and not a feature length article.
What I hope Webb’s article achieves is a constructive talk about race and overcoming the institutional effects of centuries of codified racism. What I hope doesn’t occour is a bunch of scared liberals running away from Webb because they are afraid that he is a white racist who is trying to deny racism exists and “put down the black man” (which seems to be what a lot of people are reading into his piece).