Does White Privilege Exist in the US

I do want to again thank my opponent for replying and seeming to be well read. That will make for a good debate. For the most part I will take things in order, but I will first address some claims that my opponent makes with items he mentioned as being flawed. My opponent mentioned that most of my material is “subjective” or based highly on statistics that can be manipulated. My opponent’s logic in this is extremely flawed, which can be explained through multiple statistical scholars. Ironically him stating this has caused him to make numerous statistical errors of his own due to the way he is viewing statistics which will be explained throughout this reply. To start, statistics are used to interpret data to find new knowledge about information in science (Field, 2018; Myers et al., 2017). In addition to this, I’ve added qualitative studies, which focus on observations and interviews to help get to causation (Campbell & Stanley 1959; John Hopkins). We are also viewing different types of correlations and viewing confounding variables “other explanations of data”, which also get to causation (Myers et al., 2017; Field, 2018). Providing both adds extra context to information, which behavioral scientists use to get to causation (Field, 2018; Campbell & Stanley 1959; John Hopkins; Myers et al., 2017; Friedman, 2006). If my opponent is claiming that the information using this methodology is flawed, he would be arguing against how the majority of behavioral science is done (And many of the hard sciences as well). In addition, he claims that stats can be manipulated, which to my opponents credit it can in the wrong hands. The problem with this, is the peer review process, which most of this has gone through prevents this through the checks and balances of other individuals viewing your data, checking to make sure your analysis is robust, and ensuring that no harm is done to participants (Ruel et al., 2016). Unfortunately, my opponent has made data errors in his reply.  To conclude with this section, many of my opponent's arguments will center around a certain issue possibly not being true to due to white individuals making up more of the population. The problem with this, is that behavioral scientists and researchers have thought about this and have numerous corrections for it. Examples of this may be statistical weights, percentages, and adjustments such as different post hoc assessments (Field, 2018; Myers et al., 2017). Due to this claim being made a decent amount I will redirect the audience and my opponent to this section using a code name population correction applied here (Using this to save room for more in depth responses to other claims).

My opponent towards the end of this section mentioned that fewer call backs could be attributed to a smaller population size, which is answered in my intro through the population correction applied here code. Along with this I cited a meta-analysis of 90 research studies, which showed that this problem persists between multiple races, multiple countries, and hurts black people the most (Quillan & Le, 2023). Similar to this, one of my studies used a tactic of sending resumes based on names sounding white vs. black through certain cites with white vs. black names, which answers claims about education levels, choice of work, and ironically population size (Field, 2018; Chicago booth review). The 50% mentioned in the intro of the meta-analysis was also shown with the name data in the resume study (A meta-analysis is a study that conducts an analysis on 90 other research studies. Thats a lot of data) (Quillan & Lee, 2023; Chicago booth review). Additional data with a similar methodology that viewed applications showed similar results with hiring managers being “30 percent more likely to hire someone with a perceived white name, which increased an extra 25% when managers had to make a quick decision.” (Abel & Burger, 2023). In addition my opponent mentions career preferences, educational background, and job types minorities apply to is a huge part of the hiring process. To some degree he could have some information about this, which rings true, but each of my citations actually accounted for this. For example, I mentioned in my opening that how pay rates differed when viewing educational levels (Berkeley). This included minorities and white individuals with college degrees, and minorities and white individuals without college degrees (Berkley). The stats for this is unsettling as seen by uneducated white men making an average of “22,056 a year while black men made 17,984 a year” (Berkeley). To further my claims, pew research mentions that “Among full- and part-time workers in the U.S., blacks in 2015 earned just 75% as much as whites in median hourly earnings and women earned 83% as much as men.” (Pew research).

