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| '''White privilege''' (or '''white skin privilege''') is a term for ] that benefit people identified as ] in ] countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. Academic perspectives such as ] and ] use the concept of "white privilege" to analyze how ] and ] affect the lives of white or white-skinned people. | |||
| According to ], whites in Western societies enjoy advantages that non-whites do not experience, as "an invisible package of unearned assets".<ref name="Unpacking"/> White privilege denotes both obvious and less obvious passive advantages that white people may not recognize they have, which distinguishes it from overt bias or prejudice. These include cultural affirmations of one's own worth; presumed greater social status; and ], buy, work, play, and ]. The effects can be seen in professional, educational, and personal contexts. The concept of white privilege also implies the right to assume the universality of one's own experiences, marking others as different or exceptional while perceiving oneself as ].<ref name=Vice>{{cite journal |last=Vice |first=Samantha |title=How Do I Live in This Strange Place? |journal=Journal of Social Philosophy |date=7 September 2010 |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=323–342 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9833.2010.01496.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin-McDonald |first=K |author2=McCarthy, A |title='Marking' the white terrain in indigenous health research: literature review. |journal=Journal of advanced nursing |date=January 2008 |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=126–33 |pmid=18186904 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04438.x}}</ref> | |||
| The concept has attracted attention and some opposition. Some critics say that the term uses the concept of "whiteness" as a proxy for ] or other social privilege or as a distraction from deeper underlying problems of inequality.<ref name=Arnesen>{{cite journal |first=Eric |last=Arnesen |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=92975&fileId=S0147547901004380 |title=Whiteness and the Historians' Imagination |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |volume=60 |date=October 2001 |pages=3–32}}</ref><ref name="Hartigan, 2005 pp. 1">Hartigan, ''Odd Tribes'' (2005), pp. 1–2.</ref> Others state that it is not that whiteness is a proxy but that many other social privileges are interconnected with it, requiring complex and careful analysis to identify how whiteness contributes to privilege.<ref name="Privilege">Blum, Lawrence. "'White Privilege': A Mild Critique1." Theory and Research in Education. 2008. 6:309. {{DOI|10.1177/1477878508095586}}</ref> Critics of white privilege also propose alternate definitions of whiteness and exceptions to or limits of white identity, arguing that the concept of "white privilege" ignores important differences between white ] and individuals and suggesting that the notion of whiteness cannot be inclusive of all white people.<ref name="uws.edu.au">{{cite journal |last1=Forrest |first1=James |last2=Dunn |first2=Kevin |title='Core' Culture Hegemony and Multiculturalism |journal=Ethnicities |date=June 2006 |volume=6 |number=2 |doi=10.1177/1468796806063753 |url=http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/29645/A23.pdf |pages=203–230}}</ref><ref name="Blum 309–321">{{cite journal |last=Blum |first=L. |title='White privilege': A Mild Critique |journal=] |date=1 November 2008 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=309–321 |publisher=SAGE Publications |doi=10.1177/1477878508095586 |accessdate=9 December 2012}}</ref> They note a problem with the interpretation of people of color, in that it fails to acknowledge the diversity of people of color and ethnicity within these groups.<ref name="Privilege"/> ] critics have offered more direct critiques of the concept; one writes that "today ... the lives of minorities are no longer stunted by prejudice and 'white privilege'",<ref>{{Cite book |title=Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country |last=Steele |first=Shelby |publisher=Basic Books |year=2015 |pages=26}}</ref> while another says that the concept is a danger to the project of achieving an equal society.<ref name="Ideal of Equality" /> | |||
| Gina Crosley-Corcoran in her '']'' article, "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person", says that she was initially hostile to the idea that she had white privilege, initially believing "my white skin didn't do shit to prevent me from experiencing poverty", until she was directed to read ]'s "Unpacking the invisible knapsack". According to Crosley-Corcoran, "the concept of ] recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and definitely not privileged in others." <ref name=crosley-corcoran /> Other writers have noted that the "academic-sounding concept of white privilege" sometimes elicits defensiveness and misunderstanding among white people, in part due to the rapidity in which the concept of white privilege was rapidly brought into the mainstream spotlight through ] campaigns such as ].<ref name=brydum>{{cite news |last1=Brydum |first1=Sunnivie |title=The Year in Hashtags: 2014 |url=http://www.advocate.com/year-review/2014/12/31/year-hashtags |accessdate=23 January 2016 |agency=] |date=December 31, 2014}}</ref> Cory Weinburg, writing for '']'', has stated that the concept of white privilege is frequently misinterpreted by non-academics because it is an academic concept that has been recently been brought into the mainstream. Academics interviewed by Weinburg, who have been otherwise studying white privilege undisturbed for decades, have been taken aback with the seemingly-sudden hostility from ] critics since 2014.<ref name=weinburg>{{cite news |last1=Weinburg |first1=Cory |title=The White Privilege Moment |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/05/28/academics-who-study-white-privilege-experience-attention-and-criticism |accessdate=19 January 2016 |agency=] |date=May 28, 2014}}</ref> | |||
| ==Definition== | |||
