Racism: For Whites Only?

After reading Tatum's article "Racism: For Whites Only?" I was extremely disturbed after reading Phyllis Wentworth's case study regarding the concept white privilege. Wentworth interviewed a group of female women that came from "working class backgrounds, from families where women were expected to graduate from high school and get married or get a job" and about "the pathways that led them to college" (129). These same women graduated from college and made a life for themselves all which normally comes from what people think of as a reward to hard work throughout one's previous years. Instead, the author tried to define their good luck experiences of " [obtaining] apartments without a deposit, good jobs [being] offered without experience or extensive reference checks, and encouragement provided by willing mentors" from only occurring due to the fact all women were white (129). The author tried to label all above actions as white privilege and "that being white worked in their favor and helped give them the benefit of the doubt at critical junctures" (129). At what point can we draw the line and just label the above actions as the American Dream coming true for such individuals? Just because all individuals were white doesn't mean that these possibilities occurred because the parties were white. The author tries to hint that the American Dream is only possible for whites, which if were true then why would anyone from outside the United States move to this country to attempt to achieve this dream? I believe that racism still goes on today regardless if anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, but I am tired of the author labeling all good occurrences as ones that only happen for white people, that people of color will never have these same opportunities.
I would agree to an extent that white privilege does still exist. In so many instances there are still cases where it seems like there will never be complete equality, but does it sometimes get taken too far. This weekend I was at Burger King near Sunset Bay Beach. There were two Caucasian females that came in to the restaurant wearing only bikini's. The manager of the restaurant came out and refused service to either female until they put on the required dress: shirts. A few minutes later two African-American females came into the restaurant also wearing just bikinis. The girl working the register looked at her manager who gave a slight head shake and told the worker not to say anything because it will come off as racist. Rules are rules and if there is a no shirt no service rule in effect it should be across the board. If it is ok to mandate the Caucasian females to put on shirts on in the restaurant, then the same must be said of the African-American females. In situations like this, being white actually works in the disfavor for the two Caucasian females. The author clearly makes the point white privilege is still prevalent, but what about the idea that being white can be a disadvantage at times as well?