Unequal Treatment

 I don't know what it would be like to be a young white man starting his career today.  There is a show on HBO called the White Lotus where a mother talks about how her son is treated as guilty even though he isn't.

Young white men and women may have enjoyed white privilege without even being aware of it.  I realize that people are treated differently because of the color of their skin and their sex, among other things, but who is doing that.  Suppose a group of young white people are being loud and disruptive in a mall.  They may not be accosted at all or they may be told to knock it off and possibly approached by mall security.  If the crowd was minority young people it could be a much more dangerous outcome.  Not always but a much higher percentage.

The first group of young people would not be responsible for how the second group was treated but they do benefit by the difference.  To the second group the privilege extended to the first group is somehow their fault.

Now back to the workplace.  When I was starting out the professional jobs were predominantly held by white men.  Most of the generally young white women (we referred to them as the girls) held clerical entry level jobs and many of them, if not most, were more interested in getting married or starting a family.  The sexual harassment would have been everywhere and flirtatious behavior by both men and women was more the norm than the exception.  It wasn't as bad as "Mad Men" on TV but it was common.

Now it seems that asking a women about her weekend or saying she looked good can be harassment.  It is defined by the person hearing it.

That is a dangerous thing.  Years ago I handled a sexual harassment complaint from a young lady who had a bit of a reputation.  The accused person, a black man, said that what he said was said to her by others all the time.  I asked her about that and she said "But I like the other people".  Unequal treatment is still unequal treatment not matter the source.  The person she complained about was clearly guilty and took a short suspension.  The ones she didn't complain about went unscathed for the same behavior.