| The definition of white privilege, as with many terms, varies from source to source, but is generally distinguished from active bias or prejudice against non-white people.<ref>Neville, H., Worthington, R., Spanierman, L. (2001). Race, Power, and Multicultural Counseling Psychology: Understanding White Privilege and Color Blind Racial Attitudes. In Ponterotto, J., Casas, M, Suzuki, L, and Alexander, C. (Eds) Handbook of Multicultural Counseling, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.</ref> The following is a partial list of definitions: | |||
| * "White privilege is the ability for Whites to maintain an elevated status in society that masks racial inequality." | |||
| ** {{Cite book |year=2014 |last1=Andersen |first1=M. |last2=Taylor |first2=H. |last3=Logio |first3=K. |title=Sociology: The Essentials |edition=8th |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-285-96566-6 |page=424 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87-iAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PT449#}} | |||
| * "White privilege has been defined by David Wellman as a system of advantage based on race. It has been compared by Peggy McIntosh to an invisible, weightless knapsack of assets and resources that she was given because she was born White in her time and place in U.S. society. Paula Rothenberg defines White privilege as the other side of discrimination, meaning the opposite of discrimination." | |||
| ** {{Cite book |year=2012 |last=Banks |first=J. |title=Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, California |isbn=978-1-4129-8152-1 |page=2300}} | |||
| * "''White privilege'', specifically, is an institutional set of unearned benefits granted to White people (Kendall, 2001, 2006; McIntosh, 1989; Sue, 2003). Sue (2003) defines White privilege as "unearned advantages and benefits" given to White persons based on a system that was "normed on the experiences, values, and perceptions" of White persons (p. 7). McIntosh (1989) characterizes White privilege as "an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was 'meant' to remain oblivious" (p. 10). She likens it to "an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks" (p. 10). Kendall (2006) describes White privilege as "an institutional, rather than personal, set of benefits granted to" (p. 63) people whose race resembles that of the people who are in power." | |||
| ** {{Cite book |year=2010 | editor1-last = Cornish |title=Handbook of multicultural counseling competencies |chapter=Developing Competency with White Identity and Privilege |first1=J. L. |last1=Dressel |first2=S. |last2=Kerr |first3=H. B. |last3=Steven |publisher=John Wiley |location=Hoboken, N.J |isbn=978-0-470-43746-9 |display-editors=etal}} | |||
| * "McIntosh is adept at describing the daily advantage white people have based on the color of their skin. Wildman (2000) discusses the characteristics of the privileged by saying they "define the societal norm, often benefiting those in the privileged group. Second, privileged group members can rely on their privilege and avoid objecting to oppression" (p. 53). The result of this societal norm is that everyone is required to live by the attributes held by the privileged. In society white people define and determine the terms of success and failure; they are the norm. Thus, "achievements by members of the privileged group are viewed as meritorious and the result of individual effort, rather than as privileged" (p. 53)." | |||
| ** {{Cite journal |year=2010 |last1=Lund |first1=C. L. |title=The nature of white privilege in the teaching and training of adults |doi=10.1002/ace.359 |journal=New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education |volume=2010 |issue=125 |page=18}} | |||
| * "Experts define White privilege as a combination of exclusive standards and opinions that are supported by Whites in a way that continually reinforces social distance between groups on the basis of power, access, advantage, majority status, control, choice, autonomy, authority, possessions, wealth, opportunity, materialistic acquisition, connection, access, preferential treatment, entitlement, and social standing (Hays & Chang, 2003; Manning & Baruth, 2009)." | |||
| ** {{Cite book |year=2010 |last=Vang |first=C. T. |title=An educational psychology of methods in multicultural education |publisher=Peter Lang |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4331-0790-0 |pages=36 and 37}} | |||
| * "White privilege" refers to the myriad of social advantages, benefits, and courtesies that come with being a member of the dominant race." | |||
| ** {{Cite book |year=2001 |last1=Delgado |first1=Richard |last2=Stefancic |first2=Jean |title=Critical Race Theory: An Introduction |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York and London |isbn=0-8147-1931-7 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rh12xOYncbQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA78}} | |||
| * "White privilege is a form of racism that both underlies and is distinct from institutional and overt racism. It underlies them in that both are predicated on preserving the privileges of white people (regardless of whether agents recognize this or not). But it is also distinct in terms of intentionality. It refers to the hegemonic structures, practices, and ideologies that reproduce whites' privileged status. In this scenario, whites do not necessarily ''intend'' to hurt people of color, but because they are unaware of their white-skin privilege, and because they accrue social and economic benefits by maintaining the status quo, they inevitably do." | |||
| ** {{Cite journal |year=2000 |last1=Pulido |first1=L. |doi=10.1111/0004-5608.00182 |title=Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=90 |page=15}} | |||
| * Cheryl Harris describes whiteness as a form of property, which confers privileges on its holders. In "Whiteness as Property," Harris writes, "The wages of whiteness are available to all whites, regardless of class position — even to those whites who are without power, money, or influence. Whiteness, the characteristic that distinguishes them from blacks, serves as compensation even to those who lack material wealth. It is the relative political advantages extended to whites, rather than actual economic gains, that are crucial to white workers." | |||
| ** {{Cite book |year=1995 |last=Cheryl |first=Harris |chapter=Whiteness as Property | editor-last = Crenshaw | editor-first = Kimberlé |title=Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement |publisher=The New Press |location=New York |isbn=1-56584-271-5 |page=286}} | |||
