The Pros And Cons Of White Privilege

Improved Essays
Privilege is a right, advantage, favor, or immunity specially granted to a specific individual, group, or class, and withheld from certain or all others. White privilege is a form of social privileges that solely benefits white people and excludes people of color. For some apparent reason many people become blinded, ignorant, and oblivious when white privilege becomes the topic of conversation. “White Privilege is the other side of racism” (Rothenberg, 53). Although we live in a country where we are constantly told all men are created equal, there is an overt contradiction to the ideology simply because of conspicuous white privileges. There are several amounts of studies that quantify white privilege into undeniable statistics. There is a …show more content…
The extensive notion that white people have access to specific privileges; of which people of color do not, because of their “whiteness” declares the actuality of white privilege. It can exist without white people 's knowledge of its occurrence. If one does not believe it exists, it is probably because he/she is enjoying the benefits of these given privileges. These are the same people who claim that white privilege is fictitious and people of color or anyone else who point out social injustice are just lazy and complainers. White privilege is seemingly invisible to those who enjoy it and grants white people permission to experience these benefits unconsciously. Peggy McIntosh elucidates the idea of white privilege as an “invisible backpack” of unearned rights and privileges that white people enjoy. "Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they 've done or failed to do." …show more content…
One might think that a criminal record matters more than race, but an online study found that resumes with white-sounding names spurred 50 percent more callbacks from a prospective employer than the ones with black-sounding names, even when all job-related qualifications and credentials were the same. Studies have also shown that a white male with a criminal record will more likely get a call-back for an interview than a black male who does not have a criminal background (Sanders). “White Americans are less likely to be arrested and jailed. While people of color only make up 30% of the total population, they are 60% of the U.S. prison population” (Sanders). People of color hold their minority status within the United States due to their income, wealth, and health outcomes. It is often challenging to extricate class from race. When mentioning “welfare queens” and/or “at-risk communities,” without any mention of race, the assumptions are automatically drawn to blacks and Hispanics. It is true that prosperous African Americans will have to deal with even more racial profiling. They are perceived as “looking like” they do not belong in their affluent neighborhoods and suspected of being in that particular neighborhood to steal expensive cars and break into

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    White Advantage In the article “White privilege to a broke white person” by Gina Crosley-Corcoran she argues how being white in society did not make her advantaged in society by stating her own personal experiences. White privilege is recognized amongst white individuals and many have been taught not to recognize it for what it is but not every white person gets the same glamorous lifestyle. Being white is just a color that does not define the future for someone. White privilege is viewed in different perspectives amongst different backgrounds.…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “What is a ‘System of Privilege”, sociologist and public speaker Allan G. Johnson explains how privilege, specifically white privilege in this case, works as a system. “Privilege does not guarantee good outcomes for the privileged group or bad outcomes for everyone else” according to Johnson, however, it does load the odds one way or the other. Unfortunately, social privilege is often invisible to those who experience them, claims Johnson. Johnson goes on to describe a few examples to validate his claim. For example, in a recent survey a group of volunteers were asked to close their eyes and picture a drug dealer.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In today’s society, I perceive myself as white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, upper-class, college-educated, and Jewish. That is a gift in today’s world. I am fortunate to come from a privilege background, but I recently started to have more sense of appreciation of my white privilege ever since I started to take a Gender, Race, and Class course. One of the readings that really caught my eye was “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy Mcintosh, and in her article, she discusses how some people who have white privilege do not seem to recognize the privilege that they have. She gives numerous of examples on how white privilege helps in real life encounters.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, there is the discussion of white privilege being some sort of invisible benefit that accompanies whites while they remain oblivious to it. McIntosh then goes into how she came about her stance of white privilege through her studies in male privilege over women. In this stance, McIntosh stated how men were unable to acknowledge the idea that they were privileged compared to women but were able to say that women were in a disadvantaged position. She connects this idea with her statement on white privilege by showing how the men’s denial was similar to the denial of whites and their state of privilege over the other races. McIntosh saw this disadvantaged state…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe white privilege is an excuse for “leftist” to give reason for why middle and upper class people have in the country. The argument for white privilege is America is a deeply racist country, infused with white skin privilege, and if you are not white you cannot overcome the racist system that the western society is found upon. There is no statistical evidence that white people have any more advantage in life than any other person does. People are in control of their own welfare and choices that they make throughout their life.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    : Yes, in my article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, I name over 25 privileges that I have because I am white. I see my skin color as an advantage to anything I wanted to achieve. This advantage over other racial groups is called white privilege. I believe that this privilege could be identified by white Americans by first realizing that we have this privilege.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary of racial privilege The article “White Debt” by Eula Biss from the New York Times Magazine addresses the power and privilege that been given to the white race in America. According to Biss, Privilege is defined as a system that is a combination of privacy and rules that creates differences between people which make the community weaken. (par 7). For instance, when Biss was in college, the Amherst Police caught her due to the graffiti she had posted. They treated her fairly, and they didn’t blame her for that.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unearned Privilege

