Exploring the Concept of White Privilege

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Everyone has privilege in one way or another. People feel that privilege is give to one race more, instead of every race. The race that it’s getting more privilege is the White race and with that comes White privilege. White means the people who have a light skin color also known as Caucasian or European and privilege means an advantage over others. An example of privilege is getting away with something that someone may not get away with. So White privilege is defined as “an invisible package of unearned assets that [someone that is White] can count on cashing in each day, but about which [they were] ‘meant’ to remain oblivious” (McIntosh 1990: 1). McIntosh is saying in that quote is that Whites do not recognize that they have this privilege …show more content…

In Days of Destruction Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges Chapter 2, he shows that the minority is fully aware that White privilege is there, in a quote saying “I had urged [the minority] to have faith in America and in white society” (Hedges 2012: 60). In this quote, he shows symbolic interactionism by using the Labeling Theory. The labeling theory is when a label is being put onto something to describe it. And in that instance, it was put onto society and it was the word “white.” It was being put there to show the minority that had to hope in society, but mainly in white society because he feels that the majority of our society is controlled by white people. Coming from Schaeffer, he says that Blacks are discriminated against because they are inferior to whites (Schaeffer 2012:62). This is important because when related to Symbolic interactionism it is labeling Blacks as inferior and Whites as superior and coming from Lipsitz, “‘Americans’ means ‘whites’”(Lipsitz 1998: 67). It symbolizes that blacks think that they are not Americans and making them less a part of our country. This explains why white people are unaware of their superiority and how black people are aware of that they are inferior to Whites. This should …show more content…

We have to separate politics and the criminal justice system. The reason you would separate them is that you want to view them in different lights and you want to label them differently when it comes to Symbolic Interactionism. When it comes to politics it easy to leave people out of it because you think their views are not important or not relevant, labeling them as not important or relevant. Will economics you want to stop labeling people as unworthy of a place that they are clearly fit for and that they earn that spot that they are fighting for. When it comes to education, you want to stop labeling people unworthy of class that they are clearly working to get into because of their race or ethnicity. Selective perception is what white people are doing to make sure that they stay in power. Interlocking oppression is used to label people as unworthy of a spot that they should have because they have earned that

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