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== The myth of "White privilege" == |
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{{About||the clothing protocol in the Vatican|Privilège du blanc|the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song|White Privilege II}} |
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'''White privilege''' (or '''white skin privilege''') is the [[Privilege (social inequality)|societal privilege]] that benefits people whom society identifies as [[white people|white]] in some countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by [[non-white]] people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. Academic perspectives such as [[critical race theory]] and [[whiteness studies]] use the concept to analyze how [[racism]] and [[racialized society|racialized societies]] affect the lives of white or white-skinned people. |
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The cultural Marxist myth of "White privilege" was shown for the nonsense it is, when America elected it's first President of colour Barack Obama. I am a dirt poor white man. Oprah Winfrey is a famous super rich black woman. These facts show us that "White privilege" is an absolute myth, which has been constructed by Marxist intellectuals as a tool with which to attack their hated capitalist west. The far left want to destroy everything that is western and replace it with socialism or communism. One way to destroy the west is through indoctrinating white guilt into the majority white population. Pseudo-intellectual topics like "White Privilege" are designed by such ideologues to achieve this desired white guilt - White people hating themselves, and their own culture for wrongs committed in the past by other, long dead white people. |
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According to [[Peggy McIntosh]], whites in Western societies enjoy advantages that non-whites do not experience, as "an invisible package of unearned assets".<ref name="Unpacking"/> White privilege denotes both obvious and less obvious passive advantages that white people may not recognize they have, which distinguishes it from overt bias or prejudice. These include cultural affirmations of one's own worth; presumed greater social status; and [[freedom to move]], buy, work, play, and [[speak freely]]. The effects can be seen in professional, educational, and personal contexts. The concept of white privilege also implies the right to assume the universality of one's own experiences, marking others as different or exceptional while perceiving oneself as [[Normality (behavior)|normal]].<ref name=Vice>{{cite journal |last=Vice |first=Samantha |title=How Do I Live in This Strange Place? |journal=Journal of Social Philosophy |date=September 7, 2010 |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=323–342 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9833.2010.01496.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin-McDonald |first=K |author2=McCarthy, A |title='Marking' the white terrain in indigenous health research: literature review. |journal=Journal of Advanced Nursing |date=January 2008 |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=126–33 |pmid=18186904 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04438.x}}</ref> |
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In western countries, since the end of slavery, and black people now having the vote, "White privilege" no longer exists in any real societal way. It is purely an illusion of the cultural left, which holds no water when the fact shaped holes are pointed out. Black people have the ability to do equally as well as whites, when given the same amount of money and good parental environments. There are of course huge gaps in wealth between the richest and poorest in the west, which does mean a big "Privilege" deficit. We as a society should talk about RICH Privilege, not "White Privilege". In the west it is those born with a gold spoon in their mouths (regardless of race), who get ALL the say and power in the world. Opera Winfrey and Barack Obama have more sway in this world than I will ever know in my white life. They are richer and more powerful than me. I am white, they are black. Just to force the point one more time - White privilege in the modern west is a myth. It no longer exists. |
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The concept has attracted attention as well as opposition. Some critics say that the term uses the concept of "whiteness" as a proxy for [[Social class|class]] or other social privilege or as a distraction from deeper underlying problems of inequality.<ref name=Arnesen>{{cite journal |first=Eric |last=Arnesen |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=92975&fileId=S0147547901004380 |title=Whiteness and the Historians' Imagination |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |volume=60 |date=October 2001 |pages=3–32}}</ref><ref name="Hartigan, 2005 pp. 1">Hartigan, ''Odd Tribes'' (2005), pp. 1–2.</ref> Others state that it is not that whiteness is a proxy but that many other social privileges are interconnected with it, requiring complex and careful analysis to identify how whiteness contributes to privilege.<ref name="Privilege">{{cite journal | last1 = Blum | first1 = Lawrence | year = 2008 | title = 'White Privilege': A Mild Critique1 | url = | journal = Theory and Research in Education | volume = 6 | issue = 3| pages = 309–321 | doi = 10.1177/1477878508095586 }}</ref> Critics of the concept of white privilege also propose alternative definitions of whiteness and exceptions to or limits of white identity, arguing that the concept of white privilege ignores important differences between white [[Statistical population|subpopulations]] and individuals and suggesting that the notion of whiteness cannot be inclusive of all white people.<ref name="uws.edu.au">{{cite journal |last1=Forrest |first1=James |last2=Dunn |first2=Kevin |title='Core' Culture Hegemony and Multiculturalism |journal=Ethnicities |date=June 2006 |volume=6 |number=2 |doi=10.1177/1468796806063753 |url=http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/29645/A23.pdf |pages=203–230}}</ref><ref name="Blum 309–321">{{cite journal |last=Blum |first=L. |title='White privilege': A Mild Critique |journal=[[Theory and Research in Education]] |date=November 1, 2008 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=309–321 |doi=10.1177/1477878508095586 }}</ref> They note the problem of acknowledging the diversity of people of color and ethnicity within these groups.<ref name="Privilege"/> [[Conservatism|Conservative]] critics have offered more direct critiques of the concept; [[Shelby Steele]] writes that "today ... the lives of minorities are no longer stunted by either prejudice or 'white privilege'",<ref name="Steele">{{Cite book |title=Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country |last=Steele |first=Shelby |authorlink= Shelby Steele|publisher=Basic Books |year=2015 |pages=26|isbn=978-0465066971}}</ref> while [[The Federalist (website)|Federalist]] contributor David Marcus says that the concept is an obstacle in the road to achieving an equal society.<ref name=Marcus>{{cite web|last1=Marcus|first1=David|title=Privilege Theory Destroys The American Ideal Of Equality|url=http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/10/privilege-theory-destroys-the-american-ideal-of-equality|website=The Federalist|date=March 20, 2015}}</ref> |
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Writers have noted that the "academic-sounding concept of white privilege" sometimes elicits defensiveness and misunderstanding among white people, in part due to how the concept of white privilege was rapidly brought into the mainstream spotlight through [[social media]] campaigns such as [[Black Lives Matter]].<ref name=brydum>{{cite news |last1=Brydum |first1=Sunnivie |title=The Year in Hashtags: 2014 |url=http://www.advocate.com/year-review/2014/12/31/year-hashtags |accessdate=January 23, 2016 |agency=[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]] |date=December 31, 2014}}</ref> Cory Weinburg, writing for ''[[Inside Higher Ed]]'', has also said that the concept of white privilege is frequently misinterpreted by non-academics because it is an academic concept that has recently been brought into the mainstream. Academics interviewed by Weinburg, who have been otherwise studying white privilege undisturbed for decades, have been surprised by the seemingly-sudden hostility from [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] critics since approximately 2014.<ref name=weinburg>{{cite news |last1=Weinburg |first1=Cory |title=The White Privilege Moment |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/05/28/academics-who-study-white-privilege-experience-attention-and-criticism |accessdate=January 19, 2016 |agency=[[Inside Higher Ed]] |date=May 28, 2014}}</ref> |
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==Definition== |
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Although the definition of "white privilege" has been somewhat fluid, it is generally agreed to refer to the implicit or systemic advantages that white people have relative to people who are the objects of racism; it is the absence of suspicion and other negative reactions that people who are objects of racism experience.<ref>Neville, H., Worthington, R., Spanierman, L. (2001). Race, Power, and Multicultural Counseling Psychology: Understanding White Privilege and Color Blind Racial Attitudes. In Ponterotto, J., Casas, M, Suzuki, L, and Alexander, C. (Eds) Handbook of Multicultural Counseling, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.</ref> |
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It is the flipside of racism and is used in discussions focused on the mostly hidden benefits that white people possess in a society where racism is prevalent and whiteness is considered normal, rather than on the detriments to people who are the objects of racism.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=2000 |last1=Pulido |first1=L. |doi=10.1111/0004-5608.00182 |title=Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=90 |page=15|hdl=10214/1833 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Andersen |first1=Chris |title=Critical Indigenous Studies in the Classroom: Exploring 'the Local' using Primary Evidence |journal=International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies |date=2012 |volume=5 |issue=1 |url=http://www.isrn.qut.edu.au/publications/internationaljournal/documents/Final_Anderson_IJCIS.pdf}}</ref> As such, most definitions and discussions of the concept use as a starting point McIntosh's metaphor of the "invisible backpack" that white people unconsciously "wear" in a society where racism is prevalent.<ref name=Marcus2017>{{cite news |last1=Marcus |first1=David |title=A Conservative Defense of Privilege Theory |url=https://www.weeklystandard.com/david-marcus/a-conservative-defense-of-privilege-theory |work=The Weekly Standard |date=6 November 2017 |language=en |quote=First described by Peggy McIntosh in the late 1980s, white privilege basically describes somewhat hidden advantages that white people in our society enjoy, that they did not earn. It absolutely describes an actual phenomenon. Her most basic examples ring true. White people do see themselves represented more often in our culture and history, and rarely are the only person who looks the way they do in rooms where power exists.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |year=2012 |last=Banks |first=J. |title=Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, California |isbn=978-1-4129-8152-1 |page=2300}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |year=2010 |last1=Lund |first1=C. L. |title=The nature of white privilege in the teaching and training of adults |doi=10.1002/ace.359 |journal=New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education |volume=2010 |issue=125 |page=18}}</ref> |
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==History of the concept== |
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===Pre-1970s=== |
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In his 1935 ''[[Black Reconstruction|Black Reconstruction in America]]'', [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] introduced the concept of a "psychological wage" for white laborers. This special status, he wrote, divided the labor movement by leading low-wage white workers to feel superior to low-wage black workers.<ref name=DuBois/> Du Bois identified [[white supremacy]] as a global phenomenon, affecting the social conditions across the world by means of colonialism.<ref name=Leonardo>{{cite journal | last1 = Leonardo | first1 = Zeus | year = 2010| title = The Souls of White Folk: critical pedagogy, whiteness studies, and globalization discourse | journal = Race Ethnicity and Education | volume = 5 | issue = 1| page = 2002 | doi = 10.1080/13613320120117180 }}</ref> For instance, Du Bois wrote: |
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<blockquote>It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had small effect upon the economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal treatment and the deference shown them. White schoolhouses were the best in the community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule.<ref name=DuBois>W. E. B. Du Bois, ''Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880'' (New York: Free Press, 1995 reissue of 1935 original), pp. 700–701. {{ISBN|0-684-85657-3}}.</ref></blockquote> |