| ==History of the concept== | |||
| ===Pre-1970s=== | |||
| In his 1935 '']'', ] introduced the concept of a "]" for white laborers. This special status, he wrote, divided the labor movement by leading low-wage white workers to feel superior to low-wage black workers.<ref name=DuBois/> Du Bois identified ] as a global phenomenon, affecting the social conditions across the world by means of colonialism.<ref name=Leonardo>{{cite journal | last1 = Leonardo | first1 = Zeus | year = | title = The Souls of White Folk: critical pedagogy, whiteness studies, and globalization discourse | url = http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13613320120117180 | journal = Race Ethnicity and Education | volume = 5 | issue = 1| page = 2002 | doi = 10.1080/13613320120117180 }}</ref> For instance, Du Bois wrote: | |||
| <blockquote>It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had small effect upon the economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal treatment and the deference shown them. White schoolhouses were the best in the community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule.<ref name=DuBois>W. E. B. Du Bois, ''Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880'' (New York: Free Press, 1995 reissue of 1935 original), pp. 700–701. ISBN 0-684-85657-3.</ref></blockquote> | |||
| In 1965, drawing from that insight, and inspired by the Civil Rights movement, ] began a forty-year analysis of "white skin privilege", "white race" privilege, and "white" privilege in a call he drafted for a "John Brown Commemoration Committee" that urged "White Americans who want government of the people" and "by the people" to "begin by first repudiating their white skin privileges".<ref>Theodore W. Allen, "A Call . . . John Brown Memorial Pilgrimage . . . December 4, 1965," John Brown Commemoration Committee, 1965 and Jeffrey B. Perry, "Cultural Logic" 2010.</ref> The pamphlet, "White Blindspot", containing one essay by Allen and one by Noel Ignatin (]), published in the late 1960s, focused on the struggle against "white skin privilege" and significantly influenced the ] and sectors of the ]. By June 15, 1969, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that the ] (SDS) was calling "for an all-out fight against 'white skin privileges'".<ref>See Noel Ignatin (Ignatiev) and Ted (Theodore W.) Allen, (Detroit: The Radical Education Project and New York: NYC Revolutionary Youth Movement, 1969); Thomas R. Brooks, "New York Times," June 15, 1969, p. 20; and Perry, "The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen. . . "</ref> In 1974–1975 Allen extended his analysis to the colonial period with "Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race" in 1974/1975,<ref>Theodore W. Allen, (Hoboken: Hoboken Education Project, 1975), republished in 2006 with an "Introduction" by Jeffrey B. Perry at Center for the Study of Working Class Life, SUNY, Stony Brook.</ref> which ultimately grew into his two-volume "The Invention of the White Race" in 1994 and 1997.<ref>Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race, Vol. I: Racial Oppression and Social Control (New York: Verso, 1994, 2012 ISBN 978-1-84467-769-6) and Vol. II: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (New York: Verso, 1997, 2012 ISBN 978-1-84467-770-2).</ref> | |||
| In his historical work Allen maintained: that the "white race" was invented as a ruling class social control formation in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century Anglo-American plantation colonies (principally Virginia and Maryland); that central to this process was the ruling-class plantation bourgeoisie conferring "white race" privileges on European-American working people; that these privileges were not only against the interests of African-Americans, they were also "poison," "ruinous," a baited hook, to the class interests of working people; that white supremacy, reinforced by the "white skin privilege," has been as the main retardant of working-class consciousness in the US; and that struggle for radical social change should direct principal efforts at challenging white supremacy and "white skin privileges".<ref>Jeffrey B. Perry, "Cultural Logic,'" July 2010, pp. 10–11, 34.</ref> Though Allen's work influenced Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and sectors of the "new left" and paved the way for "white privilege" and "race as social construct" study, and though he appreciated much of the work that followed, he also raised important questions about developments in those areas.<ref>Theodore W. Allen, , #8, Cultural Logic, I, No. 2 (Spring 1998) and Jeffrey B. Perry, . ''Cultural Logic''. July 2010, pp. 8, 80–89.</ref> | |||
| In newspapers and public discourse of 1960s United States, the term "white privilege" was often used to describe white areas under conditions of ]. These and other uses grew out of the era of ] against Black Americans, and reflected the idea that white status could persist despite formal equality.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} In the 1990s, the term came back into public discourse, such as in Robert Jensen's op ed "White privilege shapes the U.S."<ref name="Jensen">Jensen, Robert, ''Baltimore Sun'', July 19, 1998, p.C-1.</ref> | |||
| ===1970s to early 2000s=== | |||
| The concept of white privilege also came to be used within radical circles for purposes of self-criticism by ] whites. For instance, a 1975 article in '']'' criticized the American feminist movement for exhibiting "class privilege" and "white privilege". ] leader ], in a 1977 ''Lesbian Tide'' article, wrote: "... by assuming that I was beyond white privilege or allying with male privilege because I understood it, I prepared and led the way for a totally opportunist direction which infected all of our work and betrayed revolutionary principles."{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} | |||
