There's an unsubtle distinction between pointing out inherent difference between the races, and pointing out the fact that people, despite the Jim Crow era being over, are still being treated differently by society on the basis of their skin color.
However the ignorance comes into play by stereotyping said treatment as universal across all whites and across all interactions.
White privledge exists. That said, it's one of
numerous factors in one's life...and a smaller one with each passing decade...that help to affect where they're at. A white individual born into poverty, whose parents were born into poverty, has a much smaller gap despite his "white privledge" then the average minority individual. His experience is likely far different than what's stereotypically shown in the idiotic ad's because contrary to it's prejudiced hyperbolic presentation...not all white people are treated exactly the same singularly due to the color of their skin.
We can not simply ignore the past, the impact that the past has through a butterfly type effect on the future, and what that means to our current society. Logically speaking individuals who have affluence dating back multiple generations is more likely to be affluent as well, and due to the issues pre-civil rights movement and dating back all the way to slavery, you're going to have less generations of potential affluence for most Blacks than compared to whites. While the civil rights movement was 50+ years ago, it absolutely is true that there is still those that harbor racism in their hearts and actions today and that there are differences in how people are treated. We shouldn't ignore those things, deny them, or just shrug our shoulders in attempting to address them.
HOWEVER
It's also foolishness and ignorance in its own right to ignore the other truths of reality as well. That with every passing year and decade the gap between the races in terms of allfluence is slowly shrinking. The impact of say 3 or 4 generations before you is less than that of 1 or 2, and we're approaching a point where one or two generations back for people will be post civil rights movement. Were things perfect and honky dorey then (or now?), no. However, they are significantly better th an before that and continually improving. Racism amongst each new generation seems to be declining or, at the very least, tolerance seems to be on the incline. Again, leading to a lessening of the issue over time. While we need to look at ways to balance against the hardships minorities have experience, we also need to constantly be re-evaluating them with a fair, honest, and objective eye in terms of the reality that over time, as things improve, the positives of those actions compared with the negatives they entail may no longer net a positive outcome great enough to warrant their need or assistance. This is not suggesting that any specific or all programs need to end now, or in a decade, but that simply they should not be simply looked at as enact and forget type of legislation that is somehow going to always exert the same effect on society.
While those who absolutely deny there is a positive difference in how whites often get treated or in terms of the general standing of whites as a collective are displaying their ignorance of common sense and reality, those who wish to act as if the same does not exist for whites in a negative sense at times are also displaying such as well. Yes, I see people at times who deny that racism is an issue anymore and that we don't need anything in society to monitor for the issue at all. At the same time, I see people who claim that minorities simply can't be racist at all. Yes, I see people who throw out the token "Some White Guy didn't get in because a black guy was on the list and affirmative action forced it" tired argument again and again...but then I see individuals on the forum also basically excusing away negative instances of racism towards whites as useless, anecdotal, or even justified. I live in a heavily hispanic area of Sterlinig and previously lived in an apartment complex that was largely hispanic/african american. The descriptions upon the faces of those individuals in the ad were absolutely not the looks, reactions, and attitude I got from a number of individuals in my surrounding area, white privledge or no. Do I believe that white privledge doesn't exist to a certain extent because of that? No. Do I believe that what I experience is of a similar level to what the average minority experiences? No. Is the stereotyping of "What people see of me" still extremely inaccurate and are the same racial views the ad is attempting to suggest are singularly applied to minorities being applied to me at times in my neighborhoods? Yes. Which is part of my issues with idiotic stereotyping like this is because it's still born out of ignorance...the same ignorance most racists have...in that a race all experience/think/act in one particular way.
Yes, people are still treated differently by their skin color. However, it's unfortunatly hard to have a reasoned discussion and debate on what we should do about it when even the mere suggestion that such a thing cuts both ways (not even with an indication that it cut's both ways evenly, just that it does) is met with declarations of white supremacy.