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In 1965, drawing from that insight, and inspired by the [[civil rights movement]], [[Theodore W. Allen]] began a 40-year analysis of "white skin privilege", "white race" privilege, and "white" privilege in a call he drafted for a "John Brown Commemoration Committee" that urged "White Americans who want government of the people" and "by the people" to "begin by first repudiating their white skin privileges".<ref>Theodore W. Allen, "A Call . . . John Brown Memorial Pilgrimage . . . December 4, 1965," John Brown Commemoration Committee, 1965 and Jeffrey B. Perry, [http://clogic.eserver.org/2010/2010.html "The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight against White Supremacy,"] "Cultural Logic" 2010.</ref> The pamphlet, "White Blindspot", containing one essay by Allen and one by historian [[Noel Ignatiev]], was published in the late 1960s. It focused on the struggle against "white skin privilege" and significantly influenced the [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS) and sectors of the [[New Left]]. By June 15, 1969, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that the National Office of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was calling "for an all-out fight against 'white skin privileges'".<ref>See Noel Ignatin (Ignatiev) and Ted (Theodore W.) Allen, [http://www.sds-1960s.org/WhiteBlindspot.pdf "'White Blindspot' and 'Can White Workers Radicals Be Radicalized?'"] (Detroit: The Radical Education Project and New York: NYC Revolutionary Youth Movement, 1969); Thomas R. Brooks, [https://www.nytimes.com/1969/06/15/archives/the-new-left-is-showing-its-age-the-new-left-is-showing-its-age.html "The New Left is Showing Its Age,"] "New York Times," June 15, 1969, p. 20; and Perry, "The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen. . . "</ref> From 1974 to 1975, Allen extended his analysis to the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial]] period, leading to the publication of "Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race,"<ref>Theodore W. Allen, [http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/allen.html Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race] (Hoboken: Hoboken Education Project, 1975), republished in 2006 with an "Introduction" by Jeffrey B. Perry at Center for the Study of Working Class Life, SUNY, Stony Brook.</ref> (1975) which ultimately grew into his two-volume "The Invention of the White Race" in 1994 and 1997.<ref>Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race, Vol. I: Racial Oppression and Social Control (New York: Verso, 1994, 2012 {{ISBN|978-1-84467-769-6}}) and Vol. II: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (New York: Verso, 1997, 2012 {{ISBN|978-1-84467-770-2}}).</ref> |
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In his work, Allen maintained several points: that the "white race" was invented as a ruling class [[social control]] formation in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century Anglo-American plantation colonies (principally Virginia and Maryland); that central to this process was the ruling-class plantation bourgeoisie conferring "white race" privileges on European-American working people; that these privileges were not only against the interests of African-Americans, they were also "poison," "ruinous," a baited hook, to the class interests of working people; that white supremacy, reinforced by the "white skin privilege," has been as the main retardant of working-class consciousness in the US; and that struggle for radical social change should direct principal efforts at challenging white supremacy and "white skin privileges".<ref>Jeffrey B. Perry, [http://clogic.eserver.org/2010/2010.html "The Developing Conjuncture and Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy,"] "Cultural Logic,'" July 2010, pp. 10–11, 34.</ref> Though Allen's work influenced Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and sectors of the "new left" and paved the way for "white privilege" and "race as social construct" study, and though he appreciated much of the work that followed, he also raised important questions about developments in those areas.<ref>Theodore W. Allen, [http://clogic.eserver.org/1-2/allen.html "Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race", Part 1], #8, Cultural Logic, I, No. 2 (Spring 1998) and Jeffrey B. Perry, [http://clogic.eserver.org/2010/2010.html "The Developing Conjuncture and Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy"]. ''Cultural Logic''. July 2010, pp. 8, 80–89.</ref> |
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In newspapers and public discourse across the United States in the 1960s, the term "white privilege" was often used to describe white areas under conditions of [[residential segregation]]. These and other uses grew out of the era of [[Racial segregation in the United States|legal discrimination]] against Black Americans, and reflected the idea that white status could continue despite formal equality.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} In the 1990s, the term came back into public discourse, such as in [[Robert W. Jensen|Robert Jensen]]'s 1998 opinion piece in the [[The Baltimore Sun|''Baltimore Sun'']], titled "White privilege shapes the U.S."<ref name="Jensen">Jensen, Robert, [http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/whiteprivilege.htm "White privilege shapes the U.S."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612133025/http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/whiteprivilege.htm |date=June 12, 2011 }} ''Baltimore Sun'', July 19, 1998, p.C-1.</ref> |
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===1970s to early 2000s=== |
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The concept of white privilege also came to be used within radical circles for purposes of self-criticism by [[Anti-racism|anti-racist]] whites. For instance, a 1975 article in ''[[Lesbian Tide]]'' criticized the American feminist movement for exhibiting "class privilege" and "white privilege". [[Weather Underground]] leader [[Bernardine Dohrn]], in a 1977 ''Lesbian Tide'' article, wrote: "... by assuming that I was beyond white privilege or allying with male privilege because I understood it, I prepared and led the way for a totally opportunist direction which infected all of our work and betrayed revolutionary principles."<ref name=Bennett>Jacob Bennett, "White Privilege: A History of the Concept", Master’s Thesis at Georgia State University, May 2012.</ref> |
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In the late 1980s, the term gained new popularity in academic circles and public discourse after [[Peggy McIntosh]]'s 1987 essay [[Peggy McIntosh#Invisible knapsack|''White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack'']].<ref name=newyorker>{{cite news|last=Rothman|first=Joshua|title=The Origins of "Privilege"|url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/the-woman-who-coined-the-term-white-privilege.html|accessdate=May 14, 2014|newspaper=[[The New Yorker]]|date=May 13, 2014}}</ref> In this essay, McIntosh described white privilege as “an invisible weightless knapsack of assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks," and also discussed the relationships between different social hierarchies in which experiencing oppression in one hierarchy did not negate unearned privilege experienced in another.<ref name="Unpacking">{{cite web|first1=Peggy|last1=McIntosh|title=White privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack|url=http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/jsibbett/readings/White_Privilege.pdf}} Independent School, Winter90, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p31, 5p</ref><ref>McIntosh, Peggy. ''White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.'' Wellesley: Center for Research on Women, 1988. Print.</ref> In later years, the theory of [[intersectionality]] also gained prominence, with black feminists like [[Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw]] arguing that black women experienced a different type of oppression from [[male privilege]] distinct from that experienced by white women because of white privilege.<ref>{{cite news | last1 = Thomas | first1 = Sheila | last2 = Crenshaw | first2 = Kimberlé | author-link2 = Kimberlé Crenshaw | title = Intersectionality: the double bind of race and gender | work = Perspectives Magazine | date = Spring 2004 | page = 2 | publisher = [[American Bar Association]] | url = http://www.americanbar.org/publications/perspectives_magazine_home/perspectives_magazine_index.html }}</ref> The essay is still routinely cited as a key influence by later generations of academics and journalists.<ref name=crosley-corcoran>{{cite news|last1=Crosley-Corcoran|first1=Gina|title=Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-crosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html|accessdate=January 19, 2016|agency=[[Huffington Post]]|date=May 8, 2014}}</ref><ref name=weinburg /> |
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In 2003, Ella Bell and Stella Nkomo noted that "most scholars of race relations embrace the use of [the concept] white privilege".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ella L. J.|last1=Edmondson |first2=Stella M. |last2=Nkomo |title=Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity|publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-59139-189-0}}</ref> Sociologists in the American Mosaic Project at the [[University of Minnesota]] reported that widespread belief in the United States that "prejudice and discrimination {{interp|in favor of whites}} create a form of white privilege." According to their 2003 poll, this view was affirmed by 59% of white respondents, 83% of Blacks, and 84% of Hispanics.<ref>{{cite web |work=American Mosaic Project |
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|publisher=University of Minnesota |
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|url=http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/uminnesota.pdf |
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|title=The Role of Prejudice and Discrimination in Americans' Explanations of Black Disadvantage and White Privilege|year=2006 |accessdate=June 15, 2010| format=PDF}}</ref> |
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===Social media era=== |
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White privilege as a concept marked its transition from academia to more mainstream prominence through [[social media]] in the early 2010s, especially in 2014, a year in which [[Black Lives Matter]] formed into a major movement and the word "hashtag" itself was added to [[Merriam-Webster]].<ref name=brydum /> Brandt and Kizer, in their article "From Street to Tweet" (2015), discuss the American public's perception of the concept of privilege in mainstream culture, including white privilege, as being influenced by social media, but also express caution as to its limits. Commenting on [[Kira Cochrane]]'s identification of [[fourth-wave feminism]], a proposed emerging movement characterized by use of technology and social media, they note that there are "large, splashy examples" of social media activism's reach, but "on an individual level ... the influence and reach of social media is unclear".<ref name="brandt-kizer">{{cite book|last1=Brandt|first1=Jenn|last2=Kizer|first2=Sam|title=From Street to Tweet: Popular Culture and Feminist Activism|publisher=SensePublishers|isbn=978-94-6300-061-1|pages=115–127|doi=10.1007/978-94-6300-061-1_9|chapter=From Street to Tweet|year=2015}}</ref> |
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[[Hua Hsu]], a [[Vassar College]] professor of English, opened his ''[[The New Yorker]]'' review of the 2015 [[MTV]] film [[White People (film)|''White People'']] with the remark: "like the robot in a movie slowly discovering that it is, indeed, a robot, it feels as though we are living in the moment when white people, on a generational scale, have become self-aware".<ref name="huahsu-ny">{{cite news|last1=Hsu|first1=Hua|title=The Trouble with "White People"|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-trouble-with-white-people|accessdate=February 15, 2016|work=[[The New Yorker]]|date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> Noting that "white people have begun to understand themselves in the explicit terms of identity politics, long the province of those on the margins", Hsu ascribes this change in self-awareness to a generational change, "one of strange byproducts of the [[Barack Obama|Obama]] era". Hsu writes that discourse on the nature of whiteness "isn't a new discussion, by any means, but it has never seemed quite so animated".<ref name="huahsu-ny" /> |
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The film ''White People'' itself, produced and directed by [[Pulitzer Prize]] winner [[Jose Antonio Vargas]], is a documentary that follows a variety of white teenagers who express their honest thoughts and feelings about their whiteness on-camera, as well as their opinions on white privilege. During one moment of the film, Vargas interviews a white community college student, Katy, who attributes her inability to land a college scholarship to [[reverse racism]] against white people, before Vargas points out that white students are "40 percent more likely to receive merit-based funding".<ref name="amyzimmerman">{{cite news|last1=Zimmeman|first1=Amy|title=‘White People’: MTV Takes On White Privilege|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/20/white-people-mtv-takes-on-white-privilege.html|accessdate=February 16, 2016|agency=[[The Daily Beast]]|date=July 20, 2015}}</ref> In one review of the film, a ''[[The Daily Beast|Daily Beast]]'' writer interviews Ronnie Cho, the head of MTV Public Affairs, who acknowledges "young people as the engine behind social change and awareness", and therefore would be more likely to talk about white privilege, but also notes that at the same time, [[millennials]] (with some overlap with [[Generation Z]]) form "a generation that maybe were raised with noble aspirations to be color blind". Ronnie Cho then asserts these aspirations "may not be very helpful if we ignore difference. The color of our skin does matter, and impacts how the world interacts with us." Later in the same review, writer Amy Zimmerman notes that, "white people often don't feel a pressing need to talk about race, because they don't experience it as racism and oppression, and therefore hardly experience it at all. [[Check your privilege|Checking privilege]] is an act of self-policing for white Americans; comparatively, black Americans are routinely over-checked by the literal police."<ref name="amyzimmerman" /> |
