“We need
to be clear that there is no such thing as giving up one’s
privilege to be ‘outside’ the system. One is always in the
system. The only question is whether one is part of the system in a
way that challenges or strengthens the status quo. Privilege is not
something I take and which therefore have the option of not taking.
It is something that society gives me, and unless I change the
institutions which give it to me, they will continue to give it, and
I will continue to have it, however noble and equalitarian my
intentions.”
− Harry
Brod, professor of sociology at University of Northern Iowa
White privilege is defined
as “an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted
to those of us who, by race, resemble the people who dominate the
powerful positions in our institutions.”
One of the primary white
privileges is that of having greater access to power and resources
than people of color do; in other words, purely on the basis of our
skin color, doors are open to whites that are not open to other
people. Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D., nationally known consultant who
has focused for more than thirty-five years on organizational change,
diversity, and white privilege, says …
“White privilege has
nothing to do with whether or not we are “good” people. We who
are white can be absolute jerks and still have white privileges;
people of color can be the most wonderful individuals in the world
and not have them. Privileges are bestowed on us by the institutions
with which we interact solely because of our race, not because we are
deserving as individuals.”
(Francis E. Kendall, Ph.D. Understanding White Privilege.
2002.)
Whites get white privilege
prenatally. They are literally pre-born into the entitlement. On the
other hand, people of color, by necessity, must be able to read the
white system and abide by the rules therein. Whites are able to live
out their lives knowing very little of the experiences of people of
color. At most, their understanding of racism or whiteness is an
intellectual exercise, something they can work at for a period of
time and then move on, rather than its being central to their
survival.
Consider a very simple
example of white privilege largely unrealized by the majority:
If you are white and walk
into any drug store in the country that carries hair products, you
can be sure that you will find a wide variety of products designed
for your hair. Black hair products are much harder to find; often
African Americans have to drive for miles to buy what they need. A
trivial example? An unintentional difference? No matter, this is a
simple reality afforded by white privilege.
Being white enables people
to decide whether they are going to listen to others, to hear them,
or neither. Whiteness also affords the endowment to discount the
worth of people of color, their opinions, their behavior, and even
their future – all based on a white assessment.
White privilege is NOT the
suggestion that white people have never struggled. And, white
privilege is NOT the assumption that everything a white person has
accomplished is unearned. Instead, white privilege should be viewed
as a built-in advantage, separate from one’s level of income or
effort.
“White privilege is
not just the power to find what you need in a convenience store or to
move through the world without your race defining your interactions.
It’s not just the subconscious comfort of seeing a world that
serves you as normal.
“It’s also the
power to remain silent in the face of racial inequity. It’s the
power to weigh the need for protest or confrontation against the
discomfort or inconvenience of speaking up. It’s getting to choose
when and where you want to take a stand. It’s knowing that you and
your humanity are safe.”
(Cory Collins. “What
Is White Privilege, Really?” Teaching Tolerance. Issue 60,
Fall 2018.)
In a 2015 study, Stanford
researchers found that on an individual level, whites do not think
that the privileges extend to them. The research by L. Taylor
Phillips, a PhD student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and
Brian Lowery, the Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of
Organizational Behavior at Stanford GSB, found that whites exposed to
evidence of racial privilege responded by claiming their own personal
hardships.
Those surveyed didn’t
deny the existence of racial privileges held by whites as a group,
they just came up with other reasons – namely, personal obstacles –
why they should be considered differently from that overall group.
Lowery explains the
findings …
“You like to have
nice things. But you don’t want to think you got those things as a
result of unearned advantages. People feel better about what they
have if they believe they have earned those things as a result of
hard work, not via birthright. So denying built-in advantages is
essentially a form of self-protection.”
(L. Taylor Phillips and
Brian Lowery. “The Hard-Knock Life? Whites Claim Hardships in
Response to Racial Inequity.” Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology. November 2015.)
Understanding white
privilege could lead people to be less forgiving toward poor whites –
a backlash of sympathy associated with greater punishment and blame
and fewer external attributions for a poor white person’s plight.
It is unfortunate that white privilege lessons may increase unfounded
beliefs that poor white people have failed to take advantage of their
racial privilege. Knowledge may be misinterpreted and misapplied –
a sad consequence, indeed.
(E. Cooley, et al.
“Complex intersections of race and class: Among social liberals,
learning about White privilege reduces sympathy, increases blame, and
decreases external attributions for White people struggling with
poverty.” Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2019.)
Of course, race categories
are a problematic social construction. How wonderful it would be if
race did not matter. Even in the 21st century, that is not
the case. Having white skin confers benefit and privileges that white
people often do not realize, and that privilege occurs on day to day
basis. Dr
Lee Edwards, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and
Communications at the London School of Economics explains …
“White privilege is a
root cause of microaggressions that construct the ‘other’ on a
day to day basis, the ‘drip, drip’ of a leaking tap that
continuously, inexorably inflicts the pain of racism. If racism is to
be overcome then it needs to be dismantled. Calling it out is
everyone’s job, but the media and the communications industries
play a special role here because of their power to represent the
world to us.”
(Lee Edwards. “George
Floyd, racism, white privilege and the media. London School of
Economics and Political Science. June 2, 2020.)
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