White Man Claims Whites are "Privileged"

Kyle Korver recently wrote an article on www.The PlayersTrubune.com titled “Privileged.” In it, he describes the wrongful arrest and treatment of his teammate Thabo Sefolosha, as well as systemic racism as a whole in America. Korver says white men are responsible for their privilege and must right the racist wrongs of America in order for the black community to move forward. He couldn’t be more wrong.

While Thabo’s treatment by police was wrong, it is not representative of a larger systemic problem with police. Despite what many left-leaning media outlets might tell you, according to a study done by black Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr., police are not more likely to use deadly force against blacks.

Korver goes on to list more statistical examples of black oppression. Blacks are five times as likely to be incarcerated, the unemployment rate is double, imprisonment rate for drug charges is six times higher, etc. In all of this he misses one key point. Black Americans commit more crime.

Obama’s department of justice set out to prove once and for all that police discrimination existed. They deployed a study to test the “driving while black” theory and determine if police discriminate based on race. The study did in fact find that blacks were pulled over more than whites. The reason? Differences in offending. More blacks were committing traffic violations than whites, which led to a disproportionate number of traffic stops.

The difference in the number of police interactions with blacks is proportional with the differences in black crime. So yes, there are plenty of cases like Thabo’s. But the inflated number of mistakes is due to the inflated amount of crime. If 12% of American’s commit 50% of all murders (as is the case with African Americans) you will see a proportional increase of police activity in their communities. There should be more arrests, more charges. But with that, unfortunately, also comes more mistakes. That isn’t due to “systemic racism.” As is the case with traffic stops, it is due to systemic offending.

In a 2018 study conducted by Michigan State and Arizona State professors titled, “Is There Evidence of Racial Disparity in Police Use of Deadly Force?” similar results were found. Increased offending resulted in increased use of force by police.

Korver also points out that we need to hold our fellow white men accountable. For what exactly? If I saw my neighbor burning a cross on the front lawn while wearing a white hood, yeah, I’d hold him accountable. But what Kyle means is something different. He’s speaking about “hidden” racism. This includes not actively supporting the causes he lists in his article, such as police reform, diversity requirements, affirmative action and reparations. Those of us who disagree with the moral implications, or even the effectiveness of such policies are judged to be of the problem.

It’s important to note that there are two kinds of equality: equality of outcome and equality of opportunity. People like Korver are proponents of the former. Every race should be equally represented in every public space in proportion with the population. Every job should have 50% men and 50% women. It should also have 50% whites, 25% Hispanics, 13% Blacks and so on. Valuing immutable characteristics over the competence or values of the people themselves. The problem is, people are different. Cultures differ. People make different choices based on their backgrounds.  Just because you see disparities in representation does not mean they are the result of discrimination. Black Economists such as Thomas Sowell have been disproving that notion for decades. If you’re interested in these ideas, I highly recommend his work.

Equality of opportunity is what we should all strive for. In today’s America, it’s what we have.  No matter what a person’s color is, no matter what their gender or sexual proclivity, the only things that should matter are character and competence.

Studies done by both the left-leaning Brookings Institute and the right-leaning Heritage foundation show that if you graduate high school and don’t have a child out of wedlock, no matter your race, you are virtually guaranteed to escape poverty.

The United States doesn't have a problem with racism. It’s problem is the large numbers of people who lack  values.