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What exactly is white privilege, one might say? White privilege is knowing that one has unearned privilege but choose to ignore the meaning of it. " White Privilege Shapes the U.S" by Robert Jensen, first appeared in the Baltimore Sun on July 19, 1998. In this editorial, Jensen speaks about his personal experience on white privilege and how being white can give them more unearned privilege than those of other races. Furthermore, Jensen states that unearned white privilege was given rather than by working hard for it, but faces the choice on how they use it, and to admit they have benefitted from it.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” was written to inform the reader about white privilege and male privilege. It states that men necessarily do not realize that they hold an advantage over women just as though whites do not always realize they are more privileged than blacks. The author Peggy McIntosh thoroughly describes that just by being born with white skin, you automatically are at an advantage over someone who was not born white. She also explains that men do in fact recognize women’s status in the world and will do certain things to improve it. However, they are unwilling to do anything to lessen their own privilege.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People often think of race as something that is ethnic and exotic, something that only people of color possess. However, whiteness is just as much of a race as any other, yet we continue to ignore the fact that being white is conceptually the same as being black, Hispanic, Muslim, or what have you. This idea is called white privilege and it is based on the social construct that gives white people an advantage, socially, over all other races. Whiteness is constructed in such a way that it is often seen as a default and the norm and is subsequently, basically invisible. Yet, if we can’t see it, then how do we know how whiteness exists as a race or how operates and affects people?…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White privilege is a topic that is always existing and has for a period of time, but it is not talked about that often and actions are not taken against it. This issue is difficult to diminish because the majority of people that are in authority are most like to be caucasians who are in that position thanks to the power of white privilege. It has cause many problems and caused many cases of unfair of treatment anywhere from inside a personal household to a community, to the society, and all the way to the institutional level, and can be the source of systematic discriminations as far as to the federal government and to the supreme court. 
Unfair treatment in the workplace, in the social justice system may be an effect for life threatening issues. An example of this that I wall be discussing in my paper will involve a case that happened recently, comprised of the association with an African American victim and a Caucasian authority.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White Privilege White privilege is the idea that whites have a particular advantage in society over the minority groups in terms of social, political or economic situations. White privilege advantages whites in many ways. The most important way I feel that white privilege advantages whites in that they may never have to worry about getting in trouble with the law enforcement officers over unnecessary things. For example, with the Sandra Bland case, the officer that arrested her was put on administrative duties for not following proper traffic procedures.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The biggest problem with white privilege is the lack of acknowledgment. White privilege is something every white person has. White privilege is advantages white people benefit from on a daily basis. You cannot physically see white privilege therefore some deny the fact that it even exist. There is no denying that if you are white you will always have more advantages than a person of color.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    What is white privilege? There have been many police brutality reports that show young black men being killed by white officers for no reason. The officers accused do not get convicted properly. In the court system, African Americans are ten times more likely to get an improper conviction for their crimes. An African American male is convicted of crimes they do not commit.…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Importance Of White Privilege In Society

    • 1560 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited

    This privilege creates an ease that other races do not have, nor will they ever have, until the white race acknowledges that privilege exists. The white race acknowledging their privilege would mean agreeing that racism exists, and the white man would have to give up his power, agreeing that the other races have been oppressed by the white race. The racial identity of a white male or white female seems to be hidden, underlying, and almost secretive. "White" people have been placed on a pedestal for a long time, leading to stereotypes about other races that perpetuate the inequality(Recupero pg 1). White privilege has existed throughout history and is still a touchy subject in white society today.…

    • 1560 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited
    Great Essays