Does White Privilege Exist in the US

Before starting I would like to first thank my opponent for being willing to debate me. To start, I will mention that I did provide my definition for White Privilege in the description (I will also put it here so that other individuals notice it as well), which is defined a “White privilege refers to the unearned advantages afforded to people who are assumed, based largely on complexion and related physical features, to be of European ancestry.” (Rider). In addition to this, I will also definite racism as “the incitation of discrimination, hatred or violence towards a person or a group of persons because of their origin or their belonging, or not belonging, to a specific ethnic group or race” (Cornell), and individuals racism as “support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways” (Cornell). In addition to this I will also define institutional racism as the process by which racial oppression is imposed on subordinate racial groups by dominant racial groups through institutional channels” (California State University Northridge). The importance of defining these terms are important, because having White privilege doesn’t make someone racist, but racism is called to be the item that pollutes the atmosphere for white privilege to happen. (Salsbury.edu). To make my case I will provide a methodology to determine truth and several sub categories to make my point. Occasionally I will cite history, because my opponent and I will probably differ on how much racism impacts society.

To start, I will say that I am not claiming that there aren’t white individuals who work hard to obtain success. I start with this, because I know individuals who feel white privilege is an attack on how hard they work (I am a PhD student at the University of Southern Mississippi. That took hard work and I am still broke lol!) (Salsbury.edu). This debate is also not to say that minorities can not achieve success. We have seen minorities reach great levels of success in the U.S., but we even noticed this back during the time racism was more apparent (Givens, 2023). I mention this, because White Privilege does not mean this, but more so shows that there are advantages that white individuals have based on the color of their skin (Salsbury.edu). This of course is shown on multiple metrics.

To start, my method will focus on reliability as stated by Andy Field, which states “ which is whether an instrument can be interpreted consistently across different situations” (Field, 2018). In addition to this I will use a variety of different studies with different methodologies that are meant to get to causation (Myers et al., 2017). These methods reduce bias, because they are used in a variety of different fields such as biology, education, behavioral science, and medicine (Field, 2018; Myers et al., 2017) (I say this, because with this being a political topic, individuals do like to claim items through media outlets alone. I’m not claiming my opponent will lol!).

To start, most minorities are shown to be discriminated in the hiring process. This can be shown with multiple studies through different time periods. To start, from multiple studies dating back from 2003 and heading to our modern era, we see that minorities are 50% less likely to obtain a call back from jobs (Chicago booth; Quillan & Le, 2023). In addition to this we see that the wage gap between minorities and white people is giant, and is shown to be like this when factoring equal credentials (Berkeley).  Along with that the pay gap between minorities can be shown to possibly be discriminatory, because when we look closer into the data, we see that this difference is also shown when comparing highly educated individuals of both races, and individuals without degrees when comparing minorities with white people. To further the claim of racial discrimination between hiring practices, a meta analysis of 90 studies from 1985-2019 show hiring practices towards callbacks for jobs have remained the same, with most minority groups inside 6 different countries including the U.S. (Quillan & Le, 2023). With the scope of this study focusing on the U.S., I will focus primarily on the United States as much as possible. When reading this study viewing the U.S. only, it showed hiring practices with callbacks remained the same with white individuals receiving far more call backs than minorities, with the exception of this studies inability to predict hiring practices towards Asians, and Latin Americans (Quillan & Le, 2023). In addition to this, there was a major spike towards hiring practices with Muslims (Quillan & Le, 2023).

As shown by Berliner & Hermans, economic distribution can be cited as white privilege due to individuals in white family's being able to have better opportunities on average (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). This is typically shown in a significant way when we view data on how unevenly income distribution is shown (Pew research). One could obviously try and say that there are poor white people as well, but the system itself has been set up to disadvantage minorities since it was created. This can be shown with how slavery affected outcomes in the U.S., due to white people having access to more opportunities, which affects minorities due to white people being able to place money back for more generations compared to other minorities (Givens, 2023; Berliner & Hermans 2022).  This also matches with discriminatory hiring practices as well, that also affects this due to minorities being given less opportunities, even in our modern era. 

DEI, is something one may argue doesn’t affect white privilege, but I would argue that it does. Simply put, a study was conducted to show how minorities were affected within a workplace program due to hiring managers viewpoints towards certain political parties, especially involving Donald Trump (Rice et al., 2024). Minorities who worked under bosses that claimed to heavily support Trump (These individuals are ones who are very open about it), claimed to have experienced worse treatment when compared to when they were hired by more left leaning, or not as vocal hiring managers (Rice et al., 2024). I could argue how Trump is racist, with policy decisions and actions with how he did not reject the support of former KKK members and his call to remove DEI from various institutions and work places (Rice et al., 2024; Osterage, 2025). 

Most individuals would admit that slavery was a harmful practice, which hurt obtainment for success of minorities in the future. One can see my citations in relation to discriminatory hiring practices, but individuals such as African American Scholar Cater G. Woodson (The second African American to hold a PhD), mentioned that after slavery, minorities did not have skills to help them achieve success right after slavery (Woodson, 2018). With White individuals not going through this harsh practice in a wide spread manner, allowed more resources to be saved over a longer period of time. In history, we can see that opportunities have been taken from minorities throughout history from unfair racial practices, which lasted all the way through the 60s (Givens, 2023). An example of this would be unfair distribution of resources, through Plessy vs. Ferguson and has even been fought against after Brown vs. Board of education happened (Givens, 2023). Even after the fight to desegregate school happened, it was never successful which still impacts funding in the school systems (I will go more in detail later). From this, we see the same issues with underfunding, which came all the way back from separate but equal due to the way funds for schools are obtained. Schools obtain funds through local property tax, which means that minority schools have remained underfunded over time (Berliner & Hermans, 2022).