My opponent mentions that inequality has existed and effected multiple groups, even white individuals through different policy decision which is true to some extent. He also mentioned that even during slavery time, it was controlled by a small group of elites which I would even agree with. This argument has numerous problems though because multiple groups can be marginalized, with some individuals being marginalized worse than others (Anamma, 2018; Givens 2023). An example of this was shown in the school to prison pipeline qualitative study, which showed individuals with multiple discriminatory factors such as black women often faced worse discrimination (Anamma, 2018). When you add another instance to this like a LQBTQ woman of color it is even worse (Anamma, 2018). To relate this back to inequality with resources, one would note that two things can be true at the same time. An example of this is shown through Carter G. Woodson work, which mentioned that after slavery black people didn’t have skills to help them succeed (Woodson, 2018). This automatically puts them at a worse disadvantage over poor white people at the time, because they at least had the ability to make money pre slavery, all while minorities were in bondage (Woodson, 2018; Givens, 2023). Match this with my data about hiring practices, and pay rates makes this all more believable about generational wealth due to an early start, plus discrimination in hiring and pay rates. This gave white people an inherent easier start over minorities (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Similar to this, when education was first allowed to minorities it was only an education that was typically to a 2nd grade level, while most white people after a certain point were given a higher education compared to this, which also hindered there start (Givens, 2023) (More will be involved in the whitewashed history section). 

My opponent mentions that DEI is a terrible argument to make but seems to not understand the statistics and the surrounding data with the argument here. To start I will answer his easiest claim, which is white people make up the majority of the workforce, so they are more likely to face workplace discrimination. This is answered in my intro marked population correction applied here. In addition, there is additional data that goes with my claim which shows that “41% of black people report workplace discrimination, while only 8% of white people report it” (Pew research). To continue, DEI wasn’t just something involved in just the workplace, but something that is involved at universities, which Trump took away (Ostranger, 2025; education.edu; Rice et al., 2024). After his call to end DEI, numerous college institutions have taken this practice away, which adds additional merits to my claims (education.edu).

My opponent mentions items such as white people struggling with black people, that slavery didn’t benefit the majority of white people, and that various groups didn’t have fair access to resources. I actually addressed these claims in the Economic Section through time, with citations from various scholars to show that more than one group can be affected at a time, while also affecting one group heavily over others (Anamma, 2018; Woodson, 2018; Givens, 2023). This means I could even bite the bullet and agree with my opponent to some extent while still showing that my interpretation is more sound, due to two things being right at the same time. 