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In January 2016, hip-hop group [[Macklemore and Ryan Lewis]] released "[[White Privilege II]]", a single from their album ''[[This Unruly Mess I've Made]]'', in which [[Macklemore]] raps about his struggle to find his place in the Black Lives Matter protest movement, conscious that his commercial success in [[hip hop]] is at least partially a product of white privilege. He also says that other white performers have profited immensely from [[cultural appropriation]] of black culture such as [[Iggy Azalea]],<ref name=jagannathan>{{cite news|last1=Jagannathan|first1=Meera|title=Macklemore slams Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea for appropriating black culture, tackles racism and Black Lives Matter in new track ‘White Privilege II’|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/macklemore-slams-miley-iggy-azalea-white-privilege-ii-article-1.2505788|accessdate=January 23, 2016|agency=[[New York Daily News]]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> and raps about the impunity with which white police in the [[United States]] are free to take black lives, with "a shield, a gun with gloves and hands that gives an alibi".<ref name=groulx>{{cite news|last1=Groulx|first1=Rob|title=White Rapper ‘Macklemore’ Goes Hard on ‘White Privilege’ and #BlackLivesMatter|url=https://www.ijreview.com/2016/01/521061-listen-to-macklemores-new-song-called-white-privilege/|accessdate=January 23, 2016|agency=[[Independent Journal Review]]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> Arguing his success is "the product of the same system that let off Darren Wilson", the police officer who [[Shooting of Michael Brown|shot and killed Michael Brown]],<ref name=tessastuart>{{cite news|last1=Stuart|first1=Tessa|title=Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Drop Black Lives Matter-Inspired 'White Privilege II'|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-drop-black-lives-matter-inspired-white-privilege-ii-20160122|accessdate=January 23, 2016|agency=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> he raps that, "one thing the American dream fails to mention, is that I was many steps ahead to begin with".<ref name=boilen>{{cite news|last1=Boilen|first1=Bob|title=Macklemore's New Song Is The Nine-Minute 'White Privilege II'|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/01/22/463953714/macklemores-new-song-is-the-nine-minute-white-privilege-ii|accessdate=January 23, 2016|agency=[[National Public Radio]]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> The song also samples a line from a woman who, affirming her belief that she lives in a [[post-racial America]], dismisses the existence of white privilege, "you're saying that I have an advantage, why? Because I'm white? [scoffs and laughs] What? No."<ref name=macklemoreWP2>{{cite web|last1=[[Macklemore and Ryan Lewis]]|title=White Privilege II|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rl4ZGdy34|publisher=Macklemore LLC}}</ref><ref name=ellaceron>{{cite news|last1=Ceron|first1=Ella|title=Macklemore, Award-Winning White Rapper, Makes a Song About White Privilege|url=http://www.teenvogue.com/story/macklemore-white-privilege-ii|accessdate=January 23, 2016|agency=[[Teen Vogue]]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> |
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According to Fredrik deBoer, it is a popular trend for white people to willingly claim self-acknowledgement of their white privilege online. deBoer criticized this practice as promoting self-regard and not solving any actual inequalities.<ref>{{cite news|last1=deBoer|first1=Fredrik|title=Admitting that white privilege helps you is really just congratulating yourself|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/28/when-white-people-admit-white-privilege-theyre-really-just-congratulating-themselves/|accessdate=February 14, 2016|work=The Washington Post|date=January 28, 2016|ref=deboer}}</ref> |
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==Applications in critical theory== |
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===Critical race theory=== |
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:{{Main|Critical race theory}} |
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The concept of white privilege has been studied by theorists of [[whiteness studies]] seeking to examine the construction and moral implications of 'whiteness'. There is often overlap between critical whiteness and race theories, as demonstrated by focus on the legal and historical construction of white identity, and the use of narratives (whether legal discourse, testimony or fiction) as a tool for exposing systems of racial power.<ref>See, for example, Haney López, Ian F. ''White by Law''. 1995; Lipsitz, George. ''Possessive Investment in Whiteness''; Delgado, Richard; Williams, Patricia; and Kovel, Joel.</ref> Fields such as History and Cultural Studies are primarily responsible for the formative scholarship of Critical Whiteness Studies. |
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[[Critical race theory|Critical race theorists]] such as Cheryl Harris<ref name="Harris">{{cite journal |first=Cheryl I. |last=Harris|title=Whiteness as Property |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=106 |issue=8|pages=1709–95 |date=June 1993 |doi=10.2307/1341787 |jstor=1341787}}</ref> and [[George Lipsitz]]<ref>{{cite book|last= Lipsitz |first=George| title= The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics|year=2006 |publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia, PA |isbn= 978-1-59213-493-9|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PIqUajTEfk0C&printsec=frontcover}}</ref> have said that "whiteness" has historically been treated more as a form of [[property]] than as a racial characteristic: In other words, as an object which has intrinsic value that must be protected by social and legal institutions. Laws and [[mores]] concerning race (from [[apartheid]] and [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] constructions that legally separate different races to social prejudices against interracial relationships or mixed communities) serve the purpose of retaining certain advantages and privileges for whites. Because of this, academic and societal ideas about race have tended to focus solely on the disadvantages suffered by [[racial minorities]], overlooking the advantageous effects that accrue to whites.<ref name="Lucal">{{cite journal|last=Lucal|first=Betsy|date=July 1996|title=Oppression and Privilege: Toward a Relational Conceptualization of Race|journal=Teaching Sociology|volume=24|issue=3|pages=245–55|issn=0092-055X|oclc=48950428|doi=10.2307/1318739|jstor=1318739}}</ref> |
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[[Eric Arnesen]], an American labor historian, reviewed papers from a whiteness studies perspective published in his field in the 1990s, and found that the concept of whiteness was used so broadly during that time period that it wasn't useful.<ref name=Arnesen/> |
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===Whiteness unspoken=== |
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From another perspective, white privilege is a way of conceptualizing racial inequalities that focuses on advantages that white people accrue from their position in society as well as the disadvantages that non-white people experience.<ref>Williams, ''Constraint of Race'' (2004), p. 11.</ref> This same idea is brought to light by Peggy McIntosh, who wrote about white privilege from the perspective of a white individual. McIntosh states in her writing that, "as a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege which puts me at an advantage".<ref name="McIntosh, P. 1988 p. 1">McIntosh, P. (1988). "White privilege: Packing the invisible backpack. p. 1</ref> To back this assertion, McIntosh notes a myriad of conditions in her article in which racial inequalities occur to favor whites, from renting or buying a home in a given area without suspicion of one's financial standing, to purchasing bandages in "flesh" color that closely matches a white person's skin tone. She further asserts that she sees |
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<blockquote>a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions which were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turf, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways, and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.<ref name="McIntosh, P. 1988 p. 1"/></blockquote> |
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===Unjust enrichment=== |
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Lawrence Blum refers to advantages for white people as "unjust enrichment" privileges, in which white people benefit from the injustices done to people of color, and he articulates that such privileges are deeply rooted in the U.S. culture and lifestyle: |
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<blockquote>When Blacks are denied access to desirable homes, for example, this is not just an injustice to Blacks but a positive benefit to Whites who now have a wider range of domicile options than they would have if Blacks had equal access to housing. When urban schools do a poor job of educating their Latino/a and Black students, this benefits Whites in the sense that it unjustly advantages them in the competition for higher levels of education and jobs. Whites in general cannot avoid benefiting from the historical legacy of racial discrimination and oppression. So unjust enrichment is almost never absent from the life situation of Whites.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Blum | first1 = L. | year = 2008 | title = White privilege: A mild critique". In | url = | journal = Theory and Research in Education | volume = 6 | issue = 309| page = 311 }}</ref></blockquote> |
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===Spared injustice=== |
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[[File:Boston Protester White Privilege.jpg|thumb|upright|A protester holds a sign reading "They don't shoot white women like me" at a #BlackLivesMatter protest in the wake of the non-indictment of a New York City police officer for the [[death of Eric Garner]].]] |
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In Blum's analysis of the underlying structure of white privilege, "spared injustice" is when a person of color suffers an unjust treatment while a white person does not. His example of this is when "a Black person is stopped by the police without due cause but a White person is not".<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312">{{cite journal | last = Blum | first = L. | year = 2008 | title = White privilege: A Mild Critique | url =http://tre.sagepub.com/content/6/3/309.abstract | journal = Theory and Research in Education | volume = 6 | issue = 309| pages=311–312}}</ref> He identifies "unjust enrichment" privileges as those for which whites are spared the injustice of a situation, and in turn, are benefiting from the injustice of others. For instance, "if police are too focused on looking for Black lawbreakers, they might be less vigilant toward White ones, conferring an unjust enrichment benefit on Whites who do break the laws but escape detection for this reason."<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312"/> |
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===Privileges not related to injustice=== |
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Blum describes "non-injustice-related" privileges as those which are not associated with injustices experienced by people of color, but relate to a majority group's advantages over a minority group. Those who are in the majority, usually white people, gain "unearned privileges not founded on injustice."<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312" /> According to Blum, in workplace cultures there tends to be a partly ethnocultural character, so that some ethnic or racial groups' members find them more comfortable than do others.<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312" /> |
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===Framing racial inequality=== |
