White privilege

From WikEd

Contents 1 Definitions: 2 History 3 Response to Criticisms 4 Okay..So what IS White Privilege 5 Examples of Privilege 6 In the Classroom 7 External links 8 Testimonials or Personal Examples 9 References

[edit] Definitions:

• A right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor.
• Such a right or immunity attached spefically to people of white european descent.

White Privilege, a social relation

1. A right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others; an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities.
2. A special advantage or benefit of white persons; with reference to divine dispensations, natural advantages, gifts of fortune, genetic endowments, social relations, etc.
3. A privileged position; the possession of an advantage white persons enjoy over non-white persons.
4. The special right or immunity attaching to white persons as a social relation; prerogative.
5. display of white privilege, a social expression of a white person or persons demanding to be treated as a member or members of the socially privileged class.
6. To invest white persons with a privilege or privileges; to grant to white persons a particular right or immunity; to benefit or favor specially white persons; to invest white persons with special honorable distinctions.
7. To avail oneself of a privilege owing to one as a white person.
8. To authorize or license of white person or persons what is forbidden or wrong for non-whites; to justify, excuse.
9. To give to white persons special freedom or immunity from some liability or burden to which non-white persons are subject; to exempt.

White privilege is a term that has historically been used to identify the privileges, opportunities, and gratuities offered by the American society to anyone who is Caucasian and not a member of an ethnic group. This has manifested itself in a number of ways, such as, better housing, education, economic opportunities, and higher wages, etc. for Caucasians.

It is a Eurocentric attitude of superiority that is perpetuated in America by the so-called "Good Ole Boy" system of covert racism that prevents non-whites from recieving equal, fair and just treatment.

[edit] History

Whiteness as Property

In an article entitled Whiteness as Property, Cheryl I. Harris discusses both the contruction of race (historically in America) and the emergence of whiteness as property. She argues that both the subordination of Africans/Blacks and Native Americans, the former for appropriation of labor the latter for appropriation of land, were results of (or tied to) the racialized conceptions of property implemented by force and ratified by law (Crenshaw et.al,1995).

Harris argues that the origins of property rights are rooted in oppression and racial domination. The wealth of the nation gained by Black labor occurred because of the opinion that Blacks were to be treated as objects of property. It was not the interaction of race alone that opearated to systematically oppress Blacks and Native Americans, but the "interaction between conceptions of race and property which played a critical role in establishing and maintaining racial and economic subordination" (Crenshaw et.al, 1995).

Harris later goes on to state that ideas of 'white identity' and the myths and ideologies of racial hierarchy/racial stratification were intrinsically tied to the development and expansion of the system of chattel slavery. Both the political and economic interests which defended the enslavement of Blacks was extremely different from that of indentured servitude, and by the 1660s Black skin was sign of recognizable slavery by law. Racial identity was merged with not only legal status, but social stautus, as "black identity" was marked with enslavement, whereas "white identity" was marked as free (not a slave, regardless of indentured servitude it was not transferable to offspring by law...the tension between property and humanity is reflected in the use of blackwomen's bodies as simply a means to increase one's property). Black and White became polar constructs, which is important to remember when understanding the social construction of race (Crenshaw et. al, 1995).

Property and Expectations

The relationship between property and expectations remains highly significant, as the law both recognizes and protects the Expectation of rights as legal property. Harris' theory suggests not that all expectations lead to property, but that expectations of both the tangible and intangible things of value are protected by the law as property. Harris defines property as 'a legal construct by which selected private interests are protected and upheld'. She argues that the inequalities produced and reproduced by property rights are not inevitable, or natural, but creations of law, 'they are conscious selections regarding the structuring of social relations' (Crenshaw, et. al, 1995).

[edit] Response to Criticisms

White Privilege: Right or Wrong

Is White Privilege an Advantage?? : Earned Strength, Unearned Power

1.“Privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate. Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate.

2. "Not all of the privileges on the list are inevitably damaging. Some, like the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you, or that your race will not count against you in court, should be the norm in a just society. Others, like the privilege to ignore less powerful people, distort the humanity of the holders as well as the ignored groups.�?

[edit] Okay..So what IS White Privilege

Whiteness as a Consolation Prize

" It does not mean that all whites will win, but simply that they will not lose, if losing is defined as being on the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy--the position to which blacks have been consigned" (Crenshaw et.al, 1995).

"For example, Andrew Hacker, in his 1992 book Two Nations questions the value of whiteness according to the perception of whites. His study asks a group of white students how much money they would seek if they were changed from white to black. Most seemed to feel that it would not be out of place to ask for $50 million or $1 million for each coming black year, and irregardless of whether this figure represents an accurate amortization of the societal cost of being black in the U.S., it is clear that whiteness is still perceived to be valuable (regardless of class position)" (Crenshaw et.al, 1995).

Rights of Disposition

"The inalienability of whiteness should not preclude the consideration of whiteness as property since alienability is not inherent in the concept of property. (Noncommodification or market-inalienability of personal property or those things essential to human flourishing is necessary to guard against the objectification of human beings)" (Crenshaw et.al, 1995).

