White Privilege Essay Example for Free

White Privilege Essay What is white privilege? It is important that white privilege be defined because the majority of whites want to deny that it exists at all, especially in response to assertions of people of color that it exists unjustly and should be dismantled. The denial of its existence by whites is racialized. People of color say white people enjoy white privilege while white people deny, as often as possible, that they have it and that such a privilege exists. White privilege is defined (Clark, 2005), as (1a) a right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of allWhat is white privilege? It is important that white privilege be defined because the majority of whites want to deny that it exists at all, especially in response to assertions of people of color that it exists unjustly and should be dismantled. The denial of its existence by whites is racialized. People of color say white people enjoy white privilege while white people deny, as often as possible, that they have it and that such a privilege exists. White privilege is defined (Clark, 2005), as (1a) a right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others; an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities. (b) A special advantage or benefit of white persons; with reference to divine dispensations, natural advantages, gifts of fortune, genetic endowments, social relations, etc. (2a) A privileged position; the possession of an advantage white persons enjoy over non-white persons. (3a) The special right or immunity attaching to white persons as a social relation; prerogative. (b) Display of white privilege, a social expression of a white person or persons demanding to be treated as a member or members of the socially privileged class. (4a) To authorize or license of white person or persons what is forbidden or wrong for non-whites; to justify, excuse. (b) To give white persons special freedom or immunity from some liability or burden to which non-white persons are subject; to exempt. While many whites seem to think and believe that the notion of racial preference originated with affirmative action programs, intended to expand opportunities for historically marginalized people of color, racial preference has had a very long and very White Privilege 3 white history. Even if most whites were willing to acknowledge the existence of white privilege they would likely have no explanation for the privileges afforded them every minute of every day of their lives. They simply take it for granted. Affirmative action was the guiding principle of segregation for most whites. It was used to motivate racially restrictive housing policies while people of color were excluded from the same programs. It is hardly an exaggeration by people of color to say that white America is the biggest collective recipient of racial preference in the history of the universe. They have skewed our laws, shaped public policy and have helped to create the more obvious inequalities with which we live. According to (Bell, 1995), black people need reform of our civil rights strategies as badly as those in the law needed a new way to consider American jurisprudence prior to the advent of the Legal Realists. The debate about racism in America revolves around achieving diversity. Focusing on diversity means that questions of history and power go unasked and unanswered. Without an understanding of the history of racism in America, and the enduring imbalances of power, wealth, status and privilege, further progress toward racial justice is unlikely (Allen, 1994). Racial oppression is a set of strategies for social exploitation (Allen, 2003). The institutions of slavery were established in order to secure benefits for white people at the expense of African slaves and their American born descendants. One way to think about the benefits of exploitations, according to (Berger, 1999), is in terms of racialized social privilege? patterns of social privilege and benefit, including exemptions from harm and burden, which accrue to racial groups at the expense of others. The short hand term for White Privilege 4 these patterns in American society is white privilege. Economic benefits are at the core of white privilege. The vast pool of labor provided by slavery, from which both Northern industrialists and Southern plantation owners benefited, is one of the founding sources of the American economy. African Americans continue to struggle with economic legacy of an unjust history. Poor and working class whites strongly object to the idea of white privilege, stating or pointing out what they consider the obvious, that not every white person has wealth and power. There are other benefits that accrue or come as a natural right to white people, including one which W. E. B. DuBois called the psychological wages of whiteness. (Williams, 2004) This refers to that age old membership in the privileged group, even for whites on the bottom rung, confers a social status and recognition which is denied to all but the most powerful members of oppressed groups. The history of racial oppression in American is not disputed. However, what is disputed is whether and to what extent, four hundred (400) years of oppression continues to harm African Americans and other minorities and their life chances unjustly; and conversely, whether that history of oppression continues to benefit white Americans unjustly. Systems of oppression are not established unless they are a means of benefit. There is no reason for people of color to believe that social institutions and power structures no longer dispense benefits and harms racially. When we examine the way benefits and harms are apportioned in the U. S. , including wealth, income, equality of our court system, treatment from the police, access to colleges, universities and even the political symbolism of state flags, what we see are White Privilege 5 exercises and expressions of white privilege. As a group, white people have more income, wealth, political representation, status, power, and social reinforces of their human dignity and self respect than any group in America. If history is any guide, expecting white America to voluntarily open the corridors of power to people of color aintt gonna happen. These privileges have been enjoyed by white people unjustly. The struggle by people of color to obtain freedom, justice and dignity is as old as this nation, and racial equality, unfortunately, is not a realistic goal.