Why Whites and Blacks Don’t See Eye to Eye on Race

The biggest news story of the summer was a Florida jury’s acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin.   86% percent of blacks disagreed with the jury’s verdict compared to only 30% of whites.[1] The outcome of this trial highlighted the racial divisions in this country. What is the reason for such racial division?  I believe it has to do with the lower standard of living that blacks enjoy.  White men make $44,512 per year compared to $33,956 for black men.[2] My goal in this paper is not to make a judgment on why blacks often have a lower standard of living than whites but rather to hypothesize that this disparity, as well as who is responsible for it, is the main reason for racial division.

For many whites, racism is a remnant of the past.  To them, racism ended with the passage of the 1968 voting rights act.   Only 16% of whites believe that blacks face a lot of discrimination today.[3] If anything, many whites view themselves on the short end of the stick when it comes to many modern day policies.  The biggest example of this would be affirmative action policies at United States colleges.  These policies, with the goal of increasing diversity, use race as a factor in the admissions process.  This results in certain groups such as blacks being able to get into school with lower test scores than whites.  Whites with higher test scores often find themselves not getting into the school of their choice, partly due to the color of their skin.  Since they believe they have not individually done anything to harm blacks, they see affirmative action as unfair and even racist.  This mindset has gained steam in politics as affirmative actions bans have been passed in every state they have been brought to a vote, except for Colorado.  Many other whites, especially white males are put on the defensive, as they believe they are being unfairly blamed for the world’s problem.  The word “white privilege” has been thrown around a lot lately.  This is another word that seems to irk many whites.  The University of Wisconsin is holding a white privilege conference next month (which is partly supported by taxpayer funds) that has the goal to “dismantle this system of white supremacy, white privilege and oppression.”[4] As stated above, most whites do not believe there is a lot of racial discrimination and to accuse them of being supremacists, privileged, and oppressors makes them agitated and they think of it as unfair attack on them.  Successful hard-working whites believe that this campaign degrades them and their hard work, while poor whites are outraged that they are considered “privileged”.   Whites often believe that they are unfairly being used as scapegoats for problems such as single motherhood, high crime rates, and inadequate education that affect the black community.  Overall, most whites believes that blacks are responsible for the problems they face.

Blacks however see a different picture.  46% of blacks believe that they face a lot of racial discrimination, including an additional 42% of blacks who believe they face some racial discrimination.  Many blacks attribute their lower standard of living as well as issues that affect the black community to poverty, which they perceive to be caused by racism.  Some blacks contend that even if most whites aren’t racist, the systems that society operates by often are.  For example, whites control most positions of power in society.  Most businessmen, politicians, and other people in power are white.  Many blacks believe the police are racist at worst or that the law disproportionately affects blacks at best.  For instant in my home state of Illinois, 15% of the population is black yet 77% of arrestees for drug offenses were black, even though drug use has been found to be roughly equal among races.[5] Even if society is largely not racist today, historical injustices, such as slavery and Jim Crow laws affects are still felt today.  Blacks blame their lower standard of living on anything from the effects of slavery, to institutional racism, to direct racism by individuals.  Blacks feel victimized by whites who flee their cities, the law that incarcerates them at higher rates than whites, and by society itself.

It should be noted that not all whites and all blacks agree with what is above.  There are plenty of whites who believe in “white privilege” as well as blacks who don’t believe they are still being victimized in one way or another by society.  It is hard to disagree with blacks who claim racism when one looks at their earnings, school choices, and arrest rates when compared to whites.  It is also hard to disagree with whites who despise affirmative action as well as the notion they are responsible for the plight of blacks.  Although it is unfair that blacks have suffered in the past (or continue to suffer today, based on your viewpoint,) from historical injustices it may not seem fair to lay the blame on whites of today, most of who are not racist.  The answer to reconciling our racial divisions it not as simple as “whites stop being racist” or “blacks take responsibility for the problems that plague your communities.”  I wish there was an easy answer to healing the racial divide in this country, but if there was, it would already be healed by now.