The idea that after centuries of white ownership of darker skinned slaves, white privilege would somehow magically dissipate from the psyche of those, especially from the civil war confederate states, is ludicrous. These white slave holders had their slaves taken from them as well as their right to have them. They did not wake up one morning and realize that slavery was inhumane and dishonorable as a human activity. They were ordered to release their slaves at gunpoint through a hard fought national war. So now 150 years later the sting of having their "property" taken from them is still a smoldering anger unchanged. Certainly the time that has passed, along with moral, legal and biological considerations, have given rise to the fact that we are all the same except for the obvious innocuous skin pigmentation variance to allow for many to have evolved past the idea that slavery was/is a right. But too many have not evolved to the idea that slavery or second class citizenship isn't a right given to the white race as an advantage to determine for others. For me the reasoning is complex. Many still feel that by admitting or accepting equality for all they would leave themselves, through their ancestors, vulnerable to reprisal for their nefarious acts. Others are not convinced that the darker races are enlightened enough to be on equal footing with them. Regardless of their fear based reasoning, they are empowered by the idea that white privilege is theirs and that advantage is to be protected at all costs. The psychology it takes to hold an obviously disproved paradigm like white privilege is rooted in selfishness and greed. What kind of person would look at another and see property instead of individual possibility? The current logic of the conservative majority on our US Supreme Court would like to tell us that prejudice and bias are not a factor anymore in our society yet all indications of that being true are rebutted by reality.
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