Racial injustice is alive and well in America. Studies have shown that Whites enjoy racial privileges as they have higher lifetime earnings, access to health care and high quality education compared to Blacks. However, the existence of racial privilege has been constantly denied and debated by Whites. Racial privilege is defined as when a White person’s has better life opportunities and consequences than if he or she were to be a person of another race. Therefore, life circumstances do not determine racial privilege. Instead, racial privilege is either present or absent in a result of group membership. For instance, White enjoys certain privileges only due to their race, regardless of their life circumstances. While Whites do go through hardships,
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A total of 94 individuals who identified as European-American or White participated in this study by completing two unrelated surveys on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The first survey was about beliefs about inequality in America and the second survey was about childhood memories. The participants were randomly assigned to either the White Privilege condition or No Privilege condition. In the White Privilege condition, participants were instructed to think about inequality in America while they completed the survey. Then, the participants read paragraph about White’s privileges in American society. In the No Privilege condition, participants were only instructed to think about inequality in America and were told that they would be asked about American inequality. Participants then had to compete a five-item measure about belief in White privilege. Participants were asked to rate their agreement on each item on a 7-point scale, with 1 being “Strongly Disagree” and 7 being “Strongly Agree”. Then, in the second survey, participants completed questions which measured life hardships, including filler items about their childhood and adult life. Life hardships were measured with five items and participants were asked to rate their agreement on a 7-point scale. Finally, participants were asked to complete demographic
A total of 94 individuals who identified as European-American or White participated in this study by completing two unrelated surveys on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The first survey was about beliefs about inequality in America and the second survey was about childhood memories. The participants were randomly assigned to either the White Privilege condition or No Privilege condition. In the White Privilege condition, participants were instructed to think about inequality in America while they completed the survey. Then, the participants read paragraph about White’s privileges in American society. In the No Privilege condition, participants were only instructed to think about inequality in America and were told that they would be asked about American inequality. Participants then had to compete a five-item measure about belief in White privilege. Participants were asked to rate their agreement on each item on a 7-point scale, with 1 being “Strongly Disagree” and 7 being “Strongly Agree”. Then, in the second survey, participants completed questions which measured life hardships, including filler items about their childhood and adult life. Life hardships were measured with five items and participants were asked to rate their agreement on a 7-point scale. Finally, participants were asked to complete demographic