Constructing Race Creating White Privilege By Emvidson Buck Analysis

The article, “Constructing Race, Creating White Privilege” by Pem Davidson Buck argues about the “psychological wage” that was created by the system of race and white privilege embedded in our society. Buck gave us an overview of what happened before and after Bacon’s Rebellion creating the major changes in our society. Before the rebellion, people love each other, but during and after the rebellion people started to feel that they should have power over others which lead to the creation of white privilege. She mentions construction of race because since there is racism and a difference in skin color, elites want to distance themselves. The elites distance themselves from the poor because they are not at the status and creating “white privilege” would make those who are white feel like they are better …show more content…
(Buck 33) One thing that Buck states in her article was “given the tendency of slaves, servants, and landless free Europeans and Africans to cooperate in rebellion, the elite had to ‘teach Whites the value of whiteness’ in order to divide and rule their labor force.” (Buck 33) The elites had to show the poorer white that they have power over those who are black leading to the idea of white privilege. She talks about the construction of race because there were laws created to separate to whites from the blacks. That meant white women who were married to men who were either black or native american would be punished. Buck also talks about the system and how the separation and subordination of our society has let and “required men kill some white people to keep them white and to kill many blacks to keep them black.” (Buck 34) She shows that the construction of race in our society has created a place where people have a place and that they are confined in