Racial and Ethnic Matter - Assignment Example

Task White Privilege is discrimination that occurs because of race issues. This means that whites accrue a lot of favor as opposed to other groupings. All this discrimination comes from the fact that the whites’ rating is considered higher than that of the blacks. The whites get many favors in the society. This means that they get favored in areas of work and other social places. This means that white privilege is something that has and will still be there. Someone who enjoys the white privilege is someone who gets more opportunities than those around him.

Therefore, white privilege is a question of who enjoys favors on the expense of the other people. White privilege is an unhealthy condition that leads to a lot of suffering to the opponents. Many critics that white privilege is a practice that undermines the people. Though racism is an outdated practice, many people still evaluate others based on skin color. 2 White privilege is at times referred to be an unearned privilege. This means that though many people claim that white privilege is still in existence, some people still defy this news.

This is because white privilege is at times referred to be an exercise that does not concern itself with color. The idea of unearned privilege means that some genders are still way too far in experiencing the white privilege. This discrimination comes from the fact that favor begets people out of various reasons. The other reason as why the white privilege holds the name undeserved privilege is because it is misquoted by many people. This means that many people think that white privilege is all about the color, whereas it is inclusive of other things like the origin of a person.

3 It is always healthy to be aware of the white privilege. This is because a person who is not aware of its existence may not know that there are still injustices in this world. When one is aware of the white privilege, they are likely to fight for their rights at whatever cost. The right privilege enables those in that criterion to act with the idea that every one is watching them. It is also difficult for people to admit that they have the white privilege. This is because the white privilege labels the white as people who act because of racism.

No whites would like to hear that he is a racist in his own capacity. Therefore, white privilege is something that is exceedingly controversial. 4 The obliviousness of white advantage is deeply in cultured in the United States to preserve the falsehood of meritocracy. This refers to the illusion that there is democracy for all in the United States whereas this democracy exists only for the privileged few. This illusion is meant to keep the ruling elites in power to advance their own interests while keeping the masses from in check through illusions by employing the illusion of democracy.

This system ensures that power is only concentrated in the hands of the privileged few to the exclusion of the masses who are kept at bay by the employment of tools such as white privilege. 5 Of the 26 conditions listed in the Macintosh article, condition 23 which states that, “I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the place I have chosen,” (Macintosh) Strikes me the most. This is because I have never been faced with a situation where at any one given time I have experienced indifferent treatment because of my race or color at any public place of accommodation.

I have always visited motels and other public residential places without fear of being discriminated against because of my race. This condition factors into my life in the sense that I have never been overly bothered by the race or skin color of any person I have ever met at any public place of accommodation. Similarly, I have always felt at home and happy in mixed areas of accommodation and no discriminatory or indifferent treatment has ever been directed towards me while a visitor at any place of public accommodation.

6 The concept of whiteness was a lie and trick because there was no such thing as a white race. This was evidenced by civil wars and other war atrocities committed against people of the same skin color or race during the civil war era. The concept was introduced by the elites in the society to ensure that they remained in power and maintained dominance over the lesser class. They thus employed tactics of creating an illusion of power to some of the lesser classes that were seeking to revolt against the dominant classes.

By doing this, they were effectively able to crush revolts against them and maintain dominance over the lesser citizens. This trend of white colonialism continued even into the civil war era where the same methods of exerting dominance and influence to the revolting slaves. The elites used white privilege to incite white workers against the revolting slaves by telling them they were taking their jobs upon independence and this enabled them to maintain their dominance over production as long as there was division between the two classes (Wise).

He refers to 2005 as an example of this form dominance by the white elites by employing white privilege to sway the views of white American workers against the African-American workers in the same economic bracket. He thus concludes by arguing that the allure of white privilege is responsible for the economic disparities in America because white American workers, in the same economic bracket as the African-American workers, look down upon the African-American workers. Work Cited McIntosh, Peggy.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, MA 02181 1988. Tim Wise. Tim wise- on white privilege (clip). Available at: