Real talk about white privilege (or, if you prefer, black disadvantage...).

You don't consider yourself to be a racist, do you? Of course not. There are few in our society who do and those willing to self-identify as such are often thought of as "fringe elements" (despite their increasing ubiquity of late). There are few modern racists ... and yet racism is alive and, apparently, thriving in our society. How can this be the case?

My suspicion is that this topic is making many of you uncomfortable (if it hasn't already turned you off), but this is regrettable, as how are we supposed to address our challenges if we can't even discuss them? In the spirit of encouraging dialogue, I'm going to lay out a thesis - that racism in our society is still very much alive and growing and that in one of its manifestations, White Privilege (as reflected in the profound levels of Black disadvantage), is still profoundly negatively impactful - and encourage a tempered and informed dialogue.

Some of you may ask why we need to talk about it. Here's why: it's not only hurting our society socially and politically but also economically in a meaningful way, so addressing it successfully leaves us all better off.

(Please read the preceding and consider it again: beyond the moral imperative, the economic/business reason that this inequality must be addressed is that, collectively, solving it will benefit our entire society, not just the currently dispossessed.)

Yet, as a recently released McKinsey study makes crystal clear, a deft, multi-faceted and comprehensive response is necessary. The objective in raising and examining this issue in this ostensible business-focused medium is to encourage informed dialogue especially with respect to the economic (and, therefore, business) aspects of this challenge.

Notice that I've referred several times now to addressing the issues of continuing (and growing) inequality, racism and White Privilege as being a challenge rather than a problem. Let me be clear as to why: it's a challenge if we address them - with my objective being to encourage spirited and constructive dialogue - and a(n ever larger and more costly and debilitating) problem if we don't....

The key thing here is to understand two realities: first, that economic prosperity is not a zero-sum game ... but inequality is a natural consequence, especially in capitalist regimes, of differing natural resource endowments, including that of talent; second, we cannot observe huge levels of inequality and presume that they are solely the result of these naturally-occurring initial resource differences, as, in fact, the structures of our relations dramatically affect the outcomes that occur. (In other words, the rules of engagement matter ... a lot, it turns out.) It's imperative that we address the realities of the structures of our societies, markets, etc., so that we can understand who's favored by the status quo and who, if anyone, is disadvantaged by it.

In the case of America in this phase of its practice of capitalism, there are clearly structural advantages for some and impediments for others. For example, by virtually every measure of well-being, possessing wealth is better than not having it. Further, in addition to socioeconomic status, race is another impactful reality that favors some - in this case, disproportionately whites (and especially elite whites) - and disadvantages many, including, disproportionately, People of Color.

It's through this latter prism - that of white advantage and, specifically, Black disadvantage - that we'll examine our current challenge (or, really, predicament). Along the way, we'll address and observe the tremendous negative impacts of one of the largest of such difference makers: the continuing and pervasive reality of racism in our country.

How do we know that racism still exists in our society? Sad but true, this one's easy: in both of its major incarnations - individual/personal racism and collective/institutional racism - it's not only alive, well and evident but growing. Here are just a few examples (of many, many, many...):

Individual racism

• As detailed in recent news reports, a former candidate for the city council of Marysville, MI, expressed her desire that the community be kept as white as possible. (Had she been elected and begun to foment policies to reflect her views, we'd have to move this example to the institutional category.)

[Note: The key thing here is that it doesn't matter that you may not personally agree with this woman's views; it's imperative that you be conscious of the differential outcomes that her recommendations contain: whites, conceptually, would be advantaged by having exclusive access to her town and Blacks and other People of Color would be disadvantaged by having no such access. This is a textbook example of personal racism that could have become institutionalized.]

• As has been widely documented over time in numerous media reports, the current occupant of the White House routinely uses disparaging terms to describe both People of Color and the domestic and international environments from which they hail ... though no such consistently demeaning language is used for the persons or places associated with those who are white and/or of European descent. (Of course, there are examples so numerous of his using his office to foster institutional racism via policy that I've decided to omit them from the following category in the interest of brevity.)

