White Privilege

White Privilege

White privilege is defined as a right , advantage , or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities ' and a special advantage or benefit of white persons with reference to divine dispensations , natural advantages , gifts of fortune , genetic endowments , social relations , etc (Clark ' Thus white privilege translates into racism , which is a belief system claiming that individuals can be superior to others on the basis of race (Racism , 2007 . Whereas white privilege is

most often discussed with reference to the white-black relations in the United States , in addition to the colonial era around the world , the theory of racism has led to much violence and genocide in the world . It was racism that led the Nazis to slaughter the Jews . The theory of racism seems to have been applied everywhere in the world , even though universal values inform us that people who are superior are only those who do good in this world

A variation of racism - white privilege - has been explained by Heidi Schlumpf (2006 ) with examples thus

You think you did it all yourself . You earned a scholarship to college , studied hard , paid

your dues at your first job . Now you 've got a decent midlevel management position , a spouse

and a couple of kids , and a moderate but comfortable home

But without your better-than-average public school education that scholarship--and the

college education--might have gone to someone else . And what about that interest-free loan

from the First National Bank of Morn and Dad when you were struggling , not to mention the

car they "sold " you for next to nothing ? And did you factor in the real estate agent who

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steered you to that desirable neighborhood you now live in

These are some of the benefits of white privilege--the unearned , unjustified advantages not

automatically afforded to people of color in this country and generally taken for granted by

those of us who are classified as "white " It is the reality that contrasts with the sincere fiction

of the American myth of meritocracy , which says that everything we have must have been

earned

Schlumpf also explains white privilege with the example of a white person not being asked for an ID when he or she uses a credit card Similarly , white people in the United States may enjoy their freedom from the hassle of being pulled over by police officers for `driving while black ' Powell et al (2005 ) translate white privilege into black disadvantage ' The fact remains that white privilege is a concept that has been deeply imbedded into our collective consciousness calling for presumed superiority of the whites over other races . On the other hand , on the basis of white privilege , the black people of the United States are meant to feel inferior to the whites

Park Mi Na is a seventeen year old mixed-race high school student bearing a strong resemblance to her African American...