I agree it was the way you described in the past... the extreme examples are slavery and later Jim Crow laws... but what "special rights" do whites have today.

Real Critical Race Theory (not the whole pseudo nonsense) has done a good job of identifying places where systemic racism still exists, but they are getting identified and addressed. In my research (my interest relates to my grandchildren's futures) indicates for example; judicial sentencing is still a problem... if you are ugly or black (I better not get in trouble), you will face a longer sentence... Trump made some progress with the bill passed on Judicial reform, but we need to do more to look at the effect of skin color or other forms of discrimination in our justice system.

Another area remains legacy systems. Not intentionally racist, they exist largely in private institutions that rely on alumni giving. I don't think they can survive without legacy programs, but I think many are trying to offset their legacy programs with other programs to provide preference to non-whites.

But for the most part, discrimination is illegal and there are armies of lawyers just waiting to sue. My favorite example is a black lawyer has offered to represent Trump against Latitia James for saying Trump was to male, too pale, and too stale.

Imagine someone saying that 50 years ago. As an employer, white males have an advantage and a disadvantage. For the most part, white males on average are older (more than 10 years older than black males), that translates into more experience and occupying higher rungs on the corporate ladder. But that translates into disadvantages for young white males as companies seek to achieve diversity goals.