Institutional racism

• Though Blacks and whites use drugs at roughly the same frequency, as the NAACP notes, Blacks are almost six (6) times more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for this usage, leading to disproportionately high involvement with the criminal justice system.
• Though crime is largely a reflection of proximity, we are informed about the plague of "Black-on-Black" crime far more often than its white-on-white counterpart, even though the prevalence of the two is similar (and distressingly too high). For example, according to Politifact.com, 90% of African-Americans are killed by other Blacks whereas 82% of whites are killed by other whites, which reflects that "By overwhelming percentages, whites tend to kill other whites. Similarly, blacks tend to kill other blacks. These trends have been observed for decades." So, again, why is it that we only hear about one of these trends?
• A recent research study identified that discrimination in hiring is just as bad now as it was in 1989 for African-Americans. (Just in case you thought that the election of an African-American president meant that all of us were better off/experiencing clear sailing on the professional front....)

Five examples: not exactly conclusive proof, right? But they're five of what easily could have been five hundred ... or five thousand....

But don't take my word for it, consider the perspective of the august, white-shoe consulting firm McKinsey, which recently released an analysis of income and wealth inequality and its increasingly negative impact on our national economy. Suffice it to say that the firm isn't exactly known as being the most liberal of bastions, so that it, too, has joined the dialogue suggests some important things, including that this societal analysis is related to and impactful on its more 'traditional' focus on organizational efficacy. In brief, equity matters, as it impacts our collective competitiveness, contribution and, thus, progress.

And, in fairness, McKinsey's been at it for a while now: four years ago, its groundbreaking report on the benefits of the successful practice of Diversity of a few years ago, effectively establishing the "business case" for this practice conclusively, has been particularly influential. And its follow-up research has confirmed and expanded upon its initial insights, further bolstering this still underappreciated business case. So, one could argue, McKinsey's focus on economic inequality as it pertains to African-Americans is an extension of its previous pioneering work.

What do we learn from its assessment of The economic impact of closing the racial wealth gap? Simply put, that ours is a profoundly inequitable society from an economic standpoint and that there are abundant and pervasive structures in place that reinforce this inequality. But the venerable firm doesn't stop there: it continues by pointing out that there is a real cost to all of us in American society, not just African-Americans who bear the brunt of it, which is why it should be addressed. In other words, helping African-Americans - and, by extension, others of the economically dispossessed - is beneficial not only to them but to our economy as a whole.

I urge you to read the report, but to establish the proof of the second part of my thesis - that white privilege is still profoundly negatively impactful - I'll offer a few thoughts and then let McKinsey's research prove the point in startling (if depressing) detail.

First, let's address the reality of White Privilege: it's very real and not really debatable as the data will show. For my purposes, I'd like to avoid the blame game that distracts us and note that most of its current beneficiaries probably are not particularly aware of their good fortune. Thus, I'm not surprised when so many push back so hard against the very concept.

Truth be told, the advantages that whiteness most often conveys are so ubiquitous as to represent what's normal in our society. It's only when we begin to compare and contrast the experiences of The Other - be they different because of race or ethnicity or national origin or even gender or generation, etc. - that we see the major differences clearly.

For example, on the eve of a national election next year, the subject of the Electoral College is receiving enhanced scrutiny. Yet, it's my guess that most Americans see this as a historical component of our election process and nothing more: there's always been an Electoral College, so what's the big deal? It's only when you broaden the perspective to consider its origin that you begin to appreciate its relation to our country's Original Sin - institutional racism in the form of chattel slavery - and therefore why increasing numbers of fellow citizens are questioning its legitimacy.

To use another example from our politics of late, the drives for voter ID in order to combat the effectively nonexistent problem of voter fraud have been proffered as having an intent to ensure the legitimacy of our elections … and yet, upon closer inspection, it's clear that their (intended and actual) effect is just the opposite: while millions of fellow citizens are subject to being disenfranchised because they don't have the proper ID (and many state and local governments have also begun to make this extremely difficult if not impossible to obtain), the reality is that those most adversely affected by this policy have a few things in common, including, among others, that they are disproportionately of Color.