| In the late 1980s, the term gained new popularity in academic circles and public discourse after Peggy McIntosh's 1987 essay ].<ref name=newyorker>{{cite news|last=Rothman|first=Joshua|title=The Origins of "Privilege"|url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/the-woman-who-coined-the-term-white-privilege.html|accessdate=14 May 2014|newspaper=]|date=13 May 2014}}</ref> In this essay, McIntosh described white privilege as “an invisible weightless knapsack of assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks", and also discussed the relationships between different social hierarchies in which experiencing oppression in one hierarchy did not negate unearned privilege experienced in another.<ref name="Unpacking">{{cite web|first1=Peggy|last1=McIntosh|title=White privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack|url=http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/jsibbett/readings/White_Privilege.pdf}} Independent School, Winter90, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p31, 5p</ref><ref>McIntosh, Peggy. ''White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.'' Wellesley: Center for Research on Women, 1988. Print.</ref> In later years, the theory of ] also gained prominence, with black feminists like ] arguing that black women experienced a different type of oppression from ] distinct from that experienced by white women because of white privilege.<ref>{{cite news | last1 = Thomas | first1 = Sheila | last2 = Crenshaw | first2 = Kimberlé | author-link2 = Kimberlé Crenshaw | title = Intersectionality: the double bind of race and gender | work = Perspectives Magazine | date = Spring 2004 | page = 2 | publisher = ] | url = http://www.americanbar.org/publications/perspectives_magazine_home/perspectives_magazine_index.html }}</ref> The essay is still routinely cited as a key influence by later generations of academics and journalists.<ref name=crosley-corcoran>{{cite news|last1=Crosley-Corcoran|first1=Gina|title=Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-crosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html|accessdate=19 January 2016|agency=]|date=May 8, 2014}}</ref><ref name=weinburg /> | |||
| In 2003, Ella Bell and Stella Nkomo noted that "most scholars of race relations embrace the use of white privilege".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ella L. J.|last1=Edmondson |first2=Stella M. |last2=Nkomo |title=Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity|publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-59139-189-0}}</ref> Sociologists in the American Mosaic Project report widespread belief in the United States that "prejudice and discrimination {{interp|in favor of whites}} create a form of white privilege". According to their 2003 poll this view was affirmed by 59% of white respondents, 83% of Blacks, and 84% of Hispanics.<ref>{{cite web |work=American Mosaic Project | |||
| |publisher=University of Minnesota | |||
| |url=http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/uminnesota.pdf | |||
| |title=The Role of Prejudice and Discrimination in Americans' Explanations of Black Disadvantage and White Privilege|year=2006 |accessdate=June 15, 2010| format=PDF}}</ref> | |||
| ===Social media era=== | |||
| White privilege as a concept marked its transition from academia to more mainstream prominence through ] in the early 2010s, especially in 2014, a year in which ] exploded into a massive protest movement and the word "hashtag" itself was added to ].<ref name=brydum /> Brandt and Kizer, in their article "From Street to Tweet" (2015), discuss the American public's perception of the concept of privilege in mainstream culture, including white privilege, as being influenced by social media, but also express caution as to its limits. Commenting on ]'s identification of a ], a proposed emerging movement characterized by use of technology and social media, they note that there are "large, splashy examples" of social media activism's reach, but "on an individual level ... the influence and reach of social media is unclear." <ref name="brandt-kizer">{{cite book|last1=Brandt|first1=Jenn|last2=Kizer|first2=Sam|title=From Street to Tweet: Popular Culture and Feminist Activism|publisher=SensePublishers|isbn=978-94-6300-061-1|pages=115–127|url=http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6300-061-1_9|accessdate=15 February 2016}}</ref> | |||
| ], a ] professor of English, opened his '']'' review of the 2015 ] film ] with the remark: "like the robot in a movie slowly discovering that it is, indeed, a robot, it feels as though we are living in the moment when white people, on a generational scale, have become self-aware." <ref name="huahsu-ny">{{cite news|last1=Hsu|first1=Hua|title=The Trouble with "White People"|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-trouble-with-white-people|accessdate=15 February 2016|work=]|date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> Noting that "white people have begun to understand themselves in the explicit terms of identity politics, long the province of those on the margins", Hsu ascribes this change in self-awareness to a generational change, "one of strange byproducts of the ] era." Hsu writes that discourse on the nature of whiteness "isn't a new discussion, by any means, but it has never seemed quite so animated".<ref name="huahsu-ny" /> | |||
| The film ''White People'' itself, produced and directed by ] winner ], is a documentary that follows a variety of white teenagers who express their honest thoughts and feelings about their whiteness on-camera, as well as their opinions on white privilege. During one moment of the film, Vargas interviews a white community college student, Katy, who attributes her inability to land a college scholarship to ] against white people, before Vargas points out that white students are "40 percent more likely to receive merit-based funding".<ref name="amyzimmerman">{{cite news|last1=Zimmeman|first1=Amy|title=‘White People’: MTV Takes On White Privilege|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/20/white-people-mtv-takes-on-white-privilege.html|accessdate=16 February 2016|agency=]|date=July 20, 2015}}</ref> In one review of the film, a '']'' writer interviews Ronnie Cho, the head of MTV Public Affairs, who acknowledges "young people as the engine behind social change and awareness", and therefore would be more likely to talk about white privilege, but also notes that at the same time, ] (with some overlap with ]) form "a generation that maybe were raised with noble aspirations to be color blind". Ronnie Cho then asserts these aspirations "may not be very helpful if we ignore difference. The color of our skin does matter, and impacts how the world interacts with us." Later in the same review, writer Amy Zimmerman notes that, "white people often don’t feel a pressing need to talk about race, because they don’t experience it as racism and oppression, and therefore hardly experience it at all. ] is an act of self-policing for white Americans; comparatively, black Americans are routinely over-checked by the literal police." <ref name="amyzimmerman" /> | |||