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Dan J. Pence and J. Arthur Fields have observed resistance in the context of education to the idea that white privilege of this type exists, and suggest this resistance stems from a tendency to see inequality as a black or [[Latino]] issue. One report noted that white students often react to in-class discussions about white privilege with a continuum of behaviors ranging from outright hostility to a "wall of silence."<ref name="Pence">{{cite journal|last=Pence|first=Dan J.|author2=Fields, J. Arthur|date=April 1999|title=Teaching about Race and Ethnicity: Trying to Uncover White Privilege for a White Audience|journal=Teaching Sociology|volume=27|issue=2|pages=150–8|issn=0092-055X|oclc=48950428|doi=10.2307/1318701|jstor=1318701}}</ref> A pair of studies on a broader population by Branscombe ''et al.'' found that framing racial issues in terms of white privilege as opposed to non-white disadvantages can produce a greater degree of racially biased responses from whites who have higher levels of racial identification. Branscombe ''et al.'' demonstrate that framing racial inequality in terms of the privileges of whites increased levels of guilt among white respondents. Those with high racial identification were more likely to give responses which concurred with modern [[racist]] attitudes than those with low racial identification.<ref name="Branscombe">{{cite journal|last=Branscombe|first=Nyla R.|author2=Schmitt, Michael T.|author3=Schiffhauer, Kristin|date=August 25, 2006|title=Racial Attitudes in Response to Thoughts of White Privilege|journal=European Journal of Social Psychology|volume=37|issue=2|pages=203–15|url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112771384/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0|accessdate=July 19, 2008|doi=10.1002/ejsp.348}}</ref> According to the studies' authors, these findings suggest that representing inequality in terms of [[outgroup (sociology)|outgroup]] disadvantage allows privileged group members to avoid the negative implications of inequality.<ref name="Powell">{{cite journal|last=Powell|first=Adam A.|author2=Branscombe, Nyla R.|author3=Schmitt, Michael T.|year=2005|title=Inequality as Ingroup Privilege or Outgroup Disadvantage: The Impact of Group Focus on Collective Guilt and Interracial Attitudes|journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin|volume=31|issue=4|pages=508–21|url=http://data.psych.udel.edu/abelcher/Shared%20Documents/6%20General%20Diversity%20Issues%20%2815%29/Powell.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522013408/http://data.psych.udel.edu/abelcher/Shared%20Documents/6%20General%20Diversity%20Issues%20%2815%29/Powell.pdf|dead-url=yes|archive-date=May 22, 2013|accessdate=April 15, 2013|doi=10.1177/0146167204271713|pmid=15743985}}</ref> |
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===White fragility=== |
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[[Robin DiAngelo]] created the term "white fragility".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-kegler/the-sugarcoated-language-of-white-fragility_b_10909350.html|title=The Sugarcoated Language Of White Fragility {{!}} Huffington Post|last=Feminist|first=Anna Kegler|last2=writer|date=July 22, 2016|website=The Huffington Post|access-date=September 30, 2016|last3=Nerd|first3=Messaging}}</ref> She has noted that "white privilege can be thought of as unstable racial equilibrium".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=DiAngelo|first1=Robin|title=White Fragility|journal=The Journal of International Critical Pedagogy|date=2011|volume=3|issue=3|page=58}}</ref> When this equilibrium is challenged, the resulting racial stress can become intolerable and trigger a range of defensive responses. DiAngelo defines these behaviors as white fragility. For example, DiAngelo observed in her studies that some white people, when confronted with racial issues concerning white privilege, may respond with dismissal, distress, or other defensive responses because they may feel personally implicated in white supremacy.<ref name="Waldman18" /><ref name="Lopez17">{{cite news |last1=Lopez |first1=German |title=The Charlottesville protests are white fragility in action |url=https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/12/16138558/charlottesville-va-white-fragility |accessdate=12 October 2018 |work=Vox |date=12 August 2017}}</ref> |
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She also writes that white privilege is very rarely discussed and that even multicultural education courses tend to use vocabulary that further obfuscates racial privilege and defines race as something that only concerns blacks. She suggests using loaded terminology with negative connotations to people of color adds to the cycle of white privilege, |
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<blockquote>It is far more the norm for these courses and programs to use racially coded language such as 'urban,' 'inner city,' and 'disadvantaged' but to rarely use 'white' or 'overadvantaged' or 'privileged.' This racially coded language reproduces racist images and perspectives while it simultaneously reproduces the comfortable illusion that race and its problems are what 'they' have, not us.<ref>{{cite journal|last=DiAngelo|first=Robin |title= White Fragility |journal= The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy |year= 2001 |pages= 54–70 |volume= 3 |issue= 3|url= https://libjournal.uncg.edu/index.php/ijcp/article/download/249/116 |accessdate= March 27, 2015}}</ref></blockquote> |
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She does say, however, that defensiveness and discomfort from white people in response to being confronted with racial issues is not irrational but rather is often driven by subconscious, sometimes even well-meaning, attitudes toward racism.<ref name="Waldman18">{{cite news |last1=Waldman |first1=Katy |title=A Sociologist Examines the "White Fragility" That Prevents White Americans from Confronting Racism |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-sociologist-examines-the-white-fragility-that-prevents-white-americans-from-confronting-racism |accessdate=12 October 2018 |work=The New Yorker |date=23 July 2018}}</ref> |
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Gina Crosley-Corcoran in her ''[[The Huffington Post|Huffington Post]]'' article, "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person", says that she was initially hostile to the idea that she had white privilege, initially believing, "my white skin didn't do shit to prevent me from experiencing poverty", until she was directed to read [[Peggy McIntosh]]'s "Unpacking the invisible knapsack". According to Crosley-Corcoran, "the concept of [[intersectionality]] recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and definitely not privileged in others".<ref name=crosley-corcoran /> |
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==Global== |
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White privilege functions differently in different places. A person's white skin will not be an asset to them in every conceivable place or situation. White people are also a global minority, and this fact affects the experiences they have outside of their home areas. Nevertheless, some people who use the term "white privilege" describe it as a worldwide phenomenon, resulting from the history of colonialism by white Western Europeans. One author states that American white men are privileged almost everywhere in the world, even though many countries have never been colonized by Western Europeans.<ref>[[Martin Jacques]], "[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/20/race.uk The global hierarchy of race: As the only racial group that never suffers systemic racism, whites are in denial about its impact]", ''The Guardian'', September 19, 2003.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Merryfield | first1 = Merry M. | year = 2000 | title = Why aren't teachers being prepared to teach for diversity, equity, and global interconnectedness? A study of lived experiences in the making of multicultural and global educators | url = http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X00000044 | journal = Teaching and Teacher Education | volume = 16 | issue = 4| pages = 429–443| doi=10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00004-4 | quote = Although white, middle class Americans may experience outsider status as expatriates in another country, there are few places on the planet where white male Americans are not privileged through their language, relative wealth and global political power.}}</ref> |
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In some accounts, global white privilege is related to [[American exceptionalism]] and [[American hegemony|hegemony]].<ref>Melanie E. L. Bush, "[http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/4acrawsa614.pdf White World Supremacy and the Creation of Nation: 'American Dream' or Global Nightmare?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228013350/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/4acrawsa614.pdf |date=February 28, 2015 }}", ''ACRAWSA e-journal'' [http://www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=1 6(1)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210021/http://acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=1 |date=April 9, 2013 }}, 2010.</ref> |
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==In the United States== |
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===History=== |
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Some scholars attribute white privilege, which they describe as informal racism, to the formal racism (i.e. [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] followed by [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]]) that existed for much of American history.<ref>Williams, ''Constraint of Race'' (2004).</ref> In her book ''Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America'', Stephanie M. Wildman writes that many Americans who advocate a merit-based, race-free worldview do not acknowledge the systems of privilege which have benefited them. For example, many Americans rely on a social or financial inheritance from previous generations, an inheritance unlikely to be forthcoming if one's ancestors were slaves.<ref name="Wildman">{{cite book|last=Wildman|first=Stephanie M.|author2=Armstrong, Margalynne|author3=Davis, Adrienne D.|author4=Grillo, Trina|title=Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America|publisher=NYU Press|location=New York|year=1996|isbn=978-0-8147-9303-9|url=https://books.google.com/?id=LK-aQDstH6kC&dq=Privilege+Revealed:+How+Invisible+Preference+Undermines+America&printsec=frontcover|accessdate=July 19, 2008}}</ref> Whites were sometimes afforded opportunities and benefits that were unavailable to others. In the middle of the 20th century, the government subsidized white homeownership through the [[Federal Housing Administration]], but not homeownership by minorities.<ref name="Massey">{{cite book|last=Massey|first=Douglas|author2=Denton, Nancy|title=American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass|publisher=Harvard University Press|date=January 15, 1998|isbn=978-0-674-01821-1}}</ref> Some social scientists also suggest that the historical processes of [[suburbanization]] and decentralization are instances of white privilege that have contributed to contemporary patterns of [[environmental racism]].<ref name="Pulido">{{cite journal|last=Pulido |first=Laura |date=March 2000 |title=Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=12–40 |issn=0004-5608 |url=https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/d5c05a_6d6995e3507140cebbb3b29bc62f40bb.pdf |accessdate=December 22, 2017 |doi=10.1111/0004-5608.00182 |jstor=1515377 |format=– <sup>[https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3APulido+intitle%3ARethinking+Environmental+Racism%3A+White+skin+Privilege+and+Urban+Development+in+Southern+California&as_publication=Annals+of+the+Association+of+American+Geographers&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search]</sup> |hdl=10214/1833 }}</ref> |
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===Wealth=== |
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According to Roderick Harrison "wealth is a measure of cumulative advantage or disadvantage" and "the fact that black and Hispanic wealth is a fraction of white wealth also reflects a history of discrimination".<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/national/18wealth.html Study Says White Families' Wealth Advantage Has Grown]." ''New York Times'' October 18, 2004.</ref> Whites have historically had more opportunities to accumulate wealth.<ref name=wealth>{{cite book|author1=Melvin L. Oliver|author2=Thomas M. Shapiro|title=Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksJuX02DNwC&pg=PT53|year=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-95167-8|pages=53–4}}</ref> Some of the institutions of wealth creation amongst American citizens were open exclusively to whites.<ref name=wealth/> Similar differentials applied to the [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security Act]] (which excluded agricultural and domestic workers, sectors that then included most black workers),<ref>Ira Katznelson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cfhneJPcD38C&pg=PA43 When Affirmative Action Was White]'', p. 43</ref> rewards to military officers, and the educational benefits offered to returning soldiers after World War II.<ref>Ira Katznelson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cfhneJPcD38C&pg=PA114 When Affirmative Action Was White]'', p. 114.</ref> An analyst of the phenomenon, [[Thomas Shapiro]], professor of law and social policy at Brandeis University, says, "The wealth gap is not just a story of merit and achievement, it's also a story of the historical legacy of race in the United States."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15704759|title=Census Report: Broad Racial Disparities Persist|date=November 14, 2006|publisher=MSNBC|accessdate=July 19, 2008}}</ref> |
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Over the past 40 years, there has been less formal [[discrimination in the United States|discrimination in America]]; the [[Racial wealth gap in the United States|inequality in wealth between racial groups]] however, is still extant.<ref name=wealth/> George Lipsitz asserts that because wealthy whites were able to pass along their wealth in the form of inheritances and transformative assets (inherited wealth which lifts a family beyond their own achievements), white Americans on average continually accrue advantages.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|107–8}} Pre-existing disparities in wealth are exacerbated by tax policies that reward investment over waged income, subsidize mortgages, and subsidize private sector developers.<ref name="Lipsitz">{{cite journal|last=Lipsitz|first=George|date=September 1995|title=The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the "White" Problem in American Studies|journal=American Quarterly|volume=47|issue=3|pages=369–87|doi=10.2307/2713291|jstor=2713291}}</ref> |
