Is white privilege real? To what extent?

[CapnAwesome]

Not in a legal sense. Some people seem to think that there is still a legal advantage to being white, which is stupid. But in a societal sense, I think that white privileged is definitely real.

There are tons of things that are easier being white that people don't even think about. Here is an example that probably nobody thinks about. Back when I was a serious hippy, I used to hitchhike all over the place. I used to think very frequently how those trips would be many many times harder and possibly more dangerous if I were black or really any other race. People off all races view white people as safer people. People would say 'oh this is just some happy hippy out on an adventure while he's young." I doubt that I would get the same reaction if I were black or Hispanic even from other blacks and hispanics. In fact hitching through American Indian reservations in the US, more middle class American Indians themselves would straight up tell me that they only would pick up a white hitchhiker, and not Native ones. I think it was Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson who said that even they felt some relief when they heard footsteps behind them and looked back and saw it was a white person.

While that is the experience that I'm more familiar with, I'm sure that it applies to other areas of people's lives.