Essentially, in Shelby County v. Holder, decided in 2013, the US Supreme Court materially weakened the protections of the Voting Rights Act passed almost a half-century before. After this, virtually exclusively in Republican-controlled states, voter ID campaigns sprung up. As the Brennan Center and others have pointed out, study after study demonstrates how little a problem alleged voter fraud really is: one examination by The Washington Post found that there were only 31 credible instances of potential voter fraud from elections in which more than 1 billion votes were cast - that's right, .00000003% of the votes cast were potentially fraudulent - but voter ID laws have the effect of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands and, potentially, millions according to the ACLU, fivethrityeight.com and others. These efforts have in no way been race-neutral as their proponents claim, as demonstrated by the adverse impacts that they've achieved. So, could these campaigns be added to the list of institutional racism examples above? I think so ... but, more importantly, they can certainly be added to the list of structural impediments that exacerbate inequality in our society.

Which brings us back to White Privilege: is it real and, if so, how do we know?

Utilizing the theme of (consistent and ubiquitous) disparate impacts, I'll suggest that the McKinsey racial wealth gap study is as conclusive as it is confounding. Simply put, there are myriad structural impediments that People of Color generally and African-Americans in particular face and are disadvantaged by every day of which their white counterparts are largely unaware.

In essence, I'm going to attempt to prove my thesis by contrast: not by listing numerous examples of White Privilege (again, of which its beneficiaries may or may not be aware) but by sharing, from this single source, the myriad examples of inequality that profoundly affect and afflict African-Americans either exclusively or disproportionately. The Privilege derives from the reality that few if any whites have to deal with these institutional barriers (while the vast majority of Blacks and other PoC do...).

Let me be clear: my goal in highlighting White Privilege is not to blame or shame but to educate, because, once aware, our white fellow citizens, colleagues, friends and, yes, family members will be compelled to join us in our efforts to eradicate the structural components of the economic inequality in our society - which, in reality, is but one front in the broader battle for Social Justice in American society - including in the realm of commerce/business (which is why this reflection is offered via this medium).

In sum, as many have observed, African-Americans didn’t create this situation, so it’s not theirs alone to fix. In other words, I'm asking that our efforts to make real the promises of the American Experiment are both a true reflection of our polity as well as of the successful and impactful practice of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. And this commitment to action must be an individual/personal one in addition to a collective one....

Accordingly, from a single source - McKinsey's new report on America's racial wealth gap - a partial listing of the examples of White Privilege - or, if you prefer, Black Disadvantage - that we must address together and immediately:

• (T)he growth in household wealth (defined as net worth - the net value of each family's liquid and illiquid assets and debts) has not been inclusive. … Indeed, the median white family had more than 10 times the wealth of the median black family in 2016. In fact, the racial wealth gap between black and white families grew from about $100,000 in 1992 to $154,000 in 2016 ... While median wealth for black families did not grow at all in real terms over that period. (p. 5)
• (A)lmost 70 percent of middle-class black children are likely to fall out of the middle class as adults. (p. 5)
• Other than its obvious negative impact on human development for black individuals and communities, the racial wealth gap also constrains the US economy as a whole. It is estimated that its dampening effect on consumption and investment will cost the US economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion between 2019 and 2028 - 4 to 6 percent of the projected GDP in 2028. (pp. 5-6)
• (African-Americans) face systemic and cumulative barriers on the road to wealth building due to discrimination, poverty, and a shortage of social connections (including role models and mentors in their communities)as both mechanisms and results of racial economic inequity. These adverse elements have helped maintain a persistent - and widening - wealth gap. (p. 6)
• Our analysis found that Black families' wealth building is constrained by unmet needs and obstacles across these dimensions (community context, family wealth, family income, and family savings) compared with white families.... (pp. 7-9)
• The 16 states that are home to 65 percent of the black residents in the United States perform below the national average on all categories of (economic) performance. This can compound the disadvantages black citizens face based on the communities that they live and work in. (p. 9)
• In particular, the states in which black residents are concentrated are well below the national average is an economic opportunity, employment, healthcare access, healthcare quality, public health, and access to broadband. At the neighborhood level, Black families are up to 4.6 times more likely than white and Hispanic families to live in areas of concentrated poverty. (p. 9)
• This kind of racialized disadvantage has historical roots. Institutional forces, such as the National Housing Act of 1934, contributed to structural racial and socioeconomic segregation. … The majority of black families have remained in these (redlined) neighborhoods. Such circumstances often make it more difficult for families to build wealth within a single generation, let alone across generations. (pp. 10-11)
• Black families begin with lower levels of wealth: only 8 percent of black families receive an inheritance, compared with 26 percent of white families. When an inheritance does come, it is 35 percent of the value of that of a white family. This difference in "starter" wealth also affects other components of the wealth-generation process: recent research shows that black college graduates' wealth actually declines after graduation because they are more likely than white college graduates to support their parents financially instead of the other way around. (p. 11)
• In addition to supporting family members financially, Black families are 1.3 times more likely than white families to have student debt, and they have balances that are 1.7 times higher than those of white families. … At scale, this dynamic means that black borrowers are 2.3 times more likely than white borrowers to default on student loans - this translates to roughly 1 out of every two undergraduate black students. (p. 11)
• Black consumers are 73 percent more likely than white consumers to lack a credit score. Black consumers also face discrimination in credit access based on where they live via a phenomenon called "credit redlining." (p. 11)
• A Federal Reserve Board study (using data from a major credit bureau) of more than 285,000 people found that consumers living in neighborhoods where white residents are predominant were more likely to get credit cards than consumers living in neighborhoods where black residents are predominant. These factors result in a credit-denial rate on loans (such as mortgages) that is twice the rate of those for white consumers. (pp. 11-12)
• But even when it comes to the most common way for Americans to hold wealth, only about 40 percent of black families own a home, compared with 73 percent of white families. When black families do own homes, their homes are less likely to appreciate in value - and they appreciate more slowly when they do. Neighborhood differences in the quality of homes can explain only part of this low rate of appreciation. Researchers posit that racial animus can account for the remaining difference in appreciation between black-owned and white-owned homes. (p. 12)
• As of 2016 … 67 percent of black Americans were invested in the stock market or mutual funds, compared with 86 percent of white Americans. … Black Americans must match white Americans' level of investment in securities before they can derive comparable benefits from these investments. (p. 12)
• Obstacles that reduce lifetime earning potential come in the form of poor school quality, differential treatment in the criminal-justice system, workplace discrimination, career selection, and a lack of role models who can guide professionals career advancement. (p. 12)
• Significantly, 45 percent of black children attend high-poverty schools (in which at least 75 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch), nearly 6 times the rate of white children. (p. 12)
• As a result, only 24 percent of the black population over the age of 25 holds a bachelor's degree or higher as of 2017 - ten percentage points lower than the comparable white population. (p. 12)
• Because of a combination of racial animus and early exposure to environments unfavorable for accumulating human capital .... 33 percent of the incarcerated population is black, almost triple the black citizens' share of the US population. Meanwhile the white citizens' share of inmates is half of their share of the general population. (p. 13)
• (B)lack men without criminal records are actually less likely to receive job interviews than are white men who have criminal records. (p. 13)
• Black workers also experience lower rates of professional advancement, as seen by the attrition of black professionals at each successive level of responsibility - and compensation - on the path from entry-level worker to executive. (p. 13)