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Thomas Shapiro wrote that wealth is passed along from generation to generation, giving whites a better "starting point" in life than other races. According to Shapiro, many whites receive financial assistance from their parents allowing them to live beyond their income. This, in turn, enables them to buy houses and major assets which aid in the accumulation of wealth. Since houses in white neighborhoods appreciate faster, even African Americans who are able to overcome their "starting point" are unlikely to accumulate wealth as fast as whites. Shapiro asserts this is a continual cycle from which whites consistently benefit.<ref name="Shapiro">{{cite book |first=Thomas M. |last=Shapiro |title=The Hidden Cost of Being African American; How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518138-8|date=December 12, 2003}}</ref> These benefits also have effects on schooling and other life opportunities.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|32–3}} |
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Peggy McIntosh, co-director of the SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, posits that white people in the United States can be sure that race is not a factor when they are audited by the IRS.<ref name="Unpacking"/> |
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===Employment and economics=== |
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{{further|Racial wage gap in the United States}} |
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[[File:US gender pay gap, by sex, race-ethnicity-2009.png|thumb|350px|Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, by sex, race, and ethnicity, U.S., 2009.<ref name="bls 2009">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. [http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2009.pdf ''Highlights of Women's Earnings in 2009.''] Report 1025, June 2010.</ref>]] |
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Racialized employment networks can benefit whites at the expense of non-white minorities.<ref name="Royster">{{cite book |first=Deirdre A. |last=Royster |title=Race and the Invisible Hand |location=Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-23951-7 |year=2003}}</ref> Asian-Americans, for example, although lauded as a "model minority", rarely rise to positions high in the workplace: only 8 of the Fortune 500 companies have Asian-American CEOs, making up 1.6% of CEO positions while Asian-Americans are 4.8% of the population.<ref name="Diversity Inc">{{citation|url=http://www.insightintodiversity.com/asian-americans-in-leadership-the-invisible-minority-by-dr-edna-chun|title=Asian Americans In Leadership: The Invisible Minority - By Dr. Edna Chun|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308170848/http://www.insightintodiversity.com/asian-americans-in-leadership-the-invisible-minority-by-dr-edna-chun|archivedate=March 8, 2015|df=}}</ref> In a study published in 2003, sociologist Deirdre A. Royster compared black and white males who graduated from the same school with the same skills. In looking at their success with school-work transition and working experiences, she found that white graduates were more often employed in skilled trades, earned more, held higher status positions, received more promotions and experienced shorter periods of unemployment. Since all other factors were similar, the differences in employment experiences were attributed to race. Royster concluded that the primary cause of these racial differences was due to [[social networking]]. The concept of "who you know" seemed just as important to these graduates as "what you know". |
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According to the distinctiveness theory, posited by [[University of Kentucky]] professor Ajay Mehra and colleagues, people identify with other people who share similar characteristics which are otherwise rare in their environment; women identify more with women, whites with other whites. Because of this, Mehra finds that white males tend to be highly central in their social networks due to their numbers.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Karsten|editor1-first=Margaret Foegen|title=Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Workplace: Organizational practices and individual strategies for women and minorities|date=2006|publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, Conn. [u.a.]|isbn=978-0-275-98805-0|page=120|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/?id=3OHETydthM0C&lpg=PA120&dq=white%20males%20social%20network&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref> Royster says that this assistance, disproportionately available to whites, is an advantage that often puts black men at a disadvantage in the employment sector. According to Royster, "these ideologies provide a contemporary deathblow to working-class black men's chances of establishing a foothold in the traditional trades."<ref name="Royster" /> |
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This concept is similar to the theory created by [[Mark Granovetter]] which analyzes the importance of social networking and [[interpersonal ties]] with his paper "The Strength of Weak Ties" and his other economic sociology work. |
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Other research shows that there is a correlation between a person's name and his or her likelihood of receiving a call back for a job interview. [[Marianne Bertrand]] and [[Sendhil Mullainathan]] found in field experiment in Boston and Chicago that people with "white-sounding" names are 50% more likely to receive a call back than people with "black-sounding" names, despite equal résumé quality between the two racial groups.<ref name="Bertrand">{{cite journal|last=Bertrand|first=Marianne |author2=Mullainathan, Sendhil|date=September 2004|title=Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment in Labor Market Discrimination|journal=American Economic Review|volume=94|issue=4|pages=991–1013|doi=10.1257/0002828042002561|citeseerx=10.1.1.321.8621 }}</ref> White Americans are more likely than black Americans to have their business loan applications approved, even when other factors such as credit records are comparable.<ref name="Bates">{{cite book|last=Bates|first=Timothy|author2=Austin Turner, Margery |title=Minority Business Development: Identification and Measurement of Discriminatory Barriers|editor=Fix, Michael E. |editor2=Austin Turner, Margery |publisher=Urban Institute|location=Washington, D.C|date=March 1998|series=A National Report Card on Discrimination in America: The Role of Testing|chapter=5|isbn=978-0-87766-696-7|chapter-url=http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=308024|accessdate=July 18, 2008}} at p. 104</ref> |
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Black and Latino college graduates are less likely than white graduates to end up in a management position even when other factors such as age, experience, and academic records are similar.<ref name="Williams">Williams, ''Constraint of Race'' (2004), p. 359, fig. 7.1.</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Income Gaps Persist Among Races|last=Hartnett|first=William M.|date=October 20, 2003|publisher=Palm Beach Post}}</ref><ref name="Mason">{{cite journal|last=Mason|first=Patrick L.|date=May–June 1998|title=Race, Cognitive Ability, and Wage Inequality|journal=Challenge|volume=41|issue=3|pages=62–81|issn=1077-193X |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1093/is_n3_v41/ai_20809842|accessdate=July 18, 2008}}</ref> |
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Cheryl Harris relates whiteness to the idea of "racialized privilege" in the article "Whiteness as Property": she describes it as "a type of status in which white racial identity provided the basis for allocating societal benefits both private and public and character".<ref>{{cite journal | title = Whiteness as Property | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 1998 | first = Cheryl | last = Harris | volume = 106 | issue = 8 | pages = 1707–1791 | doi=10.2307/1341787| jstor = 1341787 }}</ref> |
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Daniel Furber and Suzanne Sherry argue that the proportion of Jews and Asians who are successful relative to the white male population poses an intractable puzzle for proponents of what they call "radical multiculturism", who they say overemphasize the role of sex and race in American society.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Daniel A. |last1=Farber |last2=Sherry |first2=Suzanna |title=Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195107173 |language=English}}</ref>{{rp|57–58}} |
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===Housing=== |
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{{further|Racial inequality in the United States#Housing}} |
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[[Housing discrimination in the United States|Discrimination in housing policies]] was formalized in 1934 under the Federal Housing Act which provided government credit to private lending for home buyers.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|5}} Within the Act, the Federal Housing Agency had the authority to channel all the money to white home buyers instead of minorities.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|5}} The FHA also channeled money away from inner-city neighborhoods after World War II and instead placed it in the hands of white home buyers who would move into segregated suburbs.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paula S. |last=Rothenberg |year=2005 |title=White Privilege |location=New York |publisher=Worth Publishers |isbn=978-0-7167-8733-4}}</ref> These practices and others, intensified attitudes of segregation and inequality. |
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The "single greatest source of wealth" for white Americans is the growth in value in their owner-occupied homes. The family wealth so generated is the most important contribution to wealth disparity between black and white Americans.<ref name=possessive>{{cite book|author=George Lipsitz|title=The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics, Revised and Expanded Edition|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PIqUajTEfk0C|date=August 21, 2009|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=978-1-59213-495-3|pages=32–3}}</ref>{{rp|32–33}}{{Dubious | Housing | reason = Poorly sourced. Provide more authoritative sources on talk page.|date=March 2014}} It has been said that continuing discrimination in the mortgage industry perpetuates this inequality, not only for black homeowners who pay higher mortgage rates than their white counterparts, but also for those excluded entirely from the housing market by these factors, who are thus excluded from the financial benefits of both equity appreciation and the tax deductions associated with home ownership.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|32–3}} |
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Brown, Carnoey and Oppenheimer, in "Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society," write that the financial inequities created by discriminatory housing practices also have an ongoing effect on young black families, since the net worth of one's parents is the best predictor of one's own net worth, so discriminatory financial policies of the past contribute to race-correlated financial inequities of today.<ref name=whitewashing>{{cite book|author1=Michael K. Brown|author2=Martin Carnoy|author3=David B. Oppenheimer|title=Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EwuLgYWeYMC&pg=PA79|date=September 18, 2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-93875-5|page=79}}</ref> For instance, it is said that even when income is controlled for, whites have significantly more wealth than blacks, and that this present fact is partially attributable to past federal financial policies that favored whites over blacks.<ref name=whitewashing/> |
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===Education=== |
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{{further|Racial achievement gap in the United States}} |
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According to Stephanie Wildman and Ruth Olson, education policies in the US have contributed to the construction and reinforcement of white privilege.<ref>Wildman, Stephanie M. [https://law.wustl.edu/journal/18/p245Wildmanbookpages.pdf "The Persistence of White Privilege."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605103641/https://law.wustl.edu/journal/18/p245Wildmanbookpages.pdf |date=June 5, 2011 }} March 18, 2010.</ref><ref name="White">Olson, Ruth. "White Privilege in Schools." Beyond Heroes and Holidays. 1998. Endid Lee. Teaching for Change, 1998</ref> Wildman says that even schools that appear to be integrated often segregate students based on abilities. This can increase white students' initial educational advantage, magnifying the "unequal classroom experience of African American students" and minorities.<ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Shapiro |year=2004 |title=The Hidden Cost of Being African American; How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=144 |isbn=978-0-19-518138-8}}</ref> |
