Essay On White Privilege

I never really thought about our racism being hidden by our silence making it invisible “in the background of Whiteness” (Rothenberg 19). I think often the media plays a negative role in this form of discrimination, as while watching the news most of the broadcasts show people of color being arrested for felonies. Our text points out that whites stereotype African Americans as being dangerous. And I must admit when I am in a strange city, I am uncomfortable and immediately lock my car doors in areas where many black men hang out on the streets. Like the couple in White Privilege, I may also feel intimidated and not board an elevator alone with one big black man, even though I have in the past. The text claims that for whites

It appears to me that the older I get, the less trustworthy I am. I associate this change with my disability and with the drug epidemic. I feel the drug epidemic has made it so there are many more desperate people out in the world than ever before. Then when White Privilege discussed how blacks feel when walking through white neighborhoods, I remembered when I was young my grandmother’s house was in a neighborhood in which the whites had moved out and the blacks had moved in. She lived in a more industrial area of town, on the other side of the tracks, is how we always described it. Yes, even as a child, I was uncomfortable driving and or walking in her neighborhood, because she was the only white women living on the street. I never realized her neighbors feared me as much as I feared them. Then, reading about how it affects multiracial couples feel when a white person just glances their way, makes me think some prejudice is caused by an internal lack of confidence. Most people look at everyone around them. Which makes me question if these couples feel self-conscious and discriminated against because of their lack of confidence or is it a fear of Whiteness? My son married an African American Korean, and when I look at my prejudicial tendencies toward their relationship I find I am not prejudiced of color or