White privilege and racism

Re: “A racism double standard,” Aug. 14

I can sympathize with Jonah Goldberg’s column on the perceived double standard regarding racism in our society. Indeed, the common confusion over the concept of racism stems from its many forms.

As a university professor who has spent his career teaching about the emotionally-charged concepts of race and racism, I have observed that my students begin to grasp their complexity about midway through the term. Sociologists are most interested in the “institutionalized forms” of racism — which has to do with the people who historically, and currently, have the greatest power in shaping our economy and institutions.

In blunt terms, white men at the top have historically required the direct and/or tacit support of working-class and lowincome white men, doing so by conveying the idea that those in power will look after the interests of white men at the bottom — and there lies the deceit, as we see today with our current president.

Institutionalized racism endures by giving many working-class white men the notion of being “protected,” and to some degree entitled. It endures by getting all of us to focus on the tip of the iceberg, when what’s really important is the mass of ice beneath the surface.

Ricardo Stanton-Salazar

Valencia

Goldberg tries, but understates, the issue of today’s so-called “racism double standard” that pits left against right. Goldberg writes that the left can say what it wishes, but the right must constantly “check its privilege.”

What writers like Michael Dyson point out (“Tears We Cannot Stop”) is not that groups are making opposing claims about one or the other, and whatever these beliefs engender.

It is a far deeper problem of white privilege and its overwhelming domination of the wealth and influence in the Western world, and its destruction of cultures, peoples, ways of life, their properties and their beliefs.

The obviousness of white privilege easily leads to mistaking those who are damaged by it as inferior and unworthy. Their anger is justified, and they are reacting to the social consequences. But the hatred is not based on racial prejudice. It is the dominance of white privilege.

Ralph Mitchell

Monterey Park