I am unsure if my opponent didn’t understand the arguments I was making, or he just misrepresented my arguments, but I will go with the more charitable option. To start, my opponent mentions Brown vs. Board desegregating, which did end forced segregation to an extent. What we have now is a semi by choice segregation, and a by resource segregation now due to schools being funded through local property tax (80% of school funding is through local property tax. This shows this is where the majority of school funding is from) (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Frankenburg et al., 2011; Lincolnist.edu). Due to some of my opponent's comments on funding being spread out, I will condense them first here before moving more towards the issue of segregation. With the mode of schools obtaining most of their money via local property tax, this means that minorities are way more likely to be at poor schools that are underfunded due to them being more likely to live in poorer areas of town (Berliner & Hermans 2022; Lincolnist.edu; Frankenburg, 2011, Huffman, 2018). Along with this vouchers, which my opponent mentioned actually is used to take funding away from that specific child’s public school, to then give it to a private or charter school (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Huffman, 2018). With knowing how schools are funded, this means that minorities schools that are less funded already, are more likely to be drained of resources far more than primarily white schools (Berliner & Hermans 2022; Huffman, 2018: Frankenburg, 2011). With this happening there is an increased risk of minority schools closing down, which has actually happened in many states (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Buras & the urban grassroots movement). This shows that there is a bit of a racial component, even though my opponent claims that there isn’t one. For me to further argue this, I will first mention that my opponent claims that students having the ability to “choose where they go”, actually causes more segregation and uneven resource distribution (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Frankenburg et al., 2011; Wilson; 2019; Monnarez et al., 2022). This is so demonstrably true, that most educational researchers would show that school choice has caused further segregation between races, when viewing things from a national view, a state view, a city view, and a geospatial view (Berliner & Hermans; Frankenburg et al.,2011; Monarrez et al., 2022). Now I will not quite make an argument that people shouldn’t have the right to choose an institution to go to, but more that the system itself is shown to hurt minorities. To start, I mentioned how schools are funded and have already shown the ability it has to hurt them through removing certain funds. To add to this, my opponent doesn’t know that vouchers often in private schools don’t pay for the whole tuition, which means that minorities can’t just transfer over there in many cases (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Similar to this, we also see that this also gives more money to these institutions, which funds primarily white schools more, while also hurting the family due to them still having to pay some out of pocket (Berliner & Hermans 2022). This obviously shows that this would further segregate people and hurt opportunities, which I cited through numerous studies earlier. Now Charter schools, which are free are shown to pull more minorities, but often pull individuals who aren’t as high of need, so this hurts schools by having poorer members left (This can vary due to there being all white charter schools, but typically those are segregated, in which those areas have majority white students in those charter, but the public school is mostly minority)(Berliner & Hermans 2022; Frankenburg et al., 2011; Wilson, 2019; Lee, 2018). This also hurts the Charter schools because they are often underfunded as well, and often close a lot, which hurts minorities more (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Frankenburg et al., 2011). My opponent mentions also that this doesn’t fit the description of legal segregation, which I would agree with, but some individuals have used this to try to further segregate people. An example of this is the Michigan Manik report mentioning that they felt that school choice was important because it brought schooling back to where it was before public schools, which just so happened to be before minorities were allowed to be educated (Berliner & Hermans, 2022) Now I won’t make the argument that all proponents of this system are using it for this, but it is concerning enough that law/policy institutions have felt that this could possibly cause some legal concern in the future (Huffman 2018 ; Berliner & Hermans 2022).  (I won’t say I fully agree, but it speaks volumes this is being debated). 

I have answered many of my opponents claims from here in my intro to show that stats when done through checks and balances is not manipulated to fit a conclusion, but my opponent mentioning exceptions to the rule is a little bit of faulty reasoning. He mentions that minorities could achieve success in numerous fields, and that undermines white privilege, which does not ring true for any time in history. For example, a citation I have been using a lot is Carter G. Woodson who was a black historian who taught in college, was the second African American to have a PhD, was the only African American to obtain a PhD while having been a slave previously, and taught at a University (Woodson, 2018; Givens 2023; Berliner & Hermans, 2022). In addition to this the first African American who obtained his PhD, produced one of the very first sociological studies, and lived around the time slavery was prevalent (Givens, 2023; Brandies.edu). This individual happened to be WEB Dubious (Givens, 2023). There have always been exceptions to the rule, but that doesn’t prove white privilege doesn’t exist, any more than a claim that racism and unequal opportunities didn’t exist during their day. 

