Research Paper Rough

Mark Twain’s fictional novel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the tale of a young, wanderlust stricken white boy from the south, Huck, who aids an escaped slave, named Jim, find freedom. The story is set before the civil war during the 1830s-1840s. Throughout Huck and Jim’s adventures together, the contrast between both their daily struggles and freedoms is immense. Huck being a white person moves through life with much more ease than Jim is able to even imagine experiencing. Racism affects everyone, not just those who are discriminated against. It not only puts people at a disadvantage, it also gives specifically white people a social advantage. The concept of white privilege refers to an unearned racial leverage that typically goes unnoticed. Structural racism lends to condition people into ways of living and thinking that perpetuate the success of people in certain aspects of life due to their race. As a white person myself, I have slowly become enlightened to the reality of my own privilege. I often hesitate to identify as completely white. I deviate from the title, because I am still learning what it means to be classified as ‘white.’ There is underlying guilt bubbling beneath the surface of my classification. I am sure that the flexibility I feel within my own race, as though race is a fluid thing that I can pour into any mold I see fit, is just a result of the very immunity I behold in modern day society. I have never been confined by the boundaries of my skin, I have never been mistreated due to its color. I have always been on the victors side of history, the race that conquered all and claimed superiority. This self-proclaimed attribute of greatness and dominance has become embedded into the integral structure of societies and cultures worldwide. White privilege and racism might manifest itself differently in different regions of the world, my perspective is focused on the USA, where I reside. It is important to differentiate between race and ethnicity, a contrast I often confuse. Ethnicity refers to the cultural factors of a person or people, such as nationality, culture, ancestry, language, beliefs etc. Race refers to a person’s physical appearance. Racism is a doctrine that claims find differences in things like character and intelligence based on physical appearances; it asserts the superiority of one race over others and seeks to maintain that dominance through a system of beliefs, behaviors, language and so on. In the United States the system of racism that lives at the core of our culture is that black people are inferior to white people. Racism not only manifests itself in the behavior of individuals who seek to personally perpetuate racism, it exists in institutional behavior. The subtle system that exists right under our noses is white skin privilege. It’s not something that people necessarily do purposely. White privilege is the invisible side of racism that tends to be ignored. Some of its benefits simply include being able to walk down a street without worrying about how people will treat you based on your skin color. Schooling often gives no training to white people in seeing themselves as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person or as a participant in a damaged culture. White privilege is oppressing because it puts others at a disadvantage. In the article Unpacking the invisible knapsack, the author, Peggy McIntosh, lists all the ways she is aware of her own white privilege. These privileges include things that can be expected by a white person in this country, for example ‘flesh’ tone and nude colored things always seem to generally match up with the skin color of a white person. In hair care aisles at a store cater to the needs of white people and their hair types and are not separated into a section for ‘ethnic products.’ These are just minor examples that exist within consumer culture and are just every day perks experienced by the white person. On a more serious note, white privilege is not limited to the color of standard band aids and pantyhose. For example, white skin does not work against white people regarding how people perceive their financial responsibility, style of dressings, personality or job performance. Security personnel or law enforcers do not harass white people or pull them over or follow them due to their race. Beyond the law, there are worldwide advantages to white privilege. Such as American history and heritage within most European nations, is taught as a glorious product made only because of white people. In media, white people are widely reflected and praised for their contribution of the world. White people are widely represented and celebrated. In society what is valued is parallel to the underlying white privilege that exists. Some of the items on McIntosh’s list seem to apply only to white middle class American citizens, argues Gina Grosley-Corcoran in her article, ExplainingWhite Privelege to a broke white person. Corcoran, a white female, grew up in a trailer home surrounded by poverty. Her entire life her family struggled with money issues and all the other complications that one problem brought along with it. Corcoran never felt very privileged in any sense. After reading McIntosh’s list of advantages, even Corcoran couldn’t deny the existence of white privilege in America and how it affects everyone’s life. But even her own experience differs greatly from that of McIntosh. The integral problems within our society are not separate from each other, but rather they are all influencing one another. Just as poor white people have white privilege, they are still poor. The concept of white privilege does not deny the individual hardships. Hardships can be circumstantial and born into. Just as you can be born into white privilege, you can be born into other social disadvantages. What can be done with or about white privilege?