The Denial And Mystification Of Whiteness For White Euro-Americans

Improved Essays
The Denial and Mystification of Whiteness for White Euro-Americans

According to Sue and Sue (2012), there are two underlying factors that amount for the denial and mystification of Whiteness for White Euro-Americans. First, Whiteness is transparent precisely because of its everyday occurrence-and because Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, average, and ideal (D.W. sue, 2004). Second, Euro-Americans often deny that they are white and many times become defensive, because they do not wan to accept White privilege. It is irrelevant, whether Whiteness defines a race (D.W. Sue & D. Sue, 2012). As stated in Sue and Sue (2012), “ What is more relevant is that Whiteness is associated with unearned privilege – advantages conferred on White American but not on person of color.”
I agree with what Sue and Sue stated. It has been my experience; some White Euro-Americans tend to deny that there is a thing as white privilege. If there is White privilege, they have not experienced it. I am going to coin it the David C. mentality. The unwillingness to step outside their race, remove the White lenses, and put on person of color lenses. Which then takes us back to the
…show more content…
According to Claude D. Steele (2013a), “Whistling Vivaldi” is story of a young (Staples) black man walking on predominantly white college campus. The young black graduate student noticed that white people around him seemed uneasy as they saw him walking on the street. Some would even cross the street in order create more distance between them and the young black man. The young black man learned that if be whistled Beatles tunes and Vivaldi four seasons the white people around him seemed to be more comfortable. His whistling seemed to lesson the blatant stereotypes, the Whites less feared him. This was relevant because, by young black man whistling Vivaldi, he became more than a stereotype. They could relate him, therefore they Whites felt more comfortable around the young black

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In this paper I will discuss the differences among white people who have experienced white privilege by analyzing “white privilege to a broke white” and comparing it to other articles that deal with…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An Indian’s Father Plea  What did the father of Wind-Wolf not understand? Why is the father writing the letter to the teacher? The father of Wind-Wolf did not understand why is child was called a slow learner. He thought it might be because he I still getting used to the western culture.…

    • 1701 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In Brent Staples' "Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Space" Staples uses an analogy to show what's it like to live in constant fear of being judged from his looks and having to sort of camouflage himself to fit in to our society. He has to shield himself from being constantly judged and all the unpleasantries that come from it. Those come from the white women and people that he meets, especially in the nighttime, and he wants to change that. Vivaldi's Four Seasons and cowbells and not remotely similar in any way but when they are used they are. Staples whistles are used to convince people that he is no mugger or rapist and so the classic tunes are used to mute those ideas and replace them.…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This was an age-old tradition taken over by white people within the theatre system in America. When these pieces became popular, they also introduced a new level of racism into our culture,…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In this society whiteness is considered to be the norm, and everyone else second. Throughout history the white race has been put before any other group of people. In a article titled “ The matter of whiteness ” by Richard Dyer he states, “As long as race is something only applied to non white people, as long as white people are not racially seen and named, they / we function as a human norm” (p.10). For example, whites consider themselves as humans and see people of color as raced humans. One other problem with the invisibility of whiteness is that whites tend to cater to other whites.…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White individuals, she asserts, might believe people of color live under a disadvantage in our society, but do not see themselves as privileged because of their whiteness. The author lists twenty-six ways she sees white people as having privileges that people of color do not enjoy. These differences range from white individuals able to shop without being followed or harassed, to people of color struggling to be accepted as “qualified” in their job if the position is an affirmative action one. She allows the word “privilege” is misleading, since when confronted with the term, most white people think of “privilege” as something like a favored state conferred by birth or luck. Ms .McIntosh…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article, What my Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege, the author explains how them changing their primary transportation method from a car to a bike has taught them a lesson about being privileged in America. Personally, I agree with everything that the author states and mentions within the article. A few main points I would like to highlight are privilege in general, the explanation of white privilege, and I would like to include my own experience viewing white privilege. Like the article mentions, the topic of white privilege is hard for a lot of people to talk about, and it is guaranteed to get some people into a heated argument.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White Like Me In the documentary “White Like Me,” Tim Wise discusses the hidden or perhaps more accurately, ignored racism present in America. He starts by pointing out that most white Americans are blind to the privilege that being white provides them. When asked what it means to be white, a white person often wouldn’t really know, because they don’t really have to think about it, which in of itself is one of the many privileges of being white. In fact, white people feel that when people attempt to compensate for white privilege, they are being discriminated against.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Media has capitalized on the white power structure capitalized on white people being superior in certain characteristics, traits, and attributes of other racial backgrounds. Moreover, the effect comes into play is that whiteness becomes hidden as an issue within society. So “by viewing whiteness as a rhetorical construction we avoid searching for any essential nature to witness”(Nakayama & Krizek, 1995). So whiteness is a strategic rhetoric that positions those who are included in a particular way. Subsequncly, this is due to how communication is impoverished within cultures.…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After some decisions made in recent court cases, society brings about the term “white privilege” quite often. Some in society say that white people may get less harsh punishments for the same criminal act than a person of color. Others in society say that their claims are untrue, leaving the question about whether white privilege is or isn’t an actuality. In the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” published online at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, author Peggy McIntosh claims that white people do not acknowledge white privilege because they are taught not to notice it.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 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
  • Superior Essays

    “White” Like Me At the heart of American culture is the concept of racism; a continuous cycle perpetuated through years of injustice by slavery, violence, segregation, and hatred. Much like the symbolic “tree of life”, racism’s roots extend deep into the earth, drawing sustenance from each member of society. Yet in that survival tactic, it unconsciously steals a little more from one side—this is white privilege. “White privilege” is a mere social construction by which the dominant white group justifies their advantages and higher quality of life through diminution of people of color. To be a member of the white race, it is easy to overlook subtle inequalities—such as the wealth gap, career opportunities, education, etc.…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When I think about white privilege, I see it as something I have to understand in order to truly feel a relation to my own privileges with race. “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.” (McIntosh 1990) When comparing other privileges McIntosh sees that most conditions in her life are influenced by her skin-color more than class, religion, ethnic status or geographical location. Tim Wise explains “even though their is more than one type of privilege, they can never fully eradicate white privilege.”…

    • 1988 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    White Privilege Essay

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The topic can be seen as controversial and easily dismissed by people because of the lead word “white”, which has the perception of being derogatory and limiting when you first glance at the title. Many people when they are initially introduced to the topic of white privilege they dismiss it because it just points out one race, nobody wants to be held responsible for something they feel they have no control over, some people don’t realize they have more privileges than others, and others just doesn’t read about because of the title. There’s not really a consensus among society based on if it exist or not, it’s up to the individual if they believe it or not. In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, Peggy McIntosh, asserts that certain people have doors open to them based upon nothing they did to earn them and that there are conditions of daily experiences that certain people are granted that seemed small and basic, but only are limited to people of white decent. In addition, McIntosh compares the privilege of white males and female to make the general white privilege argument more digestible to those who are unaware that they benefit from white privilege and those that don’t understand how they benefit from it.…

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Importance Of White Privilege In Society

    • 1560 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited

    White privilege is ignored by whites in society because we live in a nation of white dominance. Whites most often ignore the fact that blacks and other minorities do not enjoy these advantages. McIntosh defines white privilege as the many advantages white people enjoy, often seen as normal, and are largely unnoticed by society. Peggy McIntosh describes white privilege as “an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks. ”(Calihealth).…

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