NYC author Tracie McMillan calculates exactly how much white privilege and racism has benefited her financially

A Brooklyn journalist calculated exactly how much racism and white privilege have benefited her financially, down to every last penny, which amounted to a whopping $371,000.

In her new book, “The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism,” author Tracie McMillan claims that being white has provided an advantage worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

McMillan derived this number in part by tracking the amount of money she has received from her family over the years, money that she claims her family has been able to save for generations because of their whiteness.

Much of her final amount consisted of education loans she received from her grandfather, totaling $52,784.33.

McMillan, a graduate of NYU, where she studied political science, claims her grandfather was able to give her this money because his whiteness had allowed him to accumulate wealth over the years.

She claims her grandfather’s wealth came from benefits resulting from the GI Bill, a post-World War II bill that helped military veterans go to school and get job training.

The Brooklyn-based writer argues that the GI Bill “highly advantaged whites,” and therefore benefited her grandfather at the expense of non-whites.

McMillan also received $40,384.72 as an inheritance from her grandfather, which, again, she believed was money owed to her grandfather’s whiteness.

She also received $15,086.74 from her parents, which she vaguely called a gift. McMillan, in one graphic posted on her website does not address why this “gift from the parents” was due to their whiteness.

The author also mentions “avoidance of foster care” as a result of her whiteness, a statement that almost suggests that all non-white people automatically end up in foster care.

She estimates the value of avoiding foster care at $15,771.37.

But McMillan claims the money she received from her family is only part of her “white bonus.”

The NYU graduate claims her rent-stabilized apartment saved her $1,319.86 in costs due to discrimination she never faced, considering she is white.

Another white privilege was her “teaching job at Maggie,” where she claims she was paid $26,858.04 more than non-white teachers.

And McMillan also claims she was saved $37,488.11 in credit discrimination when obtaining credit.

The Brooklyn Journalist explained her math to CNN, saying, “I’m calculating $146,000 from my family that they probably got because of racism.”

When asked why she wrote the book, McMillan said, “I hope that readers who aren’t white feel seen—that someone who is white sees how this happens.”

When McMillan announced her tour for her new book on X.com, formerly Twitter, some commentators criticized the book’s premise. One user wrote: ‘Maybe we should rename white privilege to ‘white upper middle class’ privilege. Because many of us who grew up poor didn’t have the ‘bonuses’ you enjoyed’

“I calculate $225,000 in money I had access to or stock I acquired, probably because I was white. That’s almost $400,000.”

When asked why she wrote the book, McMillan said, “I hope that readers who are not white also feel seen — that someone who is white sees how this happens.”

McMillan insists her estimate of nearly $400,000 only scratches the surface.

“These are all back-of-the-envelope estimates. These are absolute minimums.’

“The White Bonus,” McMillan’s new book, focuses on how white privilege benefits the middle class, because “the middle class is really the fulcrum for white advantage in the US.”

In her book, McMillan lays out her argument that all white families in America have benefited because of their race.

“White people today don’t understand – because this history has been hidden from them by previous generations – that someone in their family was given something because they were white.”

When McMillan announced her tour for her new book on X.com, formerly Twitter, some commentators criticized the book’s premise.

One user wrote: ‘Maybe we should rename white privilege to ‘white upper middle class’ privilege. Because many of us who grew up poor didn’t have the ‘bonuses’ you enjoyed.”

Another commenter asked, “Will you donate all proceeds from this book to black causes?”

And one critic noted: ‘Money from inheritances, parents paying for their studies and loans from grandparents are not a white bonus. It’s an upper-class bonus.”

They continued, “Go interview lower- and middle-class white people and ask about their education, inheritance, and loans from grandparents.”