• In addition, black workers are unemployed at twice the rate of white workers, a pattern that holds even when controlling for education, duration of unemployment, and reason for unemployment. The effect is large enough that black workers who hold bachelor's degrees experience a rate of unemployment similar to that of white workers with no college education. (p. 13)
• In aggregate, these factors constrain black families' ability to build human capital and earning power. (p. 13)
• Indeed, black employees are underrepresented in seven of the eight highest-paying industries and five of the eight fastest-growing industries. (p. 14)
• According to a survey conducted by LeanIn.org and McKinsey in October, 2018: white men begin their careers comprising 36% of entry-level professionals, while ending up as 68% of C-suite professionals; white women begin their careers comprising 31% of entry-level professionals, while ending up as 19% of C-suite professionals; black men begin their careers comprising 4% of entry-level professionals, while ending up as 2% of C-suite professionals; and black women begin their careers comprising 5% of entry-level professionals, while ending up as 1% of C-suite professionals. (p. 14)
• Significantly, black workers are underrepresented in self-directed, creative roles (such as software developer), which have lower-than-average automation potential, and overrepresented in supportive roles (such as truck driver), which have higher-than-average automation potential. (p. 14)
• Black families' earning power is constrained by socioeconomic factors as well as discrimination that affects black people in the United States. At the same time, black Americans who have additional minority identities, such as ones around gender, sexual orientation, health status, and disability, must contend with additional obstacles to wealth building. Black women are an instructive example of the ways in which intersecting disadvantages depress families' wealth: the median wealth of a single black woman is $200, compared with the median wealth of a single white man, which is $28,900, because of factors such as higher levels of debt and lower incomes. ... the dual effects of race and gender mean that black women are doubly affected. (p. 15)
• At the median, black men earn 74 percent as much as white men. For black women, their gender further constrains the earning power: they earn 89 percent as much as black men. This dual "wage penalty" means that the median black woman earns 65% as much as the median white man. (p. 15)
• Black women are especially underrepresented in senior-executive roles, despite making up a larger share of the entry-level population than black men do. In fact, black women are more likely than any other demographic group to experience microaggressions in the workplace, including having their experiences and expertise questioned, which has the effect of holding black women to higher levels of demonstrated competence. (pp. 15-16)
• Notably, due to more overt discrimination in the private sector, black women have become overrepresented in the public sector. These women forgo private-sector roles with higher earning potential for the relative stability of public-sector roles. However, even this state of affairs is changing as public-sector employment has contracted and funding has become more volatile, leaving many black women with fewer economic options. (p. 16)
• Black American women's economic experiences demonstrate that intersecting minority identities can intensify disadvantages. Any holistic solution to the racial wealth gap should consider addressing the effects of multiple interactive factors to serve a larger number of black Americans. (p. 16)
• As the work shifts due to automation, black Americans are likely to be disproportionately affected. (p. 17)
• (A) typical black family has only one-sixth the liquid savings of a white family. (p. 17)
• To begin with, it is more expensive to be a black family, which eats away at families' ability to save. (p. 17)
• In addition, 30 percent of black families spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. Black families are also twice as likely as white families to lack enough liquid savings to pay each month's expenses. These cost burdens have cascading effects on the lower levels of the economic ladder: prolonged difficulty affording monthly expenses makes evictions more likely. As a result, while black Americans make up 13 percent of the US population, they make up 40 percent of the homeless population. (pp. 17-18)
• Black families are underserved and overcharged by institutions that can provide the best channels for saving. Unsurprisingly, 30 percent of black families are underserved by their banks, and 17 percent are completely disconnected from the mainstream banking system because of a lack of assets and a lack of trust in financial institutions. (p. 18)
• (B)lack families are more likely than white families to be unemployed or employed part-time. This locks them out of the employment-linked benefits (such as healthcare and retirement-savings accounts) that can protect families from things like economic shocks resulting from poor health and that can help families build savings. In addition, other tax-linked benefits, such as mortgage deductions, are less accessible to black families because of racial gaps in homeownership. (p. 18)
• Mainstream financial institutions can help families accumulate wealth, and health insurance can help families avoid losing wealth by protecting them against unforeseen medical expenses. But 10.6 percent of black Americans are uninsured, compared with just 6.3 percent of white Americans. A lack of insurance contributes to worse health outcomes and makes black citizens less able to participate in the full-time workforce, which exposes families to financial hardship. Taken together, these factors make it difficult for black families to save over the long term. (p. 18)
• Black families face systemic, intersecting barriers that limit their wealth building. Left unchecked, these gaps could continue to grow and constrain the US economy, not just black families. The first step toward a cure is an accurate diagnosis, and the culprits behind the racial wealth gap are numerous. With the right targets in sight and a framework from which to address the challenge comprehensively, we can begin to identify the initiatives and policies that are most likely to give black families a boost. The country has over a trillion dollars to gain from the effort. (p. 19)