Subordination through Denial of Group Identity

"The law's approach to group identity reproduces subordination (in the past through "race-ing" a group by assigning a racial identity that is equated with inferiority, and in the present by erasing racial group identity). The law's denial of the existence of racial groups is not only predicted on the rejection of the ongoing presence of the past, but it is also grounded on a basic tenet of liberalism--that constitutional protections inhere in individuals not groups. Instead the law holds to the basic premise that definition from above can be fair to those below, that beneficiaries of racially conferred privilege have the right to establish norms for those who have historicaly been oppressed pursuant to those norms, and that race is not historically contingent" (Crenshaw et.al, 1998).

Right to Use and Enjoyment

"Whiteness is simulataneously identity and property interest, so it can be both experienced and used as a resource. The states recognition of the subordination of blacks elevated whiteness from a passive attribute to an object of law and a resource deployable at the social, political, and institutional level to maintain control" (Crenshaw et.al,1995).

Public Identity/Reputation

"The direct manifestation of the law's legitimation of whiteness as reputation is revealed in the well-established doctrine that to call a white person "black" is to defame her, and as late as 1957 one could sue for such as defamation. Whereas for a black person, to be called white, there is was no such recourse because due to the social hierarcy (as it existed), there was no harm in the reversal" (Crenshaw et.al, 1995).

The Absolute Right to Exclude

"Whiteness in large part has been charcterized not by an inherent unifying characteristic but by the exclusion of others deemed to be "not white". Moreover, the concept of whiteness was premised on white supremacy rather than on mere difference. Thus the concept of whiteness is built on exclusion and racial subjugation" (Crenshaw et.al, 1995).

A Subtle Message White privilege is not something that people brag about outwardly but it is something that is absorbed privately. It is an "invisible system" that most white people belong to, most without actually knowing they are a part of it. (Tatum, 1999) In this system, there is a feeling of dominance of the white race over the black race due to conditions lived in, socioeconomic status, or treatment in society. The ignorance of this privilege is most perpetuated in those who have "limited contact with blacks". (Tatum, 1999) These groups of white people never have the opportunity to really get to know some black people as human beings but insted see their lives juxtaposed with theirs. They make inferences that black people in poor neighborboods deserve where they are at because just looking at the surface, that is the biggest difference they might see. Watching the news media, that white person is confronted with messages on the television that categorize black people in negative roles. This white person may not realize it, but he/she is being given subtle messages that separate the two races causing the white person to form a strong, uninformed opinion.

[edit] Examples of Privilege

Questions to Consider from Peggy McIntosh article

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford and in which I would want to live.
3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
6. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization", I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
8. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
9. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can deal with my hair.
10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
12. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes or not answer letters without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.
13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
16. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color, who constitute the worlds' majority, without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
18. I can be sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge" I will be facing a person of my race.
19. If a traffic cop pulls me over, or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
21. I can go home from most meetings or organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in rather than isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.
22. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.
23. I can choose public accommodations without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
24. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my race will not work against me.
25. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.
26. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color that more or less matches my skin.

[edit] In the Classroom

White privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that one can count on cashing in each day, but about which was meant to seem normal, keeping the benefactors oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. To counteract white privilege, the literature suggests that teachers

• • increase their knowledge and implementation of curriculum and pedagogy that have been shown to be effective with students of color (Delpit, 1995; Harris, V. J., 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Sheets, 2000) and

• • adopt a transformative multicultural stance from which they challenge structural policies that undermine the academic success of students of color (Banks & McGee Banks, 2004)

[edit] External links

• "The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice" Ian F. Haney Lopez, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 1-62, 6-7, 11-17 (Winter, 1994)
• European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia
• Poverty, Racism and Literacy
• Racism in America's Schools
• Curriculum and Instruction To Reduce Racial Conflict
• Nova Online: Does Race Exist? A Proponent's Perspective
• The Origin of Racism in Europe
• The Myth of Reverse Racism

[edit] Testimonials or Personal Examples

Testimonial Examples of "White Privilege":

Our school social worker provided examples of white privilege that hadn't even occurred to me. For instance, there are only "flesh-colored" band-aids resembling caucasian skin. I know this example seems minor, but each time I see a "flesh band-aid" on African-American skin, especially one's face,I am reminded of this greater concept. Greater examples included not being followed around in a store due to prejudiced notions correlating with shop-lifting.

Other things that show examples of "white privileges": In the art room when I was younger most of the time when we would make self-portrait collages there would only be the colors of the rainbow paper and then one light peach paper that we would use as skin color. Nowadays they have adjusted the colors in the classroom to allow for everyone to be included. Crayola has a brand of markers out now called "multicultural" and it includes 10 different shades of skin colors. -Jessica Arnold

I recently took a "Community Discourse" workshop through my school district, in which the required reading was "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PH.D. I highly recommend this book as it clearly opened my eyes to the privileges that caucasians have. In the book Tatum also explains that we all have advantages and disadvantages. Having white skin is one advantage.

