Pros And Cons Of White American Culture

American culture is obsessed with the saying “to pull oneself up by one 's bootstraps” because it refers to the idea that every individual should work hard and with enough dedication will be able to accomplish their goals. While this idea in theory makes sense, since one does need to put in the necessary work to complete any task, in practice it does not work, because it runs under the assumption that there is a level playing field, when there is not. Unfortunately, society is not fair to all, not everyone has equal opportunity for access nor success. There is a definite social hierarchy where the highest group has all the privileges and mobility and in which that those same privileges decrease as with every downward step. While it would be assumed that the social hierarchy would be based solely on economic status, it is actually so …show more content…
When the concept is brought up, it is often negated and said to be an excuse by nonwhites to blame whites for their own shortcomings and failures, because the reality of white privilege is found offensive. But to negate institutional racism is to negate history. The reality is that black individuals are perhaps the bottom of the social hierarchy because segregation placed them in locations that whites did not want, so they were in made to live in impoverished areas and were constricted in poverty as they did not have access to the same jobs, education, or general livelihood of whites. This exact same inequality in access exists today. Black communities are still generally impoverished, just having black “sounding” name limits the job opportunities, and since the quality of education depends on the taxes collected in the community, the education available is not comparable to that of wealthier, white