If you're thinking that this list is quite/too long, I'll offer two things: first, that I included many but not most of the study's findings (so African-Americans' experience is even more challenging than the preceding list conveys); and, second, a question: what does this tell you about the profundity and ubiquity of the structural barriers to African-Americans' full economic participation in our society and, by contrast, the degree of Privilege that whites enjoy at present (and have for time immemorial)?

P.S. If you’re still fighting acceptance of the concept of White Privilege, consider the following exercises:

• Making America Great Again – From the perspective of a Person of Color, to what period of American history would you (as a PoC) like to return?
• With which Person of Color whom you know personally would you be willing to trade places and live as Black or Latino, etc., for an extended period of time?
• Have you been a part of a group in which a racist or otherwise demeaning joke was told? What did you do? And what did your action or inaction accomplish? Now, assume that there was a Person of Color in such a group – does or should your behavior change?
• Envision walking into a room in which all of the other folks assembled are also white – do you even notice/does this engender a particular awareness or reaction? Now pretend that you’ve entered a room where everyone else is of Color (and you’re the only white person) – do you notice/does this engender a particular reaction? How is this experience different from the one you had when walking into the first (all-white) room? Finally, pretend for a moment that you are Person of Color and you enter a room in which you are the only one: do you notice/does this engender a reaction? How does this experience compare and contrast with that of entering the first two rooms? What has the frequency of each of these scenarios been in your experience? What does this tell you about what's 'normal' (and privileged) in our society?

P.P.S. In the spirit of encouraging you to educate yourself more on this issue, here are a few sources that you may find enlightening and motivational:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_inequality_in_the_United_States
• https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/views-of-racial-inequality/
• https://inequality.org/facts/racial-inequality/
• https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/the-roots-of-economic-inequality
• https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-fair-is-american-society
• https://wtgrantfoundation.org/library/uploads/2019/01/A-New-Agenda-for-Eliminating-Racial-Inequality-in-the-United-States_WTG-Digest-2018.pdf
• https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/
• https://en.unesco.org/inclusivepolicylab/sites/default/files/analytics/document/2019/4/wssr_2016_chap_20.pdf
• https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/2019-economic-commentaries/ec-201903-what-is-behind-the-persistence-of-the-racial-wealth-gap.aspx
• https://ips-dc.org/racial-wealth-divide-2019/

(Photo credits: https://www.scoop.it/topic/picture-quotes-and-proverbs/p/3998426050/2013/03/16/the-way-we-choose-to-see-the-world-creates-the-world-we-see-barry-neil-kaufman; https://www.azquotes.com/quote/510486; https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/the-economic-impact-of-closing-the-racial-wealth-gap?cid=soc-web&fbclid=IwAR35AFRjayJgEHbDyyWNachqDs4Nht_P12Mux9E4nJf2zEqh8MB34fvErRk; https://www.scoopwhoop.com/Shiva-Trilogy-Quotes/; https://www.azquotes.com/author/21514-Grace_Lee_Boggs; https://www.passiton.com/inspirational-quotes/3809-never-doubt-that-a-small-group-of-thoughtful; https://www.amazon.com/George-Bernard-Shaw-Creativity-Ambition/dp/B07DWR49VK)