Straight Talk for White Men (Nick Kristof, NYT)
SUPERMARKET shoppers are more likely to buy French wine when French music is playing, and to buy German wine when they hear German music. Thats true even though only 14 percent of shoppers say they noticed the music, a study finds.
Researchers discovered that candidates for medical school interviewed on sunny days received much higher ratings than those interviewed on rainy days. Being interviewed on a rainy day was a setback equivalent to having an MCAT score 10 percent lower, according to a new book called Everyday Bias, by Howard J. Ross.
Those studies are a reminder that we humans are perhaps less rational than we would like to think, and more prone to the buffeting of unconscious influences. Thats something for those of us who are white men to reflect on when were accused of privilege.
White men sometimes feel besieged and baffled by these suggestions of systematic advantage. When I wrote a series last year, When Whites Just Dont Get It, the reaction from white men was often indignant: Its an equal playing field now! Get off our case!
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Yes, there is such a thing as white male privilege.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-straight-talk-for-white-men.html