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Williams and Rivers (1972b) showed that test instructions in Standard English disadvantaged the black child and that if the language of the test is put in familiar labels without training or coaching, the child's performances on the tests increase significantly.<ref>Williams, R.L. and Rivers, L.W. (1972b). The use of standard and nonstandard English in testing black children. As presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association</ref> According to Cadzen a child's language development should be evaluated in terms of his progress toward the norms for his particular speech community.<ref>Cadzen, C.B. (1966). [http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED011325.pdf Subcultural Differences in Child Language: An Inter-disciplinary Review]. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 1966, 12 pp. 185–214</ref> Other studies using sentence repetition tasks found that, at both third and fifth grades, white subjects repeated Standard English sentences significantly more accurately than black subjects, while black subjects repeated nonstandard English sentences significantly more accurately than white subjects.<ref name="Marwit">{{cite journal|last=Marwit|first=Samuel J.|author2=Walker, Elaine F.|author3=Marwit, Karen L.|date=December 1977|title=Reliability of Standard English Differences among Black and White Children at Second, Fourth, and Seventh Grades|journal=Child Development|volume=48|issue=4|pages=1739–42|doi=10.2307/1128548|jstor=1128548}}</ref> |
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According to [[Janet E. Helms]] traditional psychological and academic assessment is based on skills that are considered important within white, western, middle-class culture, but which may not be salient or valued within African-American culture.<ref>Helms, J.E. (1997) The triple quandary of race, culture, and social class in standardized cognitive ability testing. In D.P. Flanagan, J.L. Genshaft, & P.L. Harrison (Eds.), contemporary intellectual assessment: theories, tests, and issues (pp.517–532). New York: Guilford Press.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Helms | first1 = J.E. | year = 1992 | title = Why is there no study of cultural equivalence in standardized cognitive ability testing? | url = | journal = American Psychologist | volume = 47 | issue = 9| pages = 1083–1101 | doi=10.1037/0003-066X.47.9.1083}}</ref> When tests' stimuli are more culturally pertinent to the experiences of African Americans, performance improves.<ref>Hayles, V.R. (1991). African American Strengths: a survey of empirical findings. In R.L. Jones (Ed.), Black Psychology (3rd ed., pp. 379–400). Berkeley, California: Cobb & Henry Publishers.</ref><ref>Williams, R.L. and Rivers, L.W. (1972b) The use of standard and nonstandard English in testing black children. A presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association</ref> Critics of the concept of white privilege say that in K-12 education, students' academic progress is measured on nationwide standardized tests which reflect national standards.<ref>{{cite web|title=Common set of school standards to be proposed|first=Nick|last=Anderson|work=Washington Post|page=A1|date=March 10, 2010}}</ref><ref>But see, {{cite web|url=http://www.fairtest.org/joint%20statement%20civil%20rights%20grps%2010-21-04.html|title= Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act|date=October 21, 2004|accessdate=January 3, 2008}}</ref> |
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African Americans are disproportionately sent to [[special education]] classes in their schools, identified as being disruptive or suffering from a learning disability. These students are segregated for the majority of the school day, taught by uncertified teachers, and do not receive high school diplomas. Wanda Blanchett has said that white students have consistently privileged interactions with the special education system, which provides 'non-normal' whites with the resources they need to benefit from the mainline white educational structure.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Blanchett | first1 = Wanda J. | year = 2006| title = Disproportionate Representation of African American Students in Special Education: Acknowledging the Role of White Privilege and Racism | url = http://edr.sagepub.com/content/35/6/24 | journal = Educational Researcher | volume = 35 | issue = 24| page = 2006 | doi = 10.3102/0013189X035006024 }}</ref> |
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Educational inequality is also a consequence of housing. Since most states determine school funding based on property taxes,{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} schools in wealthier neighborhoods receive more funding per student.<ref>{{cite book|last1=National center for education statistics|title=The condition of education 2000|date=2000|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|location=Washington DC|pages=102|url=http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000062.pdf|accessdate=July 15, 2014}}</ref> As home values in white neighborhoods are higher than minority neighborhoods,{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} local schools receive more funding via property taxes. This will ensure better technology in predominantly white schools, smaller class sizes and better quality teachers, giving white students opportunities for a better education.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Erin E. |last=Kelly |year=1995 |title=All Students Are Not Created Equal: The Inequitable Combination of Property Tax-Based School Finance Systems and Local Control |journal=Duke Law Journal |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=397–435 |doi=10.2307/1372907 |jstor=1372907 |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol45/iss2/3 }}</ref> The vast majority of schools placed on academic probation as part of district accountability efforts are majority African-American and low-income.<ref>Diamond, John B. & James P. Spillane. (2004) "High Stakes Accountability in Urban Elementary Schools: Challenging or Reproducing Inequality?" Teachers College Record, Special Issue on Testing, Teaching, and Learning. 106(6) 1140–1171.</ref> |
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[[Wealth inequality in the United States|Inequalities in wealth]] and housing allow a higher proportion of white parents the option to move to better school districts or afford to put their children in private schools if they do not approve of the neighborhood's schools.<ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Shapiro |year=2004 |title=The Hidden Cost of Being African American; How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=157 |isbn=978-0-19-518138-8}}</ref> |
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Some studies have claimed that minority students are less likely to be placed in honors classes, even when justified by test scores.<ref>Gordon, Rebecca. 1998. Education and Race. Oakland: Applied Research Center: 48–9; Fischer, Claude S. et al., 1996.</ref><ref>Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press: 163</ref><ref>[[Leonard Steinhorn|Steinhorn, Leonard]] and Barbara Diggs-Brown, 1999. By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race. NY: Dutton: 95-6.</ref> Various studies have also claimed that visible minority students are more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled from school, even though rates of serious school rule violations do not differ significantly by race.<ref>Skiba, Russell J. et al., [http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED468512.pdf The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment]. Indiana Education Policy Center, Policy Research Report SRS1, June 2000</ref><ref>U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System: Youth 2003, Online Comprehensive Results, 2004.</ref> Adult education specialist Elaine Manglitz says the educational system in America has deeply entrenched biases in favor of the white majority in evaluation, curricula, and power relations.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Manglitz |first=E |year=2003 |title=Challenging white privilege in adult education: a critical review of the literature |journal=Adult Education Quarterly |issue=2 |pages=119–134 |doi=10.1177/0741713602238907 |volume=53}}</ref> |
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In discussing unequal test scores between public school students, opinion columnist Matt Rosenberg laments the Seattle Public Schools' emphasis on "institutional racism" and "white privilege": |
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<blockquote> |
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The disparity is not simply a matter of color: School District data indicate income, English-language proficiency and home stability are also important correlates to achievement...By promoting the "white privilege" canard and by designing a student indoctrination plan, the Seattle School District is putting retrograde, leftist politics ahead of academics, while the perpetrators of "white privilege" are minimizing the capabilities of minorities.<ref name="STRosen">Rosenberg, Matt (2007-04-11), [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003661182_matt11.html "Putting politics ahead of kids"]. ''The Seattle Times''.</ref></blockquote> |
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[[Conservatism in the United States|Conservative]] scholar<ref>{{Cite book|title = Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country|last = Steele|first = Shelby|publisher = Basic Books|year = 2015|isbn = |location = |pages = 1–28}}</ref> [[Shelby Steele]] believes that the effects of white privilege are exaggerated, saying that blacks may incorrectly blame their personal failures on white oppression, and that there are many "minority privileges": "If I'm a black high school student today... there are white American institutions, universities, hovering over me to offer me opportunities: Almost every institution has a [[multiculturalism|diversity]] committee... There is a hunger in this society to do right racially, to not be racist."<ref name=abc>{{cite news|title=Does White Privilege Exist in America? Scholars Debate Whether Society Overlooks Minorities|url=http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2629192&page=1|date=November 5, 2006|author=Stossel, John|authorlink=John Stossel|author2=Binkley, Gena|publisher=[[ABC News]]|work=[[20/20 (U.S. TV program)|20/20]]}}</ref> |
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Anthony P. Carnevale and Jeff Strohl show that whites have a better opportunity at getting into selective schools, while African Americans and Hispanics usually end up going to open access schools and have a lower chance of receiving a bachelor's degree.<ref>[http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Separate&Unequal.FR.pdf Georgetown.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130907064328/http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Separate%26Unequal.FR.pdf |date=September 7, 2013 }}</ref> |
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===Military=== |
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In a 2013 news story, Fox News reported, "A controversial 600-plus page manual used by the military to train its [[Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute|Equal Opportunity]] officers teaches that 'healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian' men hold an unfair advantage over other races, and warns in great detail about a so-called 'White Male Club.' ... The manual, which was obtained by Fox News, also instructs troops to 'support the leadership of non-white people. Do this consistently, but not uncritically,' the manual states."<ref>" [http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/31/pentagon-training-manual-white-males-have-unfair-advantages/ Pentagon training manual: white males have unfair advantages]," Fox News, October 31, 2013.</ref> The manual was prepared by the "Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute", which is an official unit of the Department of Defense under the control of the Secretary of Defense.<ref>See [https://www.deomi.org "Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute" ]</ref> |
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==In South Africa== |
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[[File:Population registration certificate South Africa 1988.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Registration certificate identifies a person as white]] |
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White privilege was legally enshrined in South Africa through [[apartheid]]. Apartheid was institutionalized in 1948 and lasted formally into the early 1990s. Under apartheid, racial privilege was not only socially meaningful—it became bureaucratically regulated. Laws such as the 1950 [[Population Registration Act, 1950|Population Registration Act]] established criteria to officially classify South Africans by race: White, Indian, Coloured (mixed), or Black.<ref>Deborah Posel, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/525576 "Race as Common Sense: Racial Classification in Twentieth-Century South Africa"], ''African Studies Review'' 44 (2), September 2001.</ref> |
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Many scholars say that 'whiteness' still corresponds to a set of social advantages in South Africa, and conventionally refer to these advantages as "white privilege". The system of white privilege applies both to the way a person is treated by others and to a set of behaviors, affects, and thoughts, which can be learned and reinforced. These elements of "whiteness" establish social status and guarantee advantages for some people, without directly relying on skin color or other aspects of a person's appearance.<ref name=Vice/> White privilege in South Africa has small-scale effects, such as preferential treatment for people who appear white in public, and large-scale effects, such as the over five-fold difference in average per-capita income for people identified as white or black.<ref>Sally Matthews, "[http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-12-inherited-or-earned-advantage Inherited or earned advantage?]", ''Mail & Guardian'', September 12, 2011.</ref> |