| In January 2016, hip-hop group ] released "]", a single from their album '']'', in which ] raps about his struggle to find his place in the Black Lives Matter protest movement, conscious that his commercial success in ] is at least partially a product of white privilege. He also says that other white performers have profited immensely from ] of black culture such as ],<ref name=jagannathan>{{cite news|last1=Jagannathan|first1=Meera|title=Macklemore slams Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea for appropriating black culture, tackles racism and Black Lives Matter in new track ‘White Privilege II’|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/macklemore-slams-miley-iggy-azalea-white-privilege-ii-article-1.2505788|accessdate=23 January 2016|agency=]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> and raps about which the impunity with which white police in the ] are free to take black lives, with "a shield, a gun with gloves and hands that gives an alibi".<ref name=groulx>{{cite news|last1=Groulx|first1=Rob|title=White Rapper ‘Macklemore’ Goes Hard on ‘White Privilege’ and #BlackLivesMatter|url=https://www.ijreview.com/2016/01/521061-listen-to-macklemores-new-song-called-white-privilege/|accessdate=23 January 2016|agency=]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> Arguing his success is "the product of the same system that let off ]", the police officer who ],<ref name=tessastuart>{{cite news|last1=Stuart|first1=Tessa|title=Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Drop Black Lives Matter-Inspired 'White Privilege II'|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-drop-black-lives-matter-inspired-white-privilege-ii-20160122|accessdate=23 January 2016|agency=]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> he raps that, "one thing the American dream fails to mention, is that I was many steps ahead to begin with".<ref name=boilen>{{cite news|last1=Boilen|first1=Bob|title=Macklemore's New Song Is The Nine-Minute 'White Privilege II'|url=http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/01/22/463953714/macklemores-new-song-is-the-nine-minute-white-privilege-ii|accessdate=23 January 2016|agency=]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> The song also samples a line from a woman who, affirming her belief that she lives in a ], dismisses the existence of white privilege, "you're saying that I have an advantage, why? Because I'm white? What? No." <ref name=macklemoreWP2>{{cite web|last1=]|title=White Privilege II|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rl4ZGdy34|publisher=Macklemore LLC}}</ref><ref name=ellaceron>{{cite news|last1=Ceron|first1=Ella|title=Macklemore, Award-Winning White Rapper, Makes a Song About White Privilege|url=http://www.teenvogue.com/story/macklemore-white-privilege-ii|accessdate=23 January 2016|agency=]|date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> | |||
| According to Fredrik deBoer, it is a popular trend for white people to willingly claim self-acknowledgement of their white privilege online. deBoer criticized this practice as promoting self-regard and not solving any actual inequalities.<ref>{{cite news|last1=deBoer|first1=Fredrik|title=Admitting that white privilege helps you is really just congratulating yourself|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/28/when-white-people-admit-white-privilege-theyre-really-just-congratulating-themselves/|accessdate=14 February 2016|work=The Washington Post|date=28 January 2016|ref=deboer}}</ref> | |||
| ==Aspects== | |||
| ===Critical race theory=== | |||
| :{{Main|Critical race theory}} | |||
| The concept of white privilege has been studied by theorists of ] seeking to examine the construction and moral implications of 'whiteness'. There is often overlap between critical whiteness and race theories, as demonstrated by focus on the legal and historical construction of white identity, and the use of narratives (whether legal discourse, testimony or fiction) as a tool for exposing systems of racial power.<ref>See, for example, Haney López, Ian F. ''White by Law''. 1995; Lipsitz, George. ''Possessive Investment in Whiteness''; Delgado, Richard; Williams, Patricia; and Kovel, Joel.</ref> Fields such as History and Cultural Studies are primarily responsible for the formative scholarship of Critical Whiteness Studies. | |||
| ] such as Cheryl Harris<ref name="Harris">{{cite journal |first=Cheryl I. |last=Harris|title=Whiteness as Property |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=106 |issue=8|pages=1709–95 |date=June 1993 |doi=10.2307/1341787 |publisher=Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106, No. 8|jstor=1341787}}</ref> and ]<ref>{{cite book|last= Lipsitz |first=George| title= The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics|year=2006 |publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia, PA |isbn= 1-59213-493-9|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PIqUajTEfk0C&printsec=frontcover}}</ref> have said that "whiteness" has historically been treated more as a form of ] than as a racial characteristic: In other words, as an object which has intrinsic value that must be protected by social and legal institutions. Laws and ] concerning race (from ] and ] constructions that legally separate different races to social prejudices against interracial relationships or mixed communities) serve the purpose of retaining certain advantages and privileges for whites. Because of this, academic and societal ideas about race have tended to focus solely on the disadvantages suffered by ], overlooking the advantageous effects that accrue to whites.<ref name="Lucal">{{cite journal|last=Lucal|first=Betsy|date=July 1996|title=Oppression and Privilege: Toward a Relational Conceptualization of Race|journal=Teaching Sociology|publisher=American Sociological Association|location=Washington, D.C.|volume=24|issue=3|pages=245–55|issn=0092-055X|oclc=48950428|doi=10.2307/1318739|jstor=1318739}}</ref> | |||
