White Skin Privilege

White Skin Privilege

Are you racist or simply privileged? Racism, everyone HATES that word. But what is racism? Prejudice or discrimination directed against someone of a different race is what Wikipedia defines as racism. Privilege is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to one person or group of people.

In this blog post I will discuss the many ways in which white people are privileged but can be seen as racist  if you don’t acknowledge your privilege and reach out to make things better. A privilege that can lead to racism is in school seeing and learning that white people made the world what it is today. Now we know that’s not true, but you wouldn’t know what African Americans contributed to American society unless you looked it up yourself or, by word of mouth.  Remember this is my opinion and your opinion is always welcome. Just hit that comment button and you’re all set.

White-skin privilege is something I see almost every day. It’s present when I go to the store, and I never find shampoo for my coarse hair, but see millions of shampoo bottles for straight hair. I also see it when I’m in the train station and I see African -Americans or Hispanics being harassed more than Caucasian people. I remember one day I was with my mother buying food and repairmen who were African- American were fixing a door. A white police officer walked by and asked what they were doing and of course they said fixing the door, and the police officer said, “I thought you guys were breaking in.”

Now tell me, would that have happened if those guys were white? No, I don’t think so. What that police officer did was wrong and, you guessed it, racist.

Okay, so I found this really good explanation on the privileges of white people in this excerpt from White Anti-Racist Activism: A Personal Roadmap by Jennifer R. Holladay, M.S. (Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, Inc., 2000).

          

White people receive all kinds of perks as a function of their skin privilege. Consider the following:

White Privilege: The Perks

- When I cut my finger and go to my school or office’s first aid kit, the flesh-colored

band-aid generally matches my skin tone. 2

-When I run to the store to buy pantyhose at the last minute, the ‘nude’ color generally appears nude on my legs.

- When I buy hair care products in a grocery store or drugstore, my shampoos and conditioners are in the aisle and section labeled ‘hair care’ and not in a separate  section for ‘ethnic products.’

White Privilege: The Advantages

- My skin color does not work against me in terms of how people perceive my financial responsibility, style of dress, public speaking skills, or job performance.

- People do not assume that I got where I am professionally because of my race (or because of affirmative action programs)

- Store security personnel or law enforcement officers do not harass me, pull me over or follow me because of my race.

White Privilege: The World View

-When I am told about our national heritage or “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

-Related, the schools that I attend or have attended use standard textbooks, which widely reflect people of my color and their contributions to the world.

- When I look at the national currency or see photographs of monuments on the

National Mall in Washington, D.C., I see people of my race widely represented and celebrated.

These are really interesting, right? So anyway these might be the privileges of white people but does it make them racist? No and yes. NO because you can’t help what you’re born with and YES because if you  have these privileges you should be helpful to people who are less fortunate than you.. Uhh!!!! The world would be so much better if everyone was one color…. Leave comments; this could be a really awesome discussion.