To start, my opponent vastly misrepresented my position in this area, all while actually citing sources from scholars to try and prove his point on this issue, even though many of them happen to agree with me. I will start where he misrepresented me by saying that I said that it was an unknown fact that white people didn’t let minorities attend schools, which was never the claim. The claim was just a random fact in history, which is not taught, but is about how minorities created schools, and white people when they saw it, took it by force after Black people built that school (Givens, 2023). There are also positives in black history that are not typically taught in school, such as Black people being the first to domesticate certain animals, and being influential to the arts (Woodson, 2018). My opponent during this claim happens to cite WEB Dubois, who also happened to think history was whitewashed, and even stated people tried to ignore the true reason for the civil war (Brandies.edu; Dubois, 2017).In the actual book my opponent is citing from him Dubois actually says that how black reconstruction was taught was based on a lie, which even had some benefits to poor white people (Brandies.edu; Dubois, 2017) (This actually even furthers my claim in regard to unfair starts too). To continue Dubois book soul of black folk actually states that there was a concept of personal whiteness, and even in many works coined the term, walking on the color line/veil (Dubois, 2016; Givens, 2023). Carter G Woodson, who I have been citing a lot in this debate felt history was whitewashed and helped create black history week at the time, which Dubois himself felt was a great accomplishment due to how history is whitewashed (Brandieus.edu). In addition to my opponents claims with this, he also claims that history in most states is not whitewashed, it is typically in the south, and Trump’s failure to pass the patriotic education was shown that our country fought against whitewashing. The problem with this, is my opponent decided to cite the 1619 report, which is being used to combat such issues, but also states that I am right as well (FAMU.edu). This report and others who cite it actually state that 42 states in the U.S. have used restrictive means to reject teachings of minority education, and these same 42 states have introduced legislation to ban critical race theory (FAMU.edu). This is obviously more than just the south, and only 17 states have started to add curricula about racial topics (FAMU.edu). All while individuals in specific states, are trying to pass legislation that would prohibit teaching such items, and actually ban books about racial topics (FAMU.edu). This of course was even when Trump was out of office, and with him being back in office, while cutting the department of education, it seems all too likely that he will have his way with attacking racial items (msu.edu). My opponent mentions that he failed to pass patriot education, which I have somewhat addressed that this doesn’t mean much due to his DEI removal, but I will further my argument through additional information. My argument will stem from the addition of school choice will actually allow for additional whitewashing to happen, and with his removal of the department of education makes this all too likely (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). This argument stems from private schools being more likely to have textbooks that downplay slavery similar to patriotic education (Berliner & Hermans 2022). Even if we ignore DEI removal, it’s not secret Trump has wanted school choice, which would lead to this anyway in the private school sector due to them not being under the same rules as public schools (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). My opponent mentioning leftist words is something I may agree with because I actually dislike both sides over different issues. 

I will start from the bottom due to him saying white people having more individuals in prison due to it being easier to answer. My introduction, answers this through population correction here, which when viewing based on percentage shows that minorities are highly overrepresented (Harvard.edu). This actually stands true in regard to his comments with police brutality as well, due to uneven population sizes using the correction method mentioned. To move now in order, my opponent mentions that hate crimes are ignored with white people, yet cites a media outlet, in which researchers view media outlets as unreliable compared to studies and educational writings (Friedman, 2006). Along with this my opponent shows a study, (which I am thankful for), which states that white people underreport hate crimes against them. The concept of reliability is important in this domain because, most studies show they are underreported in both groups (Field, 2018; Zaykowsi, 2010). This study actually showed more underrepresentation in reporting with black people, but I wouldn’t generalize based on this one study, because research is about reliability (Field, 2018; Zaykowsi, 2010). We see still in many articles that hate crimes especially by heavy violent crime is 30-40% more likely to happen to a black person (Washington.edu).  In addition to this my opponent claims I am making baseless claims that minorities are treated worse in prisons and that issues are not ignored. Along with this he mentions that white individuals make up the majority of sentences which is answered in my intro through population correction applied here. The claims are not baseless, due to the fact I used different data types through prison rates, hate crimes, police brutality, and qualitative data on minorities in prison (Annama, 2018). To add to this, we see articles that state that minorities are likely to face more time for the same crime with white individuals, which adds quantitative data to the mix (gsu.edu; Harvard.edu). To cite a law paper from the University of Michigan, shows that there are disparities in sentencing rates in several areas such as Black people being more likely to face a minimum charge compared to white people, “7.5% for white arrestees and 12.4% for comparable black arrestees” (Rehavi & Starr, 2014). This further shows that minorities are more likely to be treated worse in prison (Rehavi & Starr, 2014). 