| ===Whiteness unspoken=== | |||
| From another perspective, white privilege is a way of conceptualizing racial inequalities that focuses on advantages that white people accrue from their position in society as well as the disadvantages that non-white people experience.<ref>Williams, ''Constraint of Race'' (2004), p. 11.</ref> This same idea is brought to light by Peggy McIntosh, who wrote of white privilege from the perspective of a white individual. McIntosh states in her writing that, "as a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege which puts me at an advantage."<ref name="McIntosh, P. 1988 p. 1">McIntosh, P. (1988). "White privilege: Packing the invisible backpack. p. 1</ref> To back this assertion, McIntosh notes a myriad of conditions in her article in which racial inequalities occur to favor whites, from renting or buying a home in a given area without suspicion of one's financial standing, to purchasing bandages in "flesh" color that closely matches a white person's skin tone. She further asserts that she sees | |||
| <blockquote>a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions which were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turf, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways, and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.<ref name="McIntosh, P. 1988 p. 1"/></blockquote> | |||
| ===Unjust enrichment=== | |||
| Lawrence Blum refers to advantages for white people as "unjust enrichment" privileges, in which white people benefit from the injustices done to people of color, and he articulates that such privileges are deeply rooted in the U.S. culture and lifestyle: | |||
| <blockquote>When Blacks are denied access to desirable homes, for example, this is not just an injustice to Blacks but a positive benefit to Whites who now have a wider range of domicile options than they would have if Blacks had equal access to housing. When urban schools do a poor job of educating their Latino/a and Black students, this benefits Whites in the sense that it unjustly advantages them in the competition for higher levels of education and jobs. Whites in general cannot avoid benefiting from the historical legacy of racial discrimination and oppression. So unjust enrichment is almost never absent from the life situation of Whites.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Blum | first1 = L. | year = 2008 | title = White privilege: A mild critique". In | url = | journal = Theory and Research in Education | volume = 6 | issue = 309| page = 311 }}</ref></blockquote> | |||
| ===Spared injustice=== | |||
| ].]] | |||
| In Blum's analysis of the underlying structure of white privilege, "spared injustice" is when a person of color suffers an unjust treatment while a white person does not. His example of this is when "a Black person is stopped by the police without due cause but a White person is not".<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312"/> He identifies "unjust enrichment" privileges as those for which whites are spared the injustice of a situation, and in turn, are benefiting from the injustice of others. For instance, "if police are too focused on looking for Black lawbreakers, they might be less vigilant toward White ones, conferring an unjust enrichment benefit on Whites who do break the laws but escape detection for this reason."<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312"/> | |||
| ===Privileges not related to injustice=== | |||
| Blum describes "non-injustice-related" privileges as those which are not associated with injustices experienced by people of color, but relate to a majority group's advantages over a minority group. Those who are in the majority, usually white people, gain "unearned privileges not founded on injustice."<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312" /> As an example, in workplace cultures there tends to be a partly ethnocultural character, so that some ethnic or racial groups' members find them more comfortable than do others.<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312" /> | |||
| ===Framing racial inequality=== | |||
| Dan J. Pence and J. Arthur Fields have observed resistance in the context of education to the idea that white privilege of this type exists, and suggest this resistance stems from a tendency to see inequality as a black or ] issue. One report noted that white students often react to in-class discussions about white privilege with a continuum of behaviors ranging from outright hostility to a "wall of silence."<ref name="Pence">{{cite journal|last=Pence|first=Dan J.|author2=Fields, J. Arthur|date=April 1999|title=Teaching about Race and Ethnicity: Trying to Uncover White Privilege for a White Audience|journal=Teaching Sociology|publisher=American Sociological Association|location=Washington, D.C.|volume=27|issue=2|pages=150–8|issn=0092-055X|oclc=48950428|doi=10.2307/1318701|jstor=1318701}}</ref> A pair of studies on a broader population by Branscombe ''et al.'' found that framing racial issues in terms of white privilege as opposed to non-white disadvantages can produce a greater degree of racially biased responses from whites who have higher levels of racial identification. Branscombe ''et al.'' demonstrate that framing racial inequality in terms of the privileges of whites increased levels of guilt among white respondents. Those with high racial identification were more likely to give responses which concurred with modern ] attitudes than those with low racial identification.<ref name="Branscombe">{{cite journal|last=Branscombe|first=Nyla R.|author2=Schmitt, Michael T.|author3=Schiffhauer, Kristin|date=2006-08-25|title=Racial Attitudes in Response to Thoughts of White Privilege|journal=European Journal of Social Psychology|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.|volume=37|issue=2|pages=203–15|url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112771384/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0|accessdate=2008-07-19|doi=10.1002/ejsp.348}}</ref> According to the studies' authors these findings suggest that representing inequality in terms of ] disadvantage allows privileged group members to avoid the negative implications of inequality.<ref name="Powell">{{cite journal|last=Powell|first=Adam A.|author2=Branscombe, Nyla R.|author3=Schmitt, Michael T.|year=2005|title=Inequality as Ingroup Privilege or Outgroup Disadvantage: The Impact of Group Focus on Collective Guilt and Interracial Attitudes|journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin|publisher=Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.|volume=31|issue=4|pages=508–21|url=http://data.psych.udel.edu/abelcher/Shared%20Documents/6%20General%20Diversity%20Issues%20%2815%29/Powell.pdf |accessdate=2013-04-15|doi=10.1177/0146167204271713|pmid=15743985}}</ref> | |||
