White Privilege Thesis

Privilege, a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor (merriam-webster). The idea of privilege is fairly recent dating back to around 1903 when American civil rights activist/historian/sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois published an essay called ‘The Souls of Black Folk’. In the text he discussed that African Americans at the time were very mindful about white Americans and where mindful of racial discrimination. While white Americans on the contrary, did not think much about African Americans, nor about the effects that institutional and racial discrimination would have towards the group. This ignorance to racism and its effects to the colored community by white Americans has created what people today call as ‘white privilege’. White privilege is not something that white individuals actually do, benefit or relish on purpose. It is a result of hundreds of years of an American culture that revolved around the dehumanizing of the minority (colored people) to benefit the majority (white Americans). Creating a modern clear preference for whiteness, that allows white Americans to capitalize and benefit immeasurably more from America’s political systems and institutions compared to people of color. Now, explaining that white people have certain privileges that colored people are not afforded to a white American deems a common response. Many white Americans genuinely think that our
Democratic society works the same for every person. So naturally when a white person does graduate, start a successful business, or even get a new job they equate that to the individual’s hard work and not the many privileges that they are naturally given because they are white. They will also reference classic success stories of “model minorities” as evidence that any individual can just work hard through self-motivation, and end up being rewarded by the system. Unexamined, this could all be seen as true, unfortunately this isn’t true. Our reality is we live in a society where the system and government is dominated by white males. Colored people for generations where by law not allowed to be educated, work for good pay, or really be in any government positions of power due to slavery and various Jim Crow laws. This has severely handicapped the progress of the colored community from entering positions of power in many institutions and government positions. That is why only .8% of CEO’s in the fortune 500 are black, and only 10% of people in government positions are black. Peggy McIntosh wrote a famous piece in 1988 called “White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible Knapsack”, and in this piece she listed some of the benefits that white people where afforded because of this social inequality, “I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.” As a white individual you can expect any company or institution that you would like to work for or attend is more than likely to be owned or run by a white male or female. Making assimilation and racial biases non-existent for a white people.
So for years because of this misrepresentation, people in positions of power have chosen to hire/accept or treat white Americans differently than colored people. For example while many middle class and upper-middle class white communities have prospered and flourished, incarceration rates over the past decade amongst colored peoples has increased dramatically and the funding of public education has been tied to local taxes leading to the closing of hundreds of inner city schools in the US. These trends unfairly effect the colored community leaving many children without proper guidance and education. Another famous example of this discriminatory practice was during the housing crisis when several American banks paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle discrimination allegations. Banks such as Bank of America where accused of steering minorities towards riskier loans putting many in financial holes that many could not get out of. According to the Justice Department, people who borrowed money that where colored where 30% more likely to receive a higher-rate loan than white individuals that borrowed, even after assuming the differences in risk. This white preference is very blatant, and is hard to see if you are not a minority. From personal experience I experienced being treated differently from other students at a young age. When I was in 1st grade I moved to a nicer elementary school in my neighborhood. Now, I had a slight stutter at the time and spoke with a light accent because I would copy the way my parents spoke. My teacher who was this 5’5, brown haired white lady assumed that because of my accent I should be in ESOL. Being young I listened to her and believed that my accent meant my English sucked, so I assumed she was right. When I got home that day and my mother found out I had been placed in ESOL she called the school immediately and screamed at whoever answered her call at the time. My mother had known at my previous school my English test scores where always advanced, and when we had a meeting with the principle the next day he apologized for my teachers racist assumption and gave my mom a bunch of PTA perks to avoid a complaint being filed on the teacher.
If I was white I would have probably been given the benefit of the doubt by my teacher and she could have properly tested me.
But that is just a small illustration in a sea of examples of why white people benefit more in the US from its institutions than colored people. This was not meant to attack white individuals for being privileged. This is more of my way of notifying white individuals of their privilege, by showing them why colored people are not equal. This way we can work together with a unified understanding to help each other create a truly equal
society.