White Power Structures In The United States

The United States strives for unbiased instruction but encounters influential individuals and groups who hold significant control over decision-making, resource allocation, and direction within education. These power structures separate people based on race, creating a barrier that shapes their experiences and opportunities in society. White Power structures are perpetuated, particularly in the context of privilege and supremacy. Many people who are white are taught to ignore their privilege and social standings, see their worldview as normal, and attribute racial issues to individuals rather than systemic structures. Ideas of individual choices and agency over their social standings are modes in which white power structures attempt to distance
White people usually divert the blame through the reasoning of having agency and individual choice over deciding how successful they are. Individual choice refers to the belief that academic success and access to quality education are primarily determined by an individual's effort, motivation, and the choices made by their families. This belief suggests that students and their families who prioritize education, work hard, and invest financially in schooling will achieve better outcomes. Agency refers to the right or ability of individuals to make their own choices and decisions without external influence or coercion. White people exercise their agency to perpetuate racism by using abstract liberal principles such as equal opportunity, meritocracy, and individualism to justify racially discriminatory beliefs and actions. However, the idea of individual choice and agency does not apply equally to people of colour, particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds because they fail to acknowledge the structural inequalities that disadvantage people of colour and instead attribute disparities to individual effort or cultural deficiencies, thereby maintaining the status quo of racial
Bonilla-Silva argues colour-blind racism operates subtly, masking the continued existence of racial inequality through various frames that justify the status quo of racial hierarchy. Through this, Bonilla-Silva demonstrates how white supremacy gives white people agency over where they decide to live. “I don't have a problem with all-white and all-black neighborhoods if that's the choice of the people, the individuals. But, if it's forced either way, if I'm a black person and I've come into the neighborhood and I want to live here and selectively denied that option, that's wrong. But, again, there still has to be some type of social interaction for growth and if the social interaction takes place then, the cross-integration will take place, I think [— Lynn]” (Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, 35). Lynn uses the frame of abstract liberalism, a framework individuals use to maintain a liberal facade while disregarding systemic causes of racial injustice. Lynn demonstrates how white supremacy grants white individuals agency over their residential choices while perpetuating unequal power dynamics and inhibiting true integration. Residential segregation is a physical representation of Du Bois’s colour line.