The White Bonus: Understanding the Cash Value of White Privilege

As I’ve learned from my own antiracism journey, white privilege seems amorphous to those who have it.

💵 But the material gains that racism confers upon White Americans can be calculated. Journalist Tracie McMillan has done the math to prove it.

🤔You’ve probably heard of the “Black Tax”— the higher costs faced by Black Americans who have been denied so much of the aid extended freely to Whites—but what about the “White Bonus?”

💰McMillan, author of The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America, estimates that the advantages she’s gotten over her life from being White amount to $371,934.30.

So yes, racism’s direct and indirect gains for White Americans can be calculated in dollars and cents.

👉🏽👉🏽The enduring effects of racism in the US are real. The question is, are we willing to repair the harm racial inequality has done to our communities, institutions, and nation?