White Privilege In America Research Paper

Dom Hill
Professor Kelly
15 November 2014
White Privilege in America
Before realizing and determining what white privilege is in America and what it means to us as an American society, it is important that it is defined first because a majority of whites seem to deny that the privilege even exists at all. The denial of its existence by white people is racialized but not always through clear knowledge of what is actually occurring because of it. People of different races and ethnic backgrounds say white people (mostly males), enjoy white privilege while white people deny that they have it and that such a power structure in our society exist. When defining white male privilege one must first understand the idea of privilege as an anti­oppression setting
To understand white male privilege one must first understand each factor of privilege, how they work together, and how they affect society. The question of why white people deny such a privilege, and what the conditions of this privilege does for them is the separation between them and black people. Because most white people

deny that white privilege exists, and most black people believe it is some of the reason that they are oppressed is another thing that separates white and black people. The existence of white privilege has maintained its sustainability because it is inbred into the social constructionism of our American society. White males are socially on top of our society as elites and upper class, as black people and every other group of people are below them. This is not only a social matter as it is an economic, ethnic, and socially powerful problem as well.
Peggy McIntosh says that white privilege is an unwritten advantage leaving,
According to a textbook written by Richard T. Schaefer called “Racial and
Ethnic groups,” it talks about the matrix of domination which he says is a “illustration of many factors­ including gender, social class, and race and ethnicity­ intersecting to create a cumulative impact on a person’s social standing.” Being that these things are all intersecting with economy, family, and politics and that all of these things have cumulative impact on somebody’s standing in society, I believe that there is not much to do about interlocking oppression. Once an individual or family is oppressed and or in poverty with one of the three institutions stated then they are oppressed in all three institutions sooner than later, and it is hard for this individual or family to get out it because that is how our society works in America.
When looking into dominance of anything, whether it be the more dominant race, most dominant social or economic class, most dominant gender, and or more dominate person or group in any aspect of life, theres always going to to be advantages to being the most dominant in life. When it comes to being a white male in America, you