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White privilege is big when it comes to crime. Often when a white person fills out a job application, the employer does not do a background check unless required for jobs (childcare, healthcare, etc.). However, when a person of color applies to the same employer, the employer does a background check no matter what due to the color of the employee's skin. A white person also looks "less guilty" and also is less likely to be sentenced death when in trial. A person of color is more likely to be seen as guilty and to be sentenced to death or a long term sentence due to racial profiling. Racial profiling is often used to identify criminal activity. This is often because there are less colored judges than there is white judges. With this being said, white judges favor the white people in court, rather than the colored.

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Recognizing white privilege begins with truly understanding the term itself.

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People neglect the fact they can discuss the topic of racism.
White people talk bad upon the colored people because they feel as if they are not "pure" to society. White people feel as if it is okay to discriminate against the people of color and become very uncomfortable talking about them. White people get offended easily when there is a change between white and color. For example, the original Annie and the 2017 Annie. The original was a white child and the newest is a colored child. Humor has become a need for discussing race because many people are offended if the humor is absent from the conversation.

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Talking about race is hard. It often involves hurt feelings and misunderstandings. And the words and phrases we use can either push those conversations forward or bring them to a standstill. One such term: white tears.

The phrase has been used to gently tease white people who get upset at things they think threaten their white privilege. It's been used to poke fun at white people who think that talking about race makes you a racist. Or that Barack Obama's presidency marked the end of America. Or that it's a crime against humanity when a formerly white character is portrayed, or rumored to be portrayed, by a person of color. (Think Spider-Man. Annie. James Bond. Hermione. The Human Torch. Dorothy.)

Rather than spend time earnestly engaging with people who refuse to believe a fictional character could be someone who isn't white, it's easier (and way more fun) to just roll your eyes, dub their reaction "white tears" and move on.

"Sometimes it feels good just to make fun of racism and of racists," says Damon Young. He's the editor-in-chief of the blog Very Smart Brothas, a columnist at GQ and the author of the upcoming book, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker.

Young says that when white people use their emotions as a weapon against people of color, it's a form of white supremacy. One way to combat white supremacy is with humor. "Obviously there's a place for anger and outrage and protest and resistance and all those things," he explains. "But I think sometimes humor is a necessary tool, too."

Young knows that when he makes jokes about white people who lose it over Serena Williams winning a tennis match, or who think their college acceptance was stolen by undeserving people of color, the response will be - you guessed it -white tears.

Now he's got a strategy: "I just take a big bucket outside and I use them to make Kool-Aid. ... You've never had a better glass of red Kool-Aid than one that's made with white tears."

The first time I heard the phrase, I was a student at Pomona College. My professor was Valorie Thomas, who teaches English and Africana Studies. Thomas says she's been dealing with the topic in her classes for years.

Part of her job, she explains, is to teach students from different backgrounds to have productive conversations about race. And, like Young, she believes one of the most effective tools for doing that is humor:

"Humor is not a throwaway skill. Humor actually helps us to balance our emotions and to endure. There's certainly a kind of mean humor that's dismissive, and that's dehumanizing even."

Exploring questions of tone, or "to learn about the point behind somebody saying something" like white tears, she adds, can enrich the conversation.

White tears can be a pointed but lighthearted way of asking someone to set aside their defensiveness for a moment and take part in the conversation at hand. "It's basically satire," Thomas says. "So if you understand satire, and the use of satire, you get that when people say, 'Oh, could you stop with the white tears?' or 'Do we have to take time out in order to indulge the white tears?', what's really being said is, 'Could you stop the violence right now that is happening in the conversation?' "

In her classes, Thomas sees a familiar scenario: She will introduce a topic related to racism - maybe income inequality, or the disproportionate way that black children are punished in schools. Then students learning about these issues for the first time take it personally. They respond defensively, with a range of emotions: powerlessness, confusion, guilt.

She says it's normal for students to feel those things. The problem comes when those emotions prevent the lesson from moving forward. When a student starts crying, for example, the conversation comes to a screeching halt.

"I'm not denying that people have pain," she says. "What I'm saying is that you can sit with discomfort. And the discomfort of the conversation is not equivalent to the kinds of violence that are going on in the world, [which] we're responsible for as community members and allies and citizens."

Thomas knows that some people will be offended by the phrase white tears - even though it's meant as satire. To that, she says, "I do want the people who are offended ... to pause for a moment and breathe with it, and see if it's really damaging them and hurting them."

Then, she hopes, those people may begin to hear the term as a critique: "I mean, it can be a stinging critique, but it's an invitation to see other people's humanity."

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subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast Talking about race is hard. It often involves hurt feelings and misunderstandings. And the words and phrases we use can either push those conversations forward or bring them to a standstill. One such term: white tears.

