Whiteness In America

Whiteness is an unseen force that permit those who pass of as “white” more privileges than their nonwhite counterparts. Although non-whites were granted the right to vote after the civil war, but “it was the white citizen who had clear access to the vote, sat on juries, was elected to public office and had better jobs” (The House We Live In). In America, a person must be white to enjoy all the full rewards that come with citizenship. White people dominate the political field and that is why laws that favors them are often passed. Peggy McIntosh have written how she was taught not be aware of her white privilege but was expected to still cash in on the “invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes,

Many white students had done nothing to address issues concerning racism because they feel it does not affect them and “they do not see ‘whiteness’ as a racial identity” (McIntosh 6). Since everything in America is euro-centric, white people have no issues with how society treat other racial groups. That is why issues that was created because of institutional racism have not been fixed yet. In fact, a group of high schoolers have stated they should not feel guilty for their privilege because white have done the best they can to make up for slavery and “a few members of their family at the time did not have the luxury of much, let alone slaves” (Lipsitz 20). These issue with this mentality is that people can receive benefits from slavery and other racist actions without being directly involved in it. The railroads we used were built by the Chinese that work long hours for little pay while being denied citizenship. My bedroom, which is where I am writing this paper in, was probably forcibly taken from the hands of Natives. Virtually everything we take for granted in America was built on the blood, sweat, and tears of minority group. The faster people realize that, the faster we bring unity among social and racial