The Influence Of White Privilege In Society

White privilege has been present throughout history. From the centuries of slavery to the ongoing racial discrimination today, white privilege has negatively affected this society. Many say that white privilege has ceased to exist, but evidence has been used to prove that theory wrong. Reasons such as that many black people are prone to judgement and discrimination when in public. The African race don't obtain many opportunities in comparison to the white race, who have more benefits in life. For these reasons, I refute Carol Swain’s claim that “white privilege is a myth”. After decades of tormenting and degrading, it is no surprise that black people feel the need have to act, dress, and speak when leaving their homes. Brent Staples shares his encounters with white people in his essay, “Black Men and Public Space”. He writes, “...I often see women who fear the worst from me. …show more content…
Ian Ayres addresses this issue in his article “When Whites Get a Free Pass: Research Shows White Privilege Is Real”. He writes, “White privilege...continues in the form of discretionary benefits, many of them unconscious ones. These privileges are hard to eradicate, but essential to understand.” Giving more to the whites has become a natural instinct for people in any situation. “Discriminatory gifts” as Ayres calls them. An example is getting a pass for offenses minorities are usually punished for. Sharon Olds justifies this issue in her poem, “On the Subway”. She uses the mind of a white person when addressing white privilege. She writes, “...I am living off his life, eating the steak he does not eat, as if I am taking the food from his mouth.” She knows that blacks work hard to get where they are in life, yet in many cases whites are the ones gaining from their hard work which closely resembles slavery. So has slavery really been abolished, or have we just found a better way to hide it in the modern