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Sha’Condria Sibley discusses how people of color feel as if they are nobody in society. People always are downgrading the people of colored and abusing the fact they are different when they bring so much to the world, while over coming the fact they are treated terribly due to their skin color. People of color often are the first to be thought of as criminals - typically because they are of color. They also are known as "insignificant to be acknowledged", just because they look different to white people. Stereotypical, a colored male is seen as a murder or drug dealer just because there is a small portion of people who now have set the tone for all colored people.

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Women of the World Poetry Slam 2016 - iCon "Black Woman Steps Up to Mic"

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Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies.

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Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies.

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Daryl Davis discusses the fact people have hate for him because he is a man of color, when the people do not even know him personally. This is a strong idea for race in Modern America because people will hate you without even knowing you, just because of the color of your skin due to growing up around these thoughts from other people. Being racist is not a trait one is born with, but a trait that one is taught to be. Often white people are seen as superior and colored are seen as inferior, all due to the color of their skin. There is not equality, even with the laws put in place to help be equal.

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Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies. | Daryl Davis | TEDxNaperville

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It is often found that most children books are the same: white children or adults are the characters. Very few children books have colored characters. Reading a book as a child, you would not notice that a majority of books are written with this idea in mind. Even now, there still are not that many African-American books. This teaches children at a very young age that white people are a minority. With this being said, colored children learn early in their life that they are "different". A colored author is expected to write authentic African stories, instead of writing about the white people.

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Please [contact us](https://www.ted.com/contact) and let us know what happened.

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Why is the percentage of women in leadership still low?

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Why is the percentage of women in leadership still low?

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Men and women are not treated equally in the workplace environment. Men typically have the “dominant” status compared to women, making women feel like they have less of a voice and are less important. If a male worker walks into his bosses office and asks for a raise, he is more likely to receive a raise. However, if a female walked into her bosses office, asking the exact same question with the exact same amount of money in question, the answer would be completely different.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Pay wages are 20% higher for men than women only because they are men. Similar to what was mentioned in the analysis for the article, "Why is the percentage of in women leadership still low?" a male is more likely to get a raise than a female. Women are expected to make dinner, take care of the children, keep the house clean, etc. With this being said, women should make more money than they do.

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The Past, Present and Future of Gender Norms

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Will continuing to challenge gender norms and document their harmful impacts lead to their extinction - or evolution?

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You cannot judge a book by its cover. Just because a girl looks like a girl and enjoys boy activities does not mean she is different from every other girl. She is just a girl who enjoys boy things; nothing special to it. For example, if a girl likes dressing up, wearing make up, and painting her nails, but also enjoys playing sports and talking like a "boy" by saying "dude" or "bro", etc., people are going to look at her differently because she is not following the norms society has brought upon us.

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When a women is pregnant, you typically hear that pink is for a girl and blue is for a boy. As a child, you grow to learn this same type of scenario. A girl must wear pink clothes, have her nails painted, have her hair long and make up done, according to society. However, a boy is the opposite; buzz cuts and blue or neutral colored clothes. Women are seen as "sweet", for their looks, and as a stay at home, caregiver. Men however are seen to be the busy buddy, the action and doings, and the "smarter" person. Men and women are not seen as equal in society as a whole.

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Parenting a Gender Non-Conforming Child | Michele Yulo | TEDxUtica

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Parental Behavior to Discipline Their Children on the Basis of Gender Roles

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Parental Behavior to Discipline Their Children on the Basis of Gender Roles

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When raising a child, parents typically are more strict towards the boys rather than the girls because they believe that the boys will work harder to go somewhere in life. Parents also fail to listen to what the child wants, how the child acts, and how the child's personality is due to only looking at the child from their gender norms for the given age of the child. When a baby is born, there is a girl or a boy. Parents do not see that their son wants to dress like a girl, or their daughter wants to do boy things.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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How have we moved forward or backwards since Their Eyes Were Watching God, regarding race?

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How have we moved forward or backwards since Their Eyes Were Watching God, regarding race?

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I believe we have remained about the same with the topic of race. There has been some improvements, but not many.
In the novel, race takes a big part in how the other characters in the novel view Janie. I feel this remains the same. People today still view colored people differently. In the pass few years, there has been more and more colored people being shot, just because white people are "scared for their life". When a colored person is on trial, they are sentenced differently than the white people are. Also in the novel, Janie has no voice. Black people are often thought of as "less" in society just because of the color of their skin, making them feel as if they cannot speak up as easily.

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How have we moved forward or backwards since Their Eyes Were Watching God, regarding gender roles?

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How have we moved forward or backwards since Their Eyes Were Watching God, regarding gender roles?

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I believe that we have remained about the same with the topic of gender roles, if not backwards. In the novel, Janie is treated as a girl typically is in the modern ages. When Janie is married to Joe Starks, she is told how she should live in the town. Joe takes away her voice symbolizing her voice is "nothing" since she is a woman. Woman are "supposed" to be sweet, wear pink, let men be the hardworking, leaders of the world.