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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not saying these things don't happen, but this is an assumption. For example: I am a white woman. I have received a few tickets in my time--including one for a uturn when I was eight months pregnant and the sign had just been placed there after people had been doing uturns there for years. I was not given a "bye." I have never been given a bye on traffic tickets, although I am a careful driver and have only been given a few. I have a grown white son who received a couple of tickets when he was still at home. He is a polite young man--but, no bye.

As for the goldfish in the store. No one should open a bag in the store--black or white. I don't say anything to others that do that--but, I always wonder if they intend to pay. [/quote]

I'm the PP who posted the examples and I based it on real experiences I know of. Of course not every white person gets leniency from a judge. Of course not every black person is questioned about a robbery when stopped for a tail light burnt out! This was just some generalized examples based on real experiences to explain what white privilege is, especially since the Irish PP doesn't get it.

To all of the posters who say that a white person should just get out of the way, that they are making it about themselves - that's BS! It will take every segment of society to fix our society. Go ahead and discourage the white people that want to take action and see what happens - only the racist voices will be heard. How will that fix anything? 
[/quote]
NP here. To the first PP...if a white person (or any would-be ally) wants to know what they can do, how about stop telling POC that they are wrong and really they are not treated any worse than anyone else, and just listen and try to understand first. I'm an Asian-American who also hasn't really experienced any leniency from a traffic cop, nonetheless it doesn't make me incapable of understanding that "Driving while black" is a thing. In fact, it can be a terrifying and potentially deadly thing. I have never felt terrified for my life when I was pulled over for a traffic violation. I have never been questioned about a crime that there's basically no evidence I was associated with while a police officer asked for my license and registration. If your takeaway from the PP's examples is that you also get traffic tickets, I don't know what to say.

Honestly, the discourse in the past few days has been fascinating in a not-good way. It makes me realize that there's a more fundamental problem in this country, which is that most people do not understand structural racism and its pernicious impacts. But, because they have strong incentives not to understand it, I don't know how you move forward. You can produce statistics [i]ad nauseum[/i] about how black people are treated differently be LE (here's a good round up with context: https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21275507/minneapolis-george-floyd-protests-police-violence) and people will point out that there are higher incidences of violent crime in black communities rather than wonder why that is the case and how growing up with police officers who treat you like the enemy rightt from childhood might contribute to that. You can share parallel, real world examples of how subtle differences in treatment can add up over time, and people will nitpick examples or jump into comparing with their own experience.

This happens with people who have privilege they don't want to admit all the time. I'm a woman working in tech who is frequently the only woman in a meeting, and I can tell you I've seen and heard just about everything. A male colleague of mine recently sent me an article that contained a (to him) shocking statistic about how few women are in tech and made a comment about how he worries since his daughter wants to be an engineer. I had barely finished giving him one example about how frequently my ideas are dismissed (or just ignored) until a male colleague says the same thing 2 minutes later before he told me that he was sure every man has experienced that at one time or another.

If you want to do something useful, start by just listening. Resist the urge, at all costs, to respond with anything other than statements that indicate you've heard them.[/quote]

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