| ===White fragility=== | |||
| Robin DiAngelo, professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University, has noted that "white privilege can be thought of as unstable racial equilibrium".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=DiAngelo|first1=Robin|title=White Fragility|journal=The Journal of International Critical Pedagogy|date=2011|volume=3|issue=3|page=58}}</ref> When this equilibrium is challenged, the resulting racial stress can become intolerable and trigger a range of defensive moves. DiAngelo defines these behaviors as "White Fragility." She also writes that white privilege is very rarely discussed and that even multicultural education courses tend to use vocabulary that further obfuscates racial privilege and defines race as something that only concerns blacks. She suggests using loaded terminology with negative connotations to people of color adds to the cycle of white privilege, | |||
| <blockquote>It is far more the norm for these courses and programs to use racially coded language such as 'urban,' 'inner city,' and 'disadvantaged' but to rarely use 'white' or 'overadvantaged' or 'privileged.' This racially coded language reproduces racist images and perspectives while it simultaneously reproduces the comfortable illusion that race and its problems are what 'they' have, not us.<ref>{{cite journal|last=DiAngelo|first=Robin |title= White Fragility |journal= The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy |year= 2001 |pages= 54–70 |volume= 3 |issue= 3|url= https://libjournal.uncg.edu/index.php/ijcp/article/download/249/116 |accessdate= March 27, 2015}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
| ==White privilege versus universal rights== | |||
| Academically, the concept of white privilege has been primarily critiqued by scholars who agree with the reality of racial inequality. Conservatives have generally not seen the concept as serious enough to oppose politically, although David Marcus says it is a danger to traditional ideals of an equal society.<ref name="Ideal of Equality">{{cite web|last1=Marcus|first1=David|title=Privilege Theory Destroys The American Ideal Of Equality|url=http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/10/privilege-theory-destroys-the-american-ideal-of-equality|website=The Federalist|accessdate=20 December 2015}}</ref> | |||
| Peggy McIntosh has stated "Whiteness is just one of the many variables that one can look at, starting with, for example, one’s place in the birth order, or your body type, or your athletic abilities, or your relationship to written and spoken words, or your parents’ places of origin, or your parents’ relationship to education and to English, or what is projected onto your religious or ethnic background."<ref name=newyorker/> | |||
| The notion of white privilege has been critiqued on the basis that privileges that white people enjoy are actually rights that should be given to all people. ] rejects the idea of white privilege, arguing that the privileges from which whites as a group are supposed to benefit are, in fact, social goods to which all people aspire. As such, he writes, they are not privileges: | |||
| <blockquote>A privilege is something that not everyone needs, but a right is the opposite. Given this distinction, an insidious dimension of the white-privilege argument emerges. It requires condemning whites for possessing, in the concrete, features of contemporary life that should be available to all, and if this is correct, how can whites be expected to give up such things? Yes, there is the case of the reality of whites being the majority population in all the sites of actual privilege from prestigious universities to golf clubs and boards of directors for most high-powered corporations. But even ''among whites'' as a group, how many whites have ''those'' opportunities?<ref name=GordonWWLL>] (2004). In G. Yancy (Ed.), ''What White Looks like: African-American Philosophers on the Whiteness Question'' (pp. 173–280).</ref></blockquote> | |||
| According to Gordon, viewing whites as universally privileged constructs "a reality that has nothing to do with lived experience" of the majority of whites, who themselves do not have access to elite institutions.<ref name=GordonWWLL /> Their "daily, means-to-means subsistence" is a right, of which it makes no sense to feel guilty.<ref name=GordonWWLL /> ] similarly criticizes the term ''white privilege'' as a misunderstanding of the difference between privileges and rights. Discrimination against nonwhites does not create a privilege in the normal sense of the term, a "specifically granted absolute advantage", a "prerogative or exception granted to an individual or special group".<ref name=NaomiZackWI>Zack, N. (2004). In C. J. Cuomo and K. Q. Hall (Eds.), ''Whiteness: Feminist philosophical reflections'' (pp. 77-84).</ref> In the United States, Zack writes, discussion of "white privilege" distracts from the discussion of social exclusion of nonwhites, which is the origin of racial disparities.<ref name=NaomiZackWI /> | |||
