Disclaimer: I am speaking from a US perspective. As such, I'll be sharing information from the United States that may not apply to other countries like Japan for example.
So before we dive into this question, we have to establish what white privilege means. To make it easy, we could go with the wikipedia definition of it being "the societal privilege that benefits people whom society identifies as white in some countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances."
White privilege is a hot topic, and there are many people who have their own takes on it. I've seen a lot of people asking "what about black privilege?" "what about latino privilege?" etc. These questions are usually led into an attempt to get rid of the term white privilege altogether since every group could have privileges in certain circumstances.
I think in our definition it is important to look at the word "societal." Societal, as in large-scale structures and trends. These trends manifest in specific instances. However, that doesn't mean that specific instances of racial advantage and disadvantage lead to privilege. So yes, if you apply to a latino community center, you may be more likely to be chosen for the job if you are latino than if you are white non-latino. That doesn't mean, however, that latinos have privilege over white non-latinos in the grand scheme of things, however.
So, again, let's clarify. When talking about privilege, we are talking about general, societal issues (that manifest in specific instances) and not specific instances that aren't representative of large-scale trends and patterns.
So, back to the question... is white privilege a thing? Well, let's take a look at certain trends and see what we find.
Firstly, let's look at economics. After all, money is power and access to resources.
Huge wealth gaps exist between racial groups:
In fact, according to the Census bureau's current population data, for every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04.
If you look at the "How did this happen?" section of the linked article, you'll see a nice explanation. It lists policies such as jim crow laws and FHA programs:
"These polices resulted in 98% of home loans going to white families, from 1934 to 1962. Not only did the ability to purchase homes give whites the ability to accrue wealth, it also attracted new businesses to those neighborhoods, which increased property values and allowed those homeowners access to other wealth building vehicles like going to college. As a result, wealth in the white communities compounded and passed to future generations. "
Let's then, look at treatment by police. This is a pretty big topic today as well.
Police killings hit people of color the hardest.
According to the article, "The highest proportion of those killed was among Native Americans, who were killed by police at a rate of 7.8 per one million people, the researchers found. African-Americans died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while whites are killed at a rate of 2.9 per million."
It's no wonder why it's a national conversation. Many black families report having to have the "police talk" with children at a young age, a talk that tells children to try and avoid the police and comply no matter what in order to avoid unfavorable outcomes.
How about beauty? Well, this is a topic that has been studied and reported on by various people. There's an article
here that shows some of the effects on people of color, particularly black women, in living under Eurocentric (white) beauty standards in the United States.
How about love?
White men and Asian women are favored in dating apps.
Overall, black men and women get the lowest responses to their messages on dating apps.
We could go on and on...
So yes, white privilege does exist. Now, does it mean that white people are inherently evil simply for existing? Of course not. Does it mean that white people can't struggle and don't work for things? No. Does it mean that people of color can't achieve things if they try? It doesn't. It simply means that there is a structural advantage that white people have over others that applies to many circumstances. But awareness is the first step in solving a problem, so I think it's important to acknowledge the existence of white privilege if we intend to help make the country a more level paying field for people in the future.
Any trait you can think of will probably be advantageous in some situations and disadvantageous in others. Skin color may grant you more favor in some groups or less favor in others. However, ethnicity is a rather small factor compared to other sources of privilege or struggle. More significant factors include whether or not you are generally attractive, your level of athleticism, your intellectual ability, your economic status, and especially your immediate family background.
I agree that other factors are important such as immediate family background and attractiveness, but I think many times they are in fact intertwined with race. For example, attractiveness is largely defined by Eurocentric beauty standards. For women: light skin, straight hair, thin body, small nose, etc. There are lots of documentaries and articles out there about people's experiences (both internally and externally) in regards to eurocentric beauty standards that I could recommend. With the rise of the global marketplace too, we see an increase/start of things like skin bleaching, eating disorders, and self hatred in non-white communities upon the introduction of eurocentric beauty standards (Haiti, Lebanon, India, just to name a few countries).
In latin American communities, we have this toxic ideal called "Mejorar la Raza" which translates roughly to "advance the race." It's the idea of marrying someone whiter than you in an attempt to "make the family line better." Obviously I'm not an advocate for it but it's been pushed on me and my sisters by my own family and it's a phenomenon that's been brought to attention in large latino discourse.
Earlier I mentioned how economic disparities exist across race too. And while I agree that economic status perhaps has a larger impact on people's privilege than race alone with other things equal, it's important to acknowledge how they are related. If you're rich, you're far more likely to be white than black/latino. This also comes from structures in place that benefit whites over other groups, which causes more white people to have a better economic status as aided by white privilege. Examples include home ownership, generational wealth, businesses advancing in white communities, etc.