I have answered all my opponent's data claims in the intro and have stated how this is commonly used in behavioral science to get to causation, which answers claims about lack of evidence. He also claimed that I cited just a few articles to back up my claims, while I have a decent number of articles that are considered stronger and more scholarly than his, especially if this was in an education outlet (Fox news? Media outlets are horribly biased). Each of these citations view the construct of race, or a methodology to get to causation, which my opponent doesn't have. This section has also included law papers, but even those actually use statistics for interpretations. I would finally like to point out that he used scholars that totally disagree with him in the whitewashed history section, all while using them against claims of whitewashing.  Even if we take this as a misreading instead of a distortion of facts (which I am willing to be charitable to my opponent by assuming it was a misreading), this does possibly undermine my opponents claims, due to the possibility of incorrectly quoting items. My final point is my method is known to get to causation, which means my methodology is stronger to discern what is true in society (Myers et al., 2017; Field, 2018). The claim of this debate is does white privilege exist, and with my first source showing that racism is a precursor to affecting opportunities for minorities, each data set provided shows something important to the debate (salsbury.edu). To conclude with the majority of evidence on my side I want my opponent to answer, a few questions to keep us from talking past each other. (I do want to say none of these critiques are anything I hold against my opponent. Not many know the power of how to interpret data and trying to use a lot of sources to support a position is hard, when trying to remember what goes where. This is true if you have a certain debate more than once.)

What is your definition of evidence?

What is your standard of evidence to determine what is true?

How is statistics manipulated in research?

How would you determine if someone went out of bounds from a legal perspective?

Rehavi, M. M., & Starr, S. B. (2014). Racial disparity in federal criminal sentences. Journal of Political Economy, 122(6), 1320–1354. https://doi.org/10.1086/677255

Zaykowski, H. (2010). Racial disparities in hate crime reporting. Violence and Victims, 25(3), 378–394. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.25.3.378

Ostrager, A.-E., Jordan, J., & High, T. R. (2025, February 10). President Trump acts to roll back dei initiatives. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

Du Bois, W. E. B. (2017). Black Reconstruction in America.

Quillian, L., & Lee, J. J. (2023). Trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in hiring in six Western countries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(6). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212875120

Friedman, B. D. (2006). The research tool kit: Putting it all together. Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Abel, M., & Burger, R. (2023). Unpacking name-based race discrimination. SSRN Electronic Journal

Chicago Booth School of Business. (n.d.). https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/racial-bias-hiring

Huffman, A. A. (2018). Theneoliberal attack on the public education of students of color. Journal of Transformative Leadership& Policy Studies, 7(1), 13–14. https://doi.org/10.36851/jtlps.v7i1.494

Monarrez, T., Kisida, B., &Chingos, M. (2022). The effect of Charter Schools on school segregation. American EconomicJournal: Economic Policy, 14(1), 301–340. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20190682 

Wilson, E. K. (2019). Chartersand choice: The new white flight. SSRN Electronic Journal, 233284. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3353473

Ruel, E. E., Wagner, W. E., & Gillespie, B. J. (2016). The practice of survey research: Theory and applications. Sage.lack, Latinx people are overrepresented in prison, study says — Harvard Gazette

Experimental and quasi-experiment AL designs ... (n.d.). https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Campbell&Stanley-1959-Exptl&QuasiExptlDesignsForResearch.pdf

Why mixed methods?. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (n.d.). https://publichealth.jhu.edu/academics/academic-program-finder/training-grants/mixed-methods-research-training-program-for-the-health-sciences/about-the-program/why-mixed-methods

Rice, D. B., Young, N. C., Taylor, R. M., & Leonard, S. R. (2024). politics and race in the workplace: Understanding how and when trump‐supporting managers hinder black employees from thriving at work. Human Resource Management Journal, 35(1), 256–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12564

Lee, J. (2018).Understanding site selection of for-profit educational management organizationCharter Schools. Education PolicyAnalysis Archives, 26, 77. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3024

https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/diversity-and-inclusion/_files/anti-racism/what-is-white-privilege-really.pdf