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"[[Afrikaner]] whiteness" has also been described as a partially subordinate identity, relative to the [[British Empire]] and [[Boerehaat]] (a type of prejudice towards Afrikaners), "disgraced" further by the end of apartheid.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Steyn | first1 = Melissa E. | year = 2004| title = Rehabilitating a whiteness disgraced: Afrikaner white talk in post‐apartheid South Africa | journal = Communication Quarterly | volume = 52 | issue = 2| pages = 143–169| doi = 10.1080/01463370409370187 }}</ref> Some fear that white South Africans suffer from "[[reverse racism]]" at the hands of the country's newly empowered majority,<ref>Samantha Vice, "[http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-02-why-my-opinions-on-whiteness-touched-a-nerve/ Why my opinions on whiteness touched a nerve]", ''Mail & Guardian'', September 2, 2011.</ref> "Unfair" racial discrimination is prohibited by [[Section Nine of the Constitution of South Africa]], and this section also allows for laws to be made to address "unfair discrimination". "Fair discrimination" is tolerated by subsection 5.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#9|title=Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 - Chapter 2: Bill of Rights - South African Government|website=www.gov.za}}</ref> |
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==In Australia== |
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<!-- Commented out: [[File:Ac.whiteaustralia.jpg|thumbnail|right|1906 "[[White Australia]]" badge reflects past immigration [[White Australia policy|policies]] intended to maintain white supremacy in Australia]] --> |
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[[Indigenous Australians]] were historically excluded from the process that lead to the [[federation of Australia]], and the [[White Australia policy]] restricted the freedoms for non-white people, particularly with respect to immigration. Indigenous people were governed by the [[Aborigines Protection Board]] and treated as a separate underclass of non-citizens.<ref name=Perera2005>Suvendrini Perera, "[http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/98SuvendriniPerera.pdf Who Will I Become? The multiple formations of Australian whiteness] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410063153/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/98SuvendriniPerera.pdf |date=April 10, 2013 }}", ''Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association Journal'' [http://www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=27 1] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210033/http://acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=27 |date=April 9, 2013 }}, 2005</ref> Prior to [[Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals)|a referendum conducted in 1967]], it was unconstitutional for Indigenous Australians to be counted in population statistics. |
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Holly Randell-Moon has said that news media are geared towards white people and their interests and that this is an example of white privilege.<ref>Deirdre Howard-Wagner, "[http://sydney.edu.au/arts/sociology_social_policy/docs/TASA_Howard-Wagner_The_Performance_of_Whiteness_accounts_of_marginalisation_and_racism_in_Newcastle.pdf The performance of whiteness: accounts of Aboriginal marginalization and racism in Newcastle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020062132/http://sydney.edu.au/arts/sociology_social_policy/docs/TASA_Howard-Wagner_The_Performance_of_Whiteness_accounts_of_marginalisation_and_racism_in_Newcastle.pdf |date=October 20, 2013 }}" in ''The Future of Sociology'', ed. Lockie ''et al.'', Australian Sociological Association, December 2009.</ref> Michele Lobo claims that white neighborhoods are normally identified as "good quality", while "ethnic" neighborhoods may become stigmatized, degraded, and neglected.<ref name=Lobo>{{cite journal | last1 = Lobo | first1 = Michele | title = Re-Imagining Citizenship in Suburban Australia | url = | journal = ACRAWSA e-Journal | volume = 6 | issue = 1| year = 2010 }}</ref> |
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Some scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} claim white people are seen presumptively as "Australian", and as prototypical citizens.<ref name=Lobo/><ref name=Ganley/> Catherine Koerner has claimed that a major part of white Australian privilege is the ability to be in Australia itself, and that this is reinforced by, discourses on non-white outsiders including [[asylum seekers]] and [[Illegal immigration|undocumented immigrants]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Koerner | first1 = Catherine | year = | title = Whose Security? How white possession is reinforced in everyday speech about asylum seekers | url = http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/3acrawsa613.pdf | journal = ACRAWSA e-Journal | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | page = 2010 | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210237/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/3acrawsa613.pdf | archivedate = April 9, 2013 | df = mdy-all }}</ref> |
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Some scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} have suggested that public displays of [[multiculturalism]], such as the celebration of artwork and stories of [[Indigenous Australians]], amount to [[tokenism]], since indigenous Australians voices are largely excluded from the cultural [[History wars|discourse]] surrounding the history of colonialism and the narrative of European colonizers as peaceful settlers. These scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} suggest that white privilege in Australia, like white privilege elsewhere, involves the ability to define the limits of what can be included in a "multicultural" society.<ref>{{cite web|last=Larbalestier|first=Jan|title=White Over Black: Discourses of Whiteness in Australian Culture|url=http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no2_2004/larbalestier_white.htm|work=Borderlands e-Journal|accessdate=November 9, 2012}}</ref><ref>Deirdre Howard-Wagner, "'[https://tasa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Howard-Wagner.pdf Practices of Inclusiveness' in Newcastle: protocols of whiteness, Indigenous protocols and power relations]", TASA Conference, December 2006.</ref><ref>Maryrose Casey, "[http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/177CRWS201281Casey.pdf Colonisation, Notions of Authenticity and Aboriginal Australian Performance] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210111/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/177CRWS201281Casey.pdf |date=April 9, 2013 }}", ''Critical Race and Whiteness Studies'' [http://www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=54 8] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210015/http://acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=54 |date=April 9, 2013 }}, 2012.</ref> Indigenous studies in Australian universities remains largely controlled by white people, hires many white professors, and does not always embrace political changes that benefit indigenous people.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fredericks | first1 = Brownwyn | title = The Epistemology That Maintains White Race Privilege, Power and Control of Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Peoples' Participation in Universities | url = http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/45acrawsa518.pdf | journal = ACRAWSA e-Journal | volume = 5 | issue = 1 | year = 2009 | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130410062923/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/45acrawsa518.pdf | archivedate = April 10, 2013 | df = mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lampert | first1 = Jo | title = The Alabaster Academy: Being a Non-Indigenous Academic in Indigenous Studies | url = http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6253/1/6253.pdf| journal = Social Alternatives | volume = 22 | issue = 3| year = 2003 }}</ref><ref name=Hart2003>{{cite journal | last1 = Hart | first1 = Victor | title = Teaching Black and Teaching Back | url = http://www.geocities.ws/parentsaspartners/teachingblack.pdf| journal = Social Alternatives | volume = 22 | issue = 3| year = 2003 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gunstone | first1 = Andrew | title = Whites, Indigenous People, and Australian Universities | url = http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/44acrawsa517.pdf | journal = ACRAWSA e-Journal | volume = 5 | issue = 1 | year = 2009 | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150228013434/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/44acrawsa517.pdf | archivedate = February 28, 2015 | df = mdy-all }}</ref> Scholars also say that prevailing modes of Western epistemology and pedagogy, associated with the dominant white culture, are treated as universal while Indigenous perspectives are excluded or treated only as objects of study.<ref name=Hart2003/><ref>Lester-Irabinna Rigney, "[https://ncis.anu.edu.au/_lib/doc/LI_Rigney_First_perspective.pdf A first perspective of Indigenous Australian participation in science : framing Indigenous research towards Indigenous Australian intellectual sovereignty]", ''Kaurna Higher Education Journal'' 7, August 2001.</ref><ref>Aileen Moreton-Robinson, "Whiteness, epistemology, and indigenous representation", in ''Whitening Race: Essays In Social And Cultural Criticism'', ed. Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Aboriginal Studies Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-85575-465-5}}.</ref><ref>Ben Kelly and Nura Gili, "[http://www.legitimationcodetheory.com/pdf/2009Kelly.pdf Conflict and collaboration – a sociology of knowledge production in the field of Indigenous Studies]", ''Australian Social Policy Conference'', 2009.</ref> One Australian university professor{{who|date=February 2016}} reports that white students may perceive indigenous academics as beneficiaries of [[reverse racism]].<ref name=Nicoll>{{cite journal | last1 = Nicoll | first1 = Fiona | title = 'Are you calling me a racist?': Teaching critical whiteness theory in indigenous sovereignty | url = http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no2_2004/nicoll_teaching.htm| journal = Borderlands | volume = 3 | issue = 2| year = 2004 }}</ref> |
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Some scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} have claimed that for Australian whites, another aspect of privilege is the ability to identify with a global diaspora of other white people in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. This privilege contrasts with the separation of Indigenous Australians from other indigenous peoples in southeast Asia.<ref name=Perera2005/><ref>Holly Randell-Moon, "[http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/editorials/54CRWSRandell-Moon2012.pdf Racial Legitimations and the Unbearable Whiteness of Being] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210109/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/editorials/54CRWSRandell-Moon2012.pdf |date=April 9, 2013 }}", ''Critical Race and Whiteness Studies'' [http://www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=54 8] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210015/http://acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=54 |date=April 9, 2013 }}, 2012.</ref> They also claim that global political issues such as climate change are framed in terms of white actors and effects on countries that are predominantly white.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Jensen | first1 = Lars | title = The whiteness of climate change | url = http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/jeasa22jensen9.pdf | journal = Journal of the European Association of Studies on Australia | volume = 2 | issue = 2 | year = 2011 | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20131103072740/http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/jeasa22jensen9.pdf | archivedate = November 3, 2013 | df = }}</ref> |
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White privilege varies across places and situations. Ray Minniecon, director of Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries, described the city of [[Sydney]] specifically as "the most alien and inhospitable place of all to Aboriginal culture and people."<ref>Ray Minniecon, "[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/16/1076779903465.html Despair the reality for a race lost in the alien space of Redfern]", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', February 17, 2004; quoted by Suvendrini Perera, "[http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/64SuvendriniPerera.pdf 'Aussie Luck': the Border Politics of Citizenship Post Cronulla Beach] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410063014/http://acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/64SuvendriniPerera.pdf |date=April 10, 2013 }}", ''ACRAWSA e-journal'' [http://www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=23 3(1)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409210028/http://acrawsa.org.au/ejournal/?id=23 |date=April 9, 2013 }}, 2007.</ref> At the other end of the spectrum, anti-racist white Australians working with Indigenous people may experience their privilege as painful "stigma".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kowal|first=Emma|title=THE STIGMA OF WHITE PRIVILEGE|journal=Cultural Studies|date=May 1, 2011|volume=25|issue=3|pages=313–333|doi=10.1080/09502386.2010.491159}}</ref> |