The example of the flesh colored band-aids reminds me of an example that was shared in the aforementioned workshop. The speaker asked us to visit the hair-care aisle at our local grocery store. One would notice the vast difference in product selection between hair-care products for white people versus those for African-Americans (or anyone that has coarser hair texture). - Jennifer Adams

I learned of white privilege in one of my courses this past year and it angered me that I had not fully realized the difficulties that other cultures faced until now. I think that one of our roles as educators is to try and teach the next generation equality of all cultures. -G. Vigneron

I read McIntosh's article for an Anthropolgy class and I found it very surprising how offended many students in our discussion group became as we analyzed the various points the author made. For example, with the band-aid example, one girl became upset and stated that it would not be cost effective if a bandage company had to make bandages in every possible skin tone, etc. As a white person, I am not forced to see the advantages that have been given to me, but I remain aware that they exist. I'm glad that someone finally pointed them out to everyone else. Being white is just too easy sometimes. It can become easy to distance myself from the problems that exist and leave them for someone else to solve.

Ralph Alexander- I am a white person and would like to teach again someday and I have recently read an interesting book that discussed this problem in some detail. It was written by Lisa Delpit and is titled Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict In The Classroom. She sees the issue as an issue of power in the classroom and she discusses five aspects of this power.

1. Issues of Power are enacted in the classroom.
2. There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a culture of power.
3. The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power.
4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring makes acquiring power easier.
5. Those with power are frequently least aware of--or least willing to acknowledge-- its exsistance. Those with less power are often most aware of its exsistance.

I think this is telling and explains a little why it is so difficult to deal with the problem. I seems social psychologists should be able to help us figure out how to share power more effectively and help us look at ourselves and the problem more effectively.

I don't know if psychologists can solve this problem at his point in time because the people who set the rules for the APA are white, middle or upper class, use their experiences to decide what normal is and they are not known for being flexible. Just look at any evidence that suggests the DSM 4tr change the way they classify diagnosises. The problem is not all white people are priveleged (not saying there are not advantages but in most situations it may be less than others think) and it does not help to make things black or white. That reminds me you did not mention the negative connotations for black or dark in our language or the positive connotations for white. Black sheep, pure (white) as snow, etc.. I like people on a personal basis and I want others to judge me the same way. Teresa Hibler

It was very interesting for me to read about white privilege. I'm black and while I am aware of the racism that takes place in our country, I've never really considered myself to be less privileged than my white peers. It definitely gave me something to think about. Good reads: Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin It's an autobiographical story of a white journalist who gets skin treatments and essentially becomes a black man. In 1959 he leaves his family to live in the deep south as a black man. It'd be interesting to see someone do something similar almost 50 years later. I wonder how much has changed. -JD

At a staff meeting early in the year, our school psychologist gave us two lists of life skills, one for the "privileged" and one for the "not so privileged" as she put it. Being teachers, we all naturally fit into the privileged category.Most of the skills required by others were issues that we never thought of such as "Do you know how to keep you clothes from being stolen at the laundromat?" or "Where is the first place you would go if your family ran out of food?" We were forced to see that many of a students' families are face d with these issues every day. Although it was not presented as a white privilege issue, it might just as well have been. Recently I helped a young black woman move out of her family's home. The roadblocks she hit were unbelievable, but the minute I stepped in things moved smoothly. I was prepared to be very rude when it came to getting a medical card for her daughter ( she had made several trips to the aid office to get the card). It magically appeared within about ten minutes when I intervened. She had already waited on several occasions and had missed two mornings of school with no results. Housing was not available until I made a call to the housing authority. We had an apartment in less than a week. She had been told she was number 60 on the list. The only "advantage" she had over me was that she knew where to go and what to ask for; I wouldn't have a clue how to start ( and often end) from nothing. Whatever I have wanted or needed has always been easily available. I've never wondered if the bank was going to give me a loan or been followed in a store because of the color of my skin. My students know the stores that announce codes meaning a black person is in the store and I was couldn't believe that while we were working in a park one afternoon that one of them pointed out a "unmarked" van and identified it as a police vehichle. Sure enough when the guy got out of the van, it was apoliceman that I knew. I have no need to know this stuff and my students know it before they reach high school. - Nancy Meeker

[edit] References

Chubbuck, Sharon M. (2004). "Whiteness Enacted,Whiteness Disrupted: The Complexity of Personal Congruence". American Educational Research Jdurnal Summer 2004, Vol. 41, No. 2,jpp. 301-333

(Eds.)Crenshaw, Kimberle, Gotanda, N., Peller, G., Thomas, K. (1995). "Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement". The New Press: New York.

(Eds.) Essed, Philomena, and Goldberg, David (2002). "Race Critical Theories". Blackwell Publishers Inc: Massachusetts

Massey, Douglas S., and Denton, Nancy A. (1993). "American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass". Harvard University Press: Masschusetts

McIntosh, Peggy (1988)."White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies".

Oliver, Melvin L., and Shapiro, Thomas M. (1997). "Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality". Routledge: New York

Smedley, Audrey (1999). "Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview". Westview Press: Colorado

Tatum, Bevverly Daniel. (1999). "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?". Basic Books: United States.

An anti-racist resource white privilege

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