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Essay On Whiteness

1000 Words4 Pages

To have white privilege is to have the dominant image and the overall construct of the world (Dyer, 9). Whites have the luxury of mass representation in the media whereas racial minorities are constantly under or misrepresented. White Privilege isn't the amenity of possessing a natural given superiority and advantage over others, it is a systemic empowerment that originated as an “unearned entitlement” and later developed to an “unearned advantage” (Dyer, 3). This “unearned advantage” is widely displayed throughout the media; there is a blatant disparity in the way people of color are represented in comparison to whites. Whiteness is widely normalized to the extent that it is encrypted into our society allowing white dominance and power …show more content…

People of color are confined by the constructed characterizations of their race or religion whereas white people have the luxury of belonging to the human race, (Dyer, 4). There is a stark disparity in the way black victims (of police brutality) and white criminals are represented in the media. African Americans are twice as likely to be portrayed as perpetrators of crime even when they are the victims in comparison to whites. They are also more likely to have mug shots displayed on news programs than that of white offenders (Dixon, Azocar, and Casas, 499). The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal titled the story of a white professor who was guilty of killing three colleagues as “Ala. Suspect Brilliant, but social misfit” whereas AL.com titled the story of a shooting death of a 25-year-old black man in Alabama as “Montgomery’s latest homicide victim had history of narcotics abuse, tangles with the law” (Wing). Furthermore, Staten Island Advance titled the story of a man in New York who allegedly killed his parents as “Son in Staten Island was Brilliant, Athletic-but his Demons were the Death of His Parents,” whereas one of NBC news on the death of Trayvon Martin was titled “Trayvon Martin was Suspended Three Times from School” (Wing). This wording fuels the …show more content…

During the 1890s, Jim Crow laws were working to disenfranchise the African American community and the pre-Civil War image of the “happy slave” was replaced by a more violent figure (Rhodes, 36). Black women were displayed as the “servant mammy and wicked Jezebel” (Rhodes, 37-38). In addition to being misrepresented as subjugated women, black women are represented as perpetuating “defective genes, irreparable crack damage, and a deviant lifestyle to their children.” (Roberts, 3) Furthermore, Black mothers have been framed as “welfare mothers who "breeds" babies in order to increase the size of her government check and to avoid having to work” (Logan, 134). Due to the racial isolation of the ghetto created federal policies, police furiously look in ghettos for drug offenses rather than looking in suburban areas for drugs making people of color more vulnerable targets in the War on Drugs. (Alexander, 124) Often times, news outlets will cover drug raids where the SWAT teams are invade apartment buildings because drug raids in white suburban would be “political suicide” as there would be way more news coverage on this than the everyday target of poor urban neighborhoods, this would also undermine the racist frame that African Americans use drugs more than whites (Alexander, 124). These frames have been constructed to legitimize the status quo “characterized by continuing oppression and

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America is a diverse melting pot of various ethnicities and heritages all blended together to create the American society. As beautiful as that is, America as a population is mired in fear of addressing issues such as white privilege which is the product of discrimination and racism. White privilege is viewed by those opposed to it that those who are privilege received unwarranted success as a result of status, luck and privilege rather than putting in hard work or using their brain to earn their success. The existence of discrimination from white privilege comes from the privilege attained by a certain as well as oppression and social prejudice facing certain other groups or races. Individuals who are privileged in one society seldomly are unaware of their privilege, not because of their own doing, but simply because it is very easy to be oblivious to the privilege when you have never seen its adverse effect from the other side.

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Whites are privileged because we are seen as the average American. We do not get second glances, because nobody suspects we are doing anything but living our lives. Though since we are not subject to this intense scrutiny we do not realize that we in turn do this to African Americans, just simply living their daily lives as well. McIntosh (1988) points out that she repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it down. For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject.

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People see whiteness because they experience its effects. A useful comparison can be drawn between the unrecognised privileges of males, and those of white people (McIntosh, 1988). It is not unusual for men to acknowledge that women are disadvantaged. With that said, McIntosh (1988) argues that white privilege is in the same manner without recognition and thus preserved. McIntosh (1988) views white privilege as an invisible collection of unearned assets that is of benefit to white people on a daily basis.

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There are still factors that have only been erased on the surface but still play a large role in the way that people of color are treated in America, and dictate to a certain extent, compromise the “freedom” that people have. On the other hand, we have white America, who have heightened chances of achieving anything that they please. This does not apply to every white American, as there are also white Americans who are living on or below the poverty line, and much like everybody else must put in a lot of effort to reach certain heights, however they have an advantage over all other denomination of people known as “white privilege” which are the societal benefits that people who can be categorized as “white” enjoy over the rest of the population and in the end, have a higher social status. Ultimately, people of color must work harder, and face many more setbacks in their climb to success than white Americans do, which is not fair,

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This idea that maybe racism is implicit, or implied but not plainly expressed, should change the way we view stories about race relations presented by the media. For example, the idea of a young black man in America walking around at night holds negative connotations that generally include crime such as muggings, robberies, and drug dealing. Whereas, the idea of a young white male in America walking at night does not bear any implications because his white-male privilege allows for him to be doing

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