| Lawrence Blum responds to this critique, writing "privileges are generally counterposed to 'rights'. They are not things people should expect to have, but rather things that people count themselves fortunate if they do have them."<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312">{{cite journal | last = Blum | first = L. | year = 2008 | title = White privilege: A Mild Critique | url =http://tre.sagepub.com/content/6/3/309.abstract | journal = Theory and Research in Education | volume = 6 | issue = 309| pages=311–312}}</ref> Blum tends to find somewhat of a gray area between these two ideals, however, when he states that, "many of the things that are called 'privileges' in ''White Privilege Analysis'' do have the character of either rights or things it is appropriate for someone to expect to have ... being able to buy a home of one's choice, having one's voice heard in various settings, and the like. These are referred to as 'privileges', of course, because of the comparison to non-Whites who do not have them."<ref name="Blum, L. 2008 p. 311–312"/> Blum is not calling the concept of white privilege into question, rather he is distinguishing different types of privileges possessed by white individuals in society with the intent of showing a distinction between rights and privileges. In his view, privileges are not merely whites having more opportunities than people of color; rather, he shows how racial disparity has been assimilated into society through activities that are often unconsciously assumed by those who benefit. He considers these better-defined advantages as important because they provide concrete examples in which white privilege is prevalent and helping demonstrate its existence to those who doubt the presence or severity of white privilege. | |||
| Blum also points out that one of the weaknesses of whiteness studies within the philosophy of education is that it fails to consider the social, economic, and political explanations from existing research in the social sciences and often cites "white privilege" as a problem without providing a structure for how to address it (p. 314).<ref name="Privilege"/><ref name="auto">Ref name="Privilege">Blum, Lawrence. "'White Privilege': A Mild Critique1." Theory and Research in Education. 2008. 6:309. {{DOI|10.1177/1477878508095586}}</ref> He recommends a specific structural analysis that provides "(1) an analysis of a particular racial disparity, (2) an account of why this particular gap is of moral and political concern, (3) an explanation involving both class and racial factors that has led to this disparity, and (4) a set of policy proposals intended to address the particular gap in question" (p. 314).<ref name="auto"/> Therefore, white privilege analysis is lacking because it fails to consider class, diversity within racial groups, linguistic barriers, and implications for racial justice. | |||
| ==White privilege versus socioeconomic privilege== | |||
| A frequent critique of the concept of white privilege argues that privileges accrued to white people might really be a type of ] based on social class. According to James Forrest and Kevin Dunn, the privileges of being white might accrue largely to certain white ethnic and cultural groups, as opposed to white people as a whole.<ref name="uws.edu.au"/> Adam A. Powell, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Michael T. Schmitt say that people in the least successful white ethnic and cultural groups are often the ones that are disadvantaged the most from any ] that attempts to take into account white privilege.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Powell |first1=Adam A. |last2= Branscombe |first2=Nyla R. |last3=Schmitt |first3=Michael T. |title=Inequality as Ingroup Privilege or Outgroup Disadvantage: The Impact of Group Focus on Collective Guilt and Interracial Attitudes |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |date=April 2005 |volume=31 |number=4 |doi=10.1177/0146167204271713 |url=http://data.psych.udel.edu/abelcher/Shared%20Documents/6%20General%20Diversity%20Issues%20(15)/Powell.pdf |pmid=15743985 |pages=508–21}}</ref> The label "]", in particular, has been described as marking off a lower limit of white privilege in the social hierarchy. In the words of anthropologist John Hartigan: "White trash, a lurid stereotype and debasing racial epithet, applies to poor whites whose subordination by class is extreme. This charged label is a reminder that there are important class dimensions to whiteness and that whites are not uniformly privileged and powerful."<ref name="Hartigan, 2005 pp. 1"/> Hartigan also cites "]" and "]" as contemporary terms that connote whiteness but not privilege.<ref>Hartigan, ''Odd Tribes'' (2005), p. 148.</ref> | |||
| Lawrence Blum writes that white privilege analysis has been too narrow in its focus. Specifically, it fails to acknowledge important ethnic and class differences, among both whites and people of color. Blum argues that white privilege implies that all hindrances suffered by people of color are related to race, when privileges awarded to groups of people based on class is often left out of the discussion. There are privileges awarded to the middle and upper class that are not awarded to the lower class. White privilege also fails to recognize diversity within groups of people. It fails to recognize the linguistic barriers of Whites who do not speak the dominant language. It also fails to recognize the differences in racial groups (Asian, Latino, African American, etc.). It assumes that all people of color are in similar situations. That is to say that Latinos, Blacks, Asians, etc. all face the same struggles in relation to white privilege. Blum (2008) writes, "That some are more disadvantaged than others means that ethnic groups within the major racial or pan-ethnic groups need to be distinguished; they have importantly distinct historical experiences that shape the character of whatever racial and ethnic stratification applies to them" (p. 317).<ref name="Privilege"/> | |||
| Some critics of the concept of white privilege have argued that members of a "]", such as ]s, can enjoy "white privilege", or something like it, despite their non-European ancestry.<ref name=Leonardo/> According to this argument, the case of model minorities shows that white privilege can really be attributed to economic privilege. However, the concept of a model minority, has actually faced backlash from the Asian-American community because the "model minority myth" is often used to invalidate Asian American complaints about discrimination in the workplace (e.g. the ]) or in other sectors like housing and education. According to ], "the misperception that Asian