In the previous section I mentioned that minorities schools have remained underfunded, which is typically labeled as white individuals having a form of white privilege, due to this unfair issue dating back to the time severe racism was more prevalent (I would argue we are going backwards, which I will in later) (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). These unfair opportunities will continue to arise due to the school choice movement taking away funds from poor public schools, which will affect minorities the most (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). This can be proven, because our schools are becoming more segregated as a result of this movement, where schools that have primarily white students are funded more than schools with black students, which result in worse outcome for minorities (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Frankenburg et al., 2011). Worse outcomes for education for minorities would impact their ability to improve upon opportunities in the future (Frankeburg et al., 2011).  

Individuals who are minority often have their history covered up to a form of white washed history (Givens, 2023). This is so demonstrably true because we can see how minorities during slavery were forced to wear clothing that felt like pins sticking into someone’s skin, Jefferson saying that the first book a poem written by Phillis Wheatley did not happen through this author because she was black and not smart enough due to her skin color, and mistreatment of minorities trying to learn behind the slave masters back (Givens, 2023). Many didn’t know how cruel white individuals were during slavery and throughout history. Most people don’t know minorities were essential to the creation of public schools and how white people continued to run them out (Givens, 2023). This has implications today, because we still see white washed history and many individuals who are more extremist republicans try to make this white washing even worse. Examples of this is how Trump in his first term tried to create patriot education to further create racist ideals. To start Trump tried to take away the word slavery, and replace it with workers in this curriculum (Pene, 2020). One could see how examples of how this minimizes how horrid this practice was in the previous section based on Jarvis Givens book (Givens, 2023). The sad thing about this, is that this action resembles how the old school confederates, changed history books to make the civil war mainly about state rights, while slavery was downplayed (Pene, 2020). These textbooks in the south continued until 2018 (Pene, 2020). We can see how this has emboldened the movement of these more strongly conservative individuals, based on my previous sections and from the words of this author (Pene, 2020). We will also see this in my next section with the increase in hate crimes.

A statistical website shows that there has been a steady increase in hate crimes over the past decade. In 2023 there was a total of 11,800 hate crimes. There was a noticeable increase in violent crime towards Asian Americans between 2018-2020 with a “73 percent increase, from 161 reported cases in 2019 to 279 cases in 2020” (statista.com). This still pales in comparison to hate crimes on black individuals which resulted in “2,871 incidents in 2020, a 49 percent increase from 2019” during the same time period (statista.com). We can see that white privilege extends to this as well, because this is significantly different when compared to white individuals based on models presented bus statisticians such as Andy Field (Field, 2018). 

Now I am not going to make an argument from white privilege due to prison rates. I can prove racism does exist within the prison system, which will require me to share the statistics to set my argument up to show how racism exists. Remember based on one of my citations, racism is a precursor for white privilege so statistics should be shared more so for academic completion (Salabury.edu). My main argument will be based on qualitative data, that minorities are typically treated worse in the prison system, which would be issues that white individuals are less likely to experience (Anamma, 2018). Adding the quantitative data in as well will improve my reliability (John Hopkins). The prison rates for most minorities are disproportionate especially for black people. Other ethnic groups that are incarcerated at a higher rate than white people are Lantinix individuals, biracial individuals, and Native Americans (Libguides). The table on this page's site shows the top ten states with the highest incarnation rates, and if you view the table which is labeled as table 3, you can see that minorities make up triple the prison rates as white individuals. When viewing this nationwide, minorities are locked up 5 times more than individuals who are white (Libguides). To make my point with treatment in the system, the school to prison pipeline research shows that minorities who are locked up early on are likely to continue repeating this cycle (Anamma, 2018). In addition, this has kept being cycled through for generations which hurts opportunities for minorities. Along with this, we see that many of the issues that got these children locked up in the first case, were simple items that would not have gotten white children locked up for committing the same crime (Anamma, 2018). Additional issues with many of these punishments are that many  individuals of power ignore the situation these students are in (Annamma 2018). Examples of this in the literature are fleeing from abusive parents, joining gangs to be safe in rough neighborhood due to poverty, hitting their own siblings in foster care, or having to take care of younger siblings which causes missed school days/instances of worse things from schools (Annamma 2018). We see from this that many of these individuals become more likely to be criminals after having to go centers such as the ones cited in this book (Anamma, 2018). 

In this debate, so far I have used several different methods to reach causation that my opponent would have to argue against to claim white privilege doesn’t exist. First I cited studies using different research methodologies, which is important in research (Salisbury.edu). In addition to this I used different statistical methods to improve reliability “which is whether an instrument can be interpreted consistently across different situations.”, which even included multivariate testing (This is important, because multiple variables predict different things) (Field, 2018). Finally I mixed qualitative data with quantitative data, which gets to causation through helping interpret quantitative data through interviews and observations (John Hopkins; Campbell & Stanley 1959). Even though this is the end of my methodology section, I have also used multiple historical sources, which is acceptable to use in different research methodologies as well, even though it is not as strong of a predictor at times (Onzbugy & Frels, 2016). Along with using a robust methodology, I have cited a wealth of data, in which most will have to be countered to show white privilege doesn’t exist (Due to this focusing on reliability across multiple areas that link together). In conclusion I continue to thank my opponent, as I wait for his response.

Refrences 

Woodson, C. G. (2018). The Mis-education of the negro. Youcanprint.

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

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