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Studies of white privilege in Australia have increased since the late 1990s, with several books published on the history of how whiteness became a dominant identity. Aileen Moreton-Robinson's ''Talkin' Up to the White Woman'' is a critique of unexamined white privilege in the Australian feminist movement.<ref name=Ganley>{{cite journal | last1 = Ganley | first1 = Toby | title = What's all this talk about whiteness? | url = http://www.polsis.uq.edu.au/dialogue/vol-1-2-4.pdf | journal = Dialogue | volume = 1 | issue = 2 | year = 2003 | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130428181555/http://www.polsis.uq.edu.au//dialogue/vol-1-2-4.pdf | archivedate = April 28, 2013 | df = }}</ref> The Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association formed in 2005 to study racial privilege and promote respect for Indigenous sovereignties; it publishes an online journal called ''Critical Race and Whiteness Studies''.<ref>"ACRAWSA: About", ''Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association'', updated January 30, 2012; accessed November 19, 2012.</ref> |
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==See also== |
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{{colbegin}} |
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* [[Angry white male]] |
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* [[Bumiputera (Malaysia)]] |
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* [[Christian privilege]] |
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* [[Dominant culture]] |
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* [[Ethnic penalty]] |
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* [[First World privilege]] |
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* [[Glass ceiling]] |
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* [[Heterosexism#Parallels and intersections|Heterosexism]] |
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* [[Identity politics]] |
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* [[Kyriarchy]] |
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* [[Media bias]] |
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* [[Missing white woman syndrome]] |
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* [[Nadir of American race relations]] |
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* [[Privilege (social inequality)]] |
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* [[Racism in horror films]] |
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* [[Reverse discrimination]] |
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* [[Social stratification]] |
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{{colend}} |
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==References== |
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<!-- this 'empty' section displays references defined elsewhere --> |
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{{Reflist|30em}} |
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==Bibliography== |
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* Allen, Theodore W. ''The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control'' (Verso, 1994) {{ISBN|0-86091-660-X}}. |
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* Blum, Lawrence. 2008. 'White Privilege': A Mild Critique1. Theory and Research in Education. 6:309. DOI: 10.1177/1477878508095586. |
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* Hartigan, John. ''Odd Tribes: Toward a Cultural Analysis of White People''. Duke University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-3597-9}} |
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* Lipsitz, George. ''The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics'', Revised and Expanded Edition. Temple University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|1-56639-635-2}}. |
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* Olson, Ruth. White Privilege in Schools. Beyond Heroes and Holidays. 1998. Endid Lee. Teaching for Change, 1998. |
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* [[Peggy McIntosh|McIntosh, Peggy]]. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." (excerpt from Working Paper #189, "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondence Through Work in Women's Studies" (1988), Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, Massachusetts.) |
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* McIntosh, Peggy. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Beyond Heroes and Holidays. 1998. Endid Lee. Teaching for Change, 1998. |
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* {{cite book|last=Williams|first=Linda Faye|title=The Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|date=August 30, 2004|isbn=978-0-271-02535-3|url=http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02253-1.html|accessdate=July 18, 2008|page=429}} |
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==Further reading== |
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{{Further reading cleanup|date=February 2011}} |
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* Allen, Theodore W. [http://www.versobooks.com/books/1039-the-invention-of-the-white-race-volume-1 "The Invention of the White Race," Vol. 1: "Racial Oppression and Social Control"] (Verso Books, 1994, New Expanded Edition 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-84467-769-6}}). |
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* Allen, Theodore W. [http://www.versobooks.com/books/1048-the-invention-of-the-white-race-volume-2 "The Invention of the White Race," Vol. 2: "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America"] (Verso Books, 1997, New Expanded Edition 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-84467-770-2}}). |
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* Allen, Theodore W. [http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/allen.html "Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race"] (1975), republished in 2006 with an "Introduction" by Jeffrey B. Perry at Center for the Study of Working Class Life, SUNY, Stony Brook. |
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* Allen, Theodore W. [http://clogic.eserver.org/4-2/allen.html "On Roediger's Wages of Whiteness" (Revised Edition)] "Cultural Logic," 2001. |
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* Brown, C.S. (2002). ''Refusing Racism: White allies and the struggle of civil right.'' New York: Teachers College Press. |
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* Du Bois, W. E. B. 1920. "The Souls of White Folk", in ''Darkwater'' |
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* [[Richard Dyer|Dyer, Richard]]. ''White'' |
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* [[Frantz Fanon|Fanon, Frantz]]. ''Black Skin, White Masks'' |
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* {{cite book|title=Black Americans and White Racism |author=Marcel Lucien Goldschmid|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-03-077685-4}} |
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* Jackson, C. 2006. ''White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy.'' Retrieved October 31, 2006, from https://web.archive.org/web/20060929170523/http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=718. |
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* {{cite journal | last1 = Levine-Rasky | first1 = C. | year = 2000 | title = Framing whiteness: working through the tensions in introducing whiteness to educators | url = | journal = Race Ethnicity and Education | volume = 3 | issue = 3| pages = 271–292 | doi=10.1080/713693039}} |
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* Roediger, David R. ''The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class'' (Verso, 1991) {{ISBN|0-86091-334-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-86091-334-4}}, {{ISBN|0-86091-550-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-86091-550-8}}. |
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* Roediger, D.R. 2005. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=a8i2y8jUDQQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Working toward whiteness: How America's immigrants became white. The strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs.]'' New York: Basic Books. |
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* Rothenberg, Paula S., ed. ''White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism'' (Worth, 2004) {{ISBN|0-7167-8733-4}}. |
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* {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1080/13613320500110519 | last1 = Solomona | first1 = R.P. | last2 = Portelli | first2 = J.P. | last3 = Daniel | first3 = B-J. | last4 = Campbell | first4 = A. | year = 2005 | title = The discourse of denial: how white teacher candidates construct race, racism and 'white privilege' | url = | journal = Race Ethnicity and Education | volume = 8 | issue = 2| pages = 147–169 }} |
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* {{cite book|title=White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era|author=Steele, Shelby|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|date=May 2, 2006|isbn=978-0-06-057862-6|title-link=White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era}} |
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* Steyn, Melissa E., ''Whiteness Just Isn't What Is Used to Be: White Identity in a Changing South Africa'', Albany: SUNY Press, 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-5080-2}}. |
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* Updegrave, W.L. (1989). Race and money. Money, December 1989,152–72. |
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* [[Tim Wise|Wise, Tim]]. ''White Like Me'' |
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==External links== |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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* [http://www.xavier.edu/diversity/documents/black-studies/Christian_African_Centered_Perspective.pdf White Privilege in White Minds and Education] (PDF) |
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* "[http://facweb.northseattle.edu/jreis/White%20Privilege/WhitenessBibliography%5B1%5D.pdf Towards a Bibliography of Critical Whiteness Studies]", Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society, University of Urbana-Champlain. |
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*{{cite web | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/27/2017-was-the-year-i-learned-about-my-white-privilege/ |title=2017 Was the Year I Learned About My White Privilege |first=Max |last=Boot |authorlink=Max Boot |date=December 27, 2017 |work=[[Foreign Policy]] }} |
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{{White people}} |
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{{Racism topics|state=collapsed}} |
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{{Discrimination|state=autocollapse}} |
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{{authority control}} |
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[[Category:Critical race theory]] |
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[[Category:Definition of racism controversy]] |
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[[Category:Discrimination]] |
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[[Category:Politics and race]] |
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[[Category:Post-structuralism]] |
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[[Category:Privilege (social inequality)]] |
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[[Category:White supremacy]] |
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[[Category:White privilege| ]] |
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Revision as of 21:07, 31 December 2018
The myth of "White privilege"
The cultural Marxist myth of "White privilege" was shown for the nonsense it is, when America elected it's first President of colour Barack Obama. I am a dirt poor white man. Oprah Winfrey is a famous super rich black woman. These facts show us that "White privilege" is an absolute myth, which has been constructed by Marxist intellectuals as a tool with which to attack their hated capitalist west. The far left want to destroy everything that is western and replace it with socialism or communism. One way to destroy the west is through indoctrinating white guilt into the majority white population. Pseudo-intellectual topics like "White Privilege" are designed by such ideologues to achieve this desired white guilt - White people hating themselves, and their own culture for wrongs committed in the past by other, long dead white people. In western countries, since the end of slavery, and black people now having the vote, "White privilege" no longer exists in any real societal way. It is purely an illusion of the cultural left, which holds no water when the fact shaped holes are pointed out. Black people have the ability to do equally as well as whites, when given the same amount of money and good parental environments. There are of course huge gaps in wealth between the richest and poorest in the west, which does mean a big "Privilege" deficit. We as a society should talk about RICH Privilege, not "White Privilege". In the west it is those born with a gold spoon in their mouths (regardless of race), who get ALL the say and power in the world. Opera Winfrey and Barack Obama have more sway in this world than I will ever know in my white life. They are richer and more powerful than me. I am white, they are black. Just to force the point one more time - White privilege in the modern west is a myth. It no longer exists.