White People Sociology

According to Judith N. Martin and Thomas K Nakayama (2014), the characteristics that White people in the United States share are: an advantage of race privilege, which involving better access to education, opportunities, jobs and other. Such advantage, in turn, causes large disparity in the poverty levels between the minority such as Blacks and Hispanics and the White majority. The poverty level in 2010 for these two groups fell at 27.4 % and 26.6 % respectively. At the same time, the poverty for the White majority fell at 9.9% and for the Asians 12.1 %. The poverty levels of children from these groups look very similar. The highest, of about 38.2 % affects the Black children, 35% -Hispanic, while White children 's poverty level falls at …show more content…
There are also much more people in the Majority group who own homes as opposed to the minority group. Higher enjoyed by White majority affords them to live in nicer, safer, cleaner neighborhoods, with access to recreational facilities, parks, grocery stores, etc. Whereas those, who use public transportation are limited to purchase food from their neighborhood Package stores. This limits not only they employment seeking ability but their food choices. Accessibility to food markets as well as the ability to purchase healthier foods has a high impact on people 's health. Combined with stress caused by worries about safety and finances, along with poor food choices and health care coverage Blacks and American Indians/ Alaska Natives have the poorest health records, whereas White and Asians have the highest rates of excellent health. Another characteristic of Whiteness, according to Martin and Nakayama (2014) are the social attitudes (pp.118-120), such as " I deserve it" seen especially among White American …show more content…
As an immigrant from Poland, I had experienced my share of rejection and superiority attitude from the White American 's especially. It seemed that the many minorities I had encountered, showed more interest and acceptance. I thought it was because we all had one thing in common; we were the outsiders. It is perhaps because of it that I had never felt any special connection between the White Americans and myself. As a White person growing in Poland, a racially pure country (there were no minorities), race and ethnicity were never on my mind. Only after I had immigrated to the USA, I began to notice the differences in the way White people lived comparing to the minorities. Although, at the time I was so wrapped up in myself and the way I hag been received that minority issue took a " second seat". Being White, someone might think; I had it easy. It wasn 't so. I had experience prejudice, discrimination, and heard many Polish jokes, said to me because they were "funny." Well, they were not. In my assimilation as a U.S citizen, I had gone through all the stages described by Martin and Nakayama ( 2014), typical for Minority Identity Development. At first, I so wanted to assimilate. Be like the people I saw around me, speak their language, know about everything that