In 2025 it would be pretty rare for have no interactions with black people. But I’ll grant it’s possible and their presumptions might be based on Tik tok or tv/movies.
I think it’s pretty ridiculous to argue that racism has nothing to do with real experiences. It’s actually the main reason in my mind that racist people change their hearts and minds. They have good experiences that defy their prejudices.
Poor white people have no power, so if your argument is that these are the real racists, then it kind of dismantles your institutional racism narrative.
Percent of the population that were gifted homes by their grandparents has to be <1%. Very few get homes from their parents unless they die young or when the kids are in their 60s 70s. A main complaint from white kids of boomer parents is that they hoard their wealth and don’t share it when it would be most beneficial to them (in their 20s). Generational wealth passing down is really not that common among white Americans. I live in an affluent area and provably 5% of my social world benefited from wealth being passed down. Most of us will inherit wealth in our 60s when we really don’t need it.
Following your logic would then mean that the reason racism has ever been a problem in this country is because people had 'bad experiences' with black people. So all those white folks who lynched black people did so because there were black folks committing horrible acts worthy of those reactions. The reason the state of Oregon banned black people from living there was because all those lawmakers had bad experiences with black people. All the lawmakers who created the 2/3 rule did so because all those enslaved black people had done something to them. And all those Klan members were driven to that because of bad experiences they had. And in the 98% white town my child was called the N word in, it was because the perpetrators clearly had a 'bad experience' with a black person. What's odd about that, if racism is in fact mainly driven by personal experiences, is that you don't see that same hate and vitriol the other way. As much as you want to make the 'racism goes both ways' argument, the truth is that the facts don't bear that out in any meaningful way. We have centuries of evidence of institutional racism and 99.9% of it goes one way. If it was due to experiences we'd be flush with black hate groups and half the black people in this country would've been radicalized 50 years ago. So unless you're arguing that white people respond to their 'bad experiences' much differently than the scores of black people who've suffered from actual factual racism do, I'm curious as to what your reasoning is as to why racism is based on 'bad experiences'.
Also, I literally said poor white folks don't benefit the most from racism so there's no reason for you to create an argument and attach it to me as I stated my point clearly.
Regarding home ownership, that is the main way Americans build wealth. Millions of white GIs were allowed that opportunity while millions of black ones were denied that opportunity. That's the point and unless you're intentionally ignoring it, I think you understand. But in case it's confusing let a Harvard guy explain it:
SUMMERS: So how did home ownership become such a big part of the American dream? And how should Americans think about building wealth if they can't afford a home right now? We asked Chris Herbert. He's managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
CHRIS HERBERT: Well, homeownership has been a central way of building wealth, I would say, certainly all throughout the post-war period; the wake of World War II when the suburbs opened up. Although I would say importantly, it was not an avenue that was open to many people of color, particularly African Americans. And so while homeownership has long been an important source of wealth creation for whites, that hasn't been the case for Black Americans.
SUMMERS: Because you brought that up, I'd just like to ask you, do you have a sense or are you able to break down what the racial demographics of homeownership are today?
HERBERT: Well, today, about 73% of white households own their homes, where that rate is 43% for Black Americans. And so there's about a 30 percentage point gap in the homeownership rates between white and Black households. For Hispanics, the gap is somewhat smaller. Hispanics own homes at about a 47% rate. So the gap's a little bit smaller, but still substantial. So the difference between white households and Black and Hispanic households and the opportunities to own a home are substantial.
SUMMERS: What is it that is continuing to fuel the racial wealth gap when it comes to homeownership?
HERBERT: Well, one important piece of it is that historical pattern of owning and the fact that because people of color didn't get to own homes at the same rate in the '50s and '60s. And importantly, many times the pattern of racial segregation meant that people of color were living in neighborhoods that over time have been subject to disinvestment and not - have not appreciated as much - is that people - Black and Hispanic households today don't have as many parents who were homeowners. And that intergenerational transfer of wealth is an important means that people today are able to put down a down payment to be able to buy a home. So one big reason that we have such substantial gaps in homeownership today is it's a reflection of the significant gaps we had a generation ago.
