I’ll respond once more here, Matt, and then move on. First off, who ever said anything about white guilt? I feel none. It seems to me that the only people feeling and talking about white guilt are those who are either angry or timid about taking responsibility for social systems from which they benefit. The thing is, we are all social creators — no part of human culture emerged from anything but… humans! So, we can fix issues when we see them.

If you think the past doesn’t influence present opportunities, dig a bit deeper. I’ll give you one example among many. College attendance (and how it’s connected historically to home ownership). So, just thinking about white people now, sure, anyone can go to college, in most states this is true even if you didn’t do well in high school, there are community colleges if a person’s willing for some remedial education. And still, it’s far more likely for people of all races to attend college if they have parents able to support them financially. This is especially true as even state universities increase tuitions nationwide. Yes, heroic examples exist “homeless guy attends Harvard” but they’re not bloody likely. Family support = college opportunity most of the time. This is part of why the GI Bill did so much to level college attendance opportunities for poorer folks who used it.

Okay, so the majority of parents who can support (and even pay for) their kids to go to college are using home equity to do so. Often, by the time a child is in college, the parents are of an age to have some equity in their home. A bit of ease in the family budget, or a pathway to a loan. Super! And it’s even more likely they’re capable if there has been an inheritance (even a modest one, say, from the grandparents simply owning THEIR own home). Home ownership is the biggest way that most Americans accumulate wealth and it shows in their kids’ college attendance.

So, that’s just thinking about economic opportunities for white people But now let’s think about ALL Americans. My white grandparents were able to buy a house after WWII because of the dawn of FHA 30 year mortgages (how most people still buy houses). Yes, they worked hard and scrimped and saved and strategized, but here’s the tricky bit. They were given the OPPORTUNITY to do so. When we talk about history, we often hide stories about privilege in stories about hard work. Absolutely, hard work plays a part and many people don’t take the opportunities they’re given. People of color were not given that same opportunity in the U.S. until the 1960s and because of a real estate practice called redlining (too much to explain here now) communities with concentrations of people of color still accrue home equity slower than white home owners. Very few people of color receive even the modest inheritance of their parents’ home and bank account because there’s only one generation before this CURRENT batch of college students where a 30 year home loan was even an option. That’s the kind of “head start” white people have had (and continue to have) as a result of — well, not slavery directly, but the stories we enshrined ABOUT race that allowed slavery to be justifiable.

Wow, this is just one example. There are so many more. Enough for now though. I hope you can learn more about the history of race in America. It’s a compelling story and definitely still influencing the way we live today.