White Privilege in America

For white Americans, anti-racism training has never been more necessary [Financial Times]

What is White Privilege?

Adam Rutherford wrote in his book,  How to Argue With a Racist, that “When you have only ever experienced privilege, equality feels like oppression.” In today’s society, white privilege is defined as the benefits and advantages handed to white people because of a system that is formed and standardized on the values of white Europeans. With events starting from decades back to movements in these past months, there is something that needs to be changed. Americans need to know there is a definite display of white privilege throughout the nation. White privilege could be found in day-to-day transactions and in white people’s ability to move through the professional and personal worlds with relative ease. For many, white privilege was an invisible force that white people needed to recognize. It was being able to walk into a store and find that the prominent displays of shampoo and pantyhose catered toward your hair type and skin tone, turn on the television and see people of your race widely represented, and move through life without being racially profiled or unfairly stereotyped.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is a policy that aims to increase opportunities in the workplace or education for underrepresented parts of society by considering an individual's color, race, sex, religion, or national origin. Though it also can be seen as “positive discrimination”. Throughout the years, there have been disputes about affirmative action. In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed colleges to give a leg up in admissions to members of groups historic discrimination had kept that down. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the court stated that colleges could consider race to enhance student diversity but not to compensate for prior discrimination. That’s how we arrived at our curious cul-de-sac on affirmative action, which has made it harder for Asian Americans to get into elite colleges. Research from Princeton University sociologists shows Asian Americans need SAT scores 140 points higher than white students, when all other things are equal, to get into elite colleges. One case recently was, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard which was a lawsuit striving for fair admissions for all races and discriminatory admission policies against Asian Americans. 

Workplace + Housing Effects

Racial preference in the workplace began in the United States in the 17th century, when the country transitioned from white indentured servitude for labor to the institution of slavery. Africans replaced the poor white labor force, who were promoted to mid-level positions of policing the enslaved, such as slave patrols. Evidence shows that discrimination against white men is quite rare. For example, of the 91,000 employment discrimination cases before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, approximately 3% percent are discrimination cases against white men. 

The Federal Housing Administration helped create wealth through homeownership for many white families while using practices known as redlining to denying these benefits to Blacks. Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $120 billion in home loans. Approximately 98% went to whites. Even though the GI Bill gave African American veterans the opportunity to make use of the housing provisions, most banks rarely gave loans for mortgages in Black or “ghetto” neighborhoods, and African Americans were primarily excluded from buying a home in the white suburban neighborhoods. As a result, the government helped to create segregated communities. Today, many Black and Latinx mortgage applicants are still 60% more likely than whites to be turned down for a loan, even after controlling for factors related to employment, finances, and neighborhoods.

The Unfair and Unjust System

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, indicating that racial profiling continues to be a problem. A report by the US Department of Justice found that Blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

This privilege is invisible to many white people because it seems reasonable that a person should be extended compassion as they move through the world. It seems logical that a person should have the chance to prove themselves individually before they are judged. It’s supposedly an American ideal. But it’s a privilege often not granted to people of color. Experiences such as going to the grocery store all the way to criminal justice exemplify how clearly white individuals carry their invisible knapsack of privilege.

Works Cited

Niehuis, Sylvia. "Helping white students explore white privilege outside the classroom." North American Journal of Psychology, vol. 7, no. 3, 2005, p. 481. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A159922659/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=2a071b42. Accessed 10 May 2021.

Heinze, Peter. "Let's talk about race, baby: how a white professor teaches white students about white privilege & racism." Multicultural Education, vol. 16, no. 1, 2008, p. 2. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A193510669/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=ea8bc1e9. Accessed 20 May 2021.

Moore, Julia Robinson, and Shannon Sullivan. "Rituals of White Privilege: Keith Lamont Scott and the Erasure of Black Suffering." American Journal of Theology & Philosophy, vol. 39, no. 1, 2018, p. 34+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A553202745/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=862c3719. Accessed 21 May 2021.

Greenberg, Elayne E. "UNSHACKLING PLEA BARGAINING FROM RACIAL BIAS." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 111, no. 1, 2021, p. 93+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A659376672/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=9118cef7. Accessed 18 May 2021.

Shanks, Neil Graham. "We Shall See: Critical Theory and Structural Inequality in Economics." The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 78, no. 1, 2017, p. 1D+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A581023167/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=075495bd. Accessed 17 May 2021.

Rofes, Eric, et al. "White men and affirmative action: a conversation." Social Justice, vol. 24, no. 2, 1997, p. 133+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A20383279/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=60e9c80a. Accessed 15 May 2021.

Yancy, George, and Tracey Ann Ryser. "Whiting Up and Blacking Out: White Privilege, Race, and 'White Chicks'." African American Review, vol. 42, no. 3-4, 2008, p. 731+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A208881662/AONE?u=j206901&sid=AONE&xid=9929c9f8. Accessed 10 May 2021.