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In reply to the discussion: White People Think One Black Person's Success Proves Racism Is Over [View all]Warpy
(110,900 posts)Allowing a handful of any disadvantaged class to succeed is meant to convince you that all ugly past discrimination is over, when that's far enough from the truth to be a bald faced lie. Most of the old barriers are still there, even if some of the egregious legal barriers have been overturned. If you've grown up ghettoized (and you don't actually have to live in the inner city to qualify, most ghettos are socioeconomic, not physical), you will instantly be clicked into whatever socioeconomic class bigots think you belong to and that is where you will stay for your whole life no matter how smart you are or how hard you work.
But try not to be swayed by tokenism. Look at how people of color are underrepresented in industry and the halls of power and how overrepresented they are in prison. Look at how women are underrepresented in the class of high wage earners and how overrepresented they are in severe poverty. That's all the proof you need is that tokenism is meaningless when it comes to the struggle disadvantaged people face.