White privilege is based on race; primarily skin color. The term is used by society to define privileges that benefit people that are identified as white; these benefits are considered to exceed what non-white people under the same social, political, or economic conditions normally experience. White privilege is a strong force in the United States of America. White privilege influences people’s lives on different levels in their human interactions (Lipsitz 2005). The notion operates as white people are seen as a force of earned privileges through acceptance and normalizing of everyday issues. Other races consider white privilege as oppressive forces in the society. Therefore, this paper will explain the perspective, prevalence, and influence of white privilege.
Historically, the construction of America and the definition of the nation has been a question of race privilege. According to Halewood, White privilege is a system of advantage based on race. The whites are the dominant race in America, in the context of the majority population and the hegemonic forces that determine the societal privilege (Halewood 2009). According to Tim Wise, various historical reasons support racism as a social construct. In the 1640s, black people were in permanent slavery (Wise 2011). The laws and rules of that time did not allow the black race to own any property, legal protection and access to rights. These factors then limited the economic prosperity of the African Americans and to this date the effects are still being experienced. The elite in the 17th century made laws that ensured that people of the European descent (Wise, 2011). The white people received freedom to own land, rights to legal processes among others, therefore causing a historical shift based on a socially constructed idea of whiteness. The belief that the white people in the position should oppress the black race has continued to keep the minorities oppressed over the years until today (Wise 2011).
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The African Americans biology was also considered inferior to the white biology. By the mid-19th century, the debate about race and biology had filled the science world as people looked for ways to justify slavery. Scientists asserted that the white race was superior due to their European ancestry (Wise 2011). The human zoos that tended to depict people of the black race as inferior and lesser people than white people, which enhanced the propaganda given at the time.
Looking at the social and historical construct of the human race helps in understanding the influence of White cultural dominance. White privilege is not just a personal ideology but a racial bias enhanced by the cultural messages, official rules, and practices as well as the individual's actions and beliefs ( McIntosh 2010). White privilege has been equated to backpack due to its components that are assessed every day and which the White people are ignorant. From the beginning, white people were taught that their lives were normal, regular, perfect and neutral. According to Halewood, white privilege can be seen as when seventeen-year-old gets pregnant, and everyone sees that as normal and personal matter, but when the same happens to a black girl, it is referred to as careless, uncontrolled and social deterioration. White privilege makes white people see their life as perfect regardless of the mistakes they make in life, and if the same mistakes were to be done by a Black person, their intelligence would be questioned. White people can attend more than six colleges, and no one would ask about their commitment to accomplishing anything in their life. White privilege has affected in the schools as students go to school, and discover that there are certain groups and thus begin to form an identity as it is in the society.
People of the white race have better access to housing, jobs, and education through strategies that have been set out in the country. These policies provide for a wide gap and a possessive investment in whiteness (Lipsitz 2005). The normalization of white privilege is affecting the way people live as many do not see anything wrong with such an issue. For many years, the civil rights laws have had little apparent impacts on white privilege and have little critical information on the aspect of white race consciousness (Halewood 2009). The civil rights laws have made no effort on erasing the white privilege and color picking off the minorities. The country changes and elected the first black president, Barrack Obama, but the question and influence of white privilege did not go away. The author also uses the terms post-racialism and deracination to explain the social and economic inequalities of non-white Americans, and how whiteness was presumed to be invisible to white Americans.
Halewood argues that white people are ignorant of the white privilege because their interpretation of the same factor lies in the fact that white privilege is only about black grievances. The election of President Obama led to a phase known as post-racialism, which has been dangerous to the politics of the country and difficult to create. President Obama won the election, but race continued to control the American insight of reality, and that whiteness was the lens through which all clarification was deflected (Halewood, 2009). His views were founded on an essay written by Tim Wise, in this essay, Wise attempted to explain white privilege by comparing society’s views of, then candidate, Sarah Palin’s personal life and family to that of black and brown families (Halewood, 2009). He used this comparison to emphasize a much larger racial double standard that he perceived to be part of the American society (Halewood, 2009).
Halewood argues that although black people have been liberated for most of the part and offered accessibility and rights to assets. Racism still advances the interests of the capital and wealthy through a system that rewards and gives white people preferential treatment (Halewood, 2009). Racialization is not the only effect of white privilege, but also the inequality of the economy can be attributed to white privilege. According to Halewood, 2009, the capital and elite interests and the election of Barrack Obama did not change anything. Additionally, color blindness and post-racialism have contributed to the economic and social inequality affecting America. Additionally, Halewood, 2009, argues that if whiteness is an ideology, then it has been made so by various factors such as the justice, undesirable rights, recognized equality and color blindness. Therefore, if the country decided to eradicate white privilege, then it could use distributive justice, practical equality, race consciousness and constructive rights. Post-racialism marginalizes the white privilege while deracination solidifies the whiteness notion. The liberal legalism is still inclined towards white privilege and the notion of whiteness.
The country is however still a long way from fighting whiteness and the privilege that make white people superior to the other minority groups. The country needs to assert the laws and needs a consensus to be able to resist and shortsightedness of the law to urge the deracination. Principles such as positive rights, race consciousness, distributive justice, and substantive equality are needed in the country, but that might be achieved after a very long time. People and the civil rights have to accept the notion of white privilege or used the law to change this perspective, and that is why the elements of oppression, colorblindness and racial hierarchy still affect the country (Halewood, 2009).
According to Halewood, the rules and contemporary state have achieved correctness through positioning the liberal ideologies by the critical legal theory. Therefore, the persistence of white privilege and whiteness have been combined with the new post-racialism and deracination forming quite a hazardous combination. Therefore, elimination of white privilege is essential for the society, both the minority and the dominant groups. Identifying the personal situation in the race, privilege, and relevance on one’s social and political context will play a significant role in enhancing and fostering an equal society that pushes against unearned privileges.
In conclusion, white privilege is the cause of many problems experienced by the African Americana and other minority groups in the United States. A notion that began during slavery has caused generations of black people to be dwarfed economically and socially. White privilege has been defined as the privileges that benefit people that are identified as white while oppressing the non-white people. White privilege alienate employees just because of race, students among other people in the society. Racism and white privilege generate a mindset that the dominant group is meant to receive all the privileges in the society. To the white people, their life is perfect and normal. That is why a pregnant girl at seventeen is not questioned by intellectuality and morality unlike a black girl with the same age. The dominant group is left with a notion of unreality and a mentality that is dysfunctional in the social setting. For example, white people are ignorant of the white privilege because their interpretation of the same factor lies in the fact that white privilege is only about black grievances. However, through elements such as distributive justice, substantive equality, race consciousness and positive rights, the white privilege would be reduced.
References
Halewood, P. (2009). Laying Down the Law: Post-Racialism and the De- Racination Project . Albany law review . Retrieved 24 April 2017, from http://www.albanylawreview.org/Articles/Vol72_4/72.4.0013%20Halewood.pdf
Lipsitz, G. (2005). The possessive investment in whiteness. White privilege: Essential readings on the other side of racism , 2 , 67-90.
McIntosh, P. (2010). White privilege and male privilege. The Teacher in American Society: A Critical Anthology , 121 .
Wise, T. (2011). White like me: Reflections on race from a privileged son. Soft Skull Press.
