Yes, Racism is very real. I do not get any special privileges because of my skin, but some people do! They get Affirmative Action.... employment opportunities and advancement because of their skin, and I get passed over! That's Racist! Admissions into Colleges is Racist in America! Even if you are more qualified apart from skin color, the bar is lower, and preference is given to people of darker shades of skin color!
I'm not sure you're up to date here. Many colleges have quietly dropped their affirmative action plans since they weren't working the way they thought they would. Others have kept them and are plagued with problems.
One problem with blacks in colleges, especially "elite" ones, is that white students often look at the blacks as being admitted only because they're black. That may or may not be true since some black students could have been admitted without the preference while others wouldn't be. Just ask Michelle Obama about it. She never felt comfortable at Princeton. I honestly don't know if she could have qualified on her own since I don't what her SAT score was; but she got in after her brother was admitted on a sports scholarship. So it's possible she was admitted because of the family connection or the black preference or perhaps she could qualified on her own. What I do know is that she was frustated there.
Welfare is easier to get if you are not White in America!
I would say more blacks (and other minorities) as a percent are on welfare than whites; but I wouldn't say it's because it's easier for them to get on. There are a variety of reasons for it with the biggest reason probably being the number of unwed mothers in various racial groups.
An analysis of out-of-wedlock births in the united states
Since 1970, out-of-wedlock birth rates have soared. In 1965, 24 percent of black infants and 3.1 percent of white infants were born to single mothers. By 1990 the rates had risen to 64 percent for black infants, 18 percent for whites. Every year about one million more children are born into fatherless families. If we have learned any policy lesson well over the past 25 years, it is that for children living in single-parent homes, the odds of living in poverty are great. The policy implications of the increase in out-of-wedlock births are staggering.
The welfare system is broken. I'm not arguing to be cruel to single mothers, but I sometimes think we may be making things too easy for them. I heard about a young black girl who wanted to move out of her parents' house. Her plan was to get pregnant so she could qualify for government assistance. That may sound crazy, maybe it is crazy; but it looked good to her. She didn't want a husband, she didn't really want a baby -- she just wanted out of her parent's house. Where she lived, she saw that young girls could get on welfare if they got pregnant. It seemed normal to her. Odds are her child will grow up with a similar outlook.
Things can be complicated. For example, I'd say many black members of Congress get elected because they run on promises to blacks to get them more this and more that. If they actually did it, the black people in their districts wouldn't have a reason to vote for them. If black voters never get real equality, the black politicians can keep getting elected by promising it. Mind now, when construction grants are made for black districts, most of the time the contracts go to white companies. The blacks get a building while the whites get the jobs and the profits. That is because the local black contractors aren't paying "union scale wages." The government would prefer to pay white companies more money when black companies would do it for less.
I have to endure an attitude that because I am White, I am evil; I supposedly get everything for free from some imaginary "White Privilege!" My family never owned slaves, and those ancestors that were here during the Civil war fought for the North against slavery.
Looking at the jobs I was refused because I was "White" (And yes! In the 1970's they would tell you that you were not the "right color" they needed to fulfill an Affirmative Action quota), and watching people of "color" get preferences I was never offered, has occurred all my life in every industry where I worked for someone... there is no such thing as "White Privilege," only "Racist Minority Privilege."
That program did some good in some places. It aroused antagonism in other places. There used to be a factory near me that made carpet. When they hired new people, the white workers would help the new hires if they were white -- if they were black, they'd tell them, "You are qualified for the job or you wouldn't have been hired so you don't need our help."
I grew up in a Northern mixed society where Whites were around 60-70% of the population. That percentage is changing in America every year to where the area I came from is about equal. Soon White's will be the minority in America... will I then be offered "Minority privilege?" When can White people in America be treated "more fairly"?
If the racial problems aren't fixed soon, you may soon find out what it's like to be in the minority. I am not joking. When you see black people rioting, burning cars and looting, they are expressing anger that they stifle when they are in situations where they're in the minority -- and they feel free to express it when they feel they outnumber the whites. Part of the "white anger" we see now is also fear of what people of color may do if and when they are in the majority.
As for living in the North? I'd say racism can be worse there than it is in the South. It's just hidden more, but the blacks in the big cities in the north probably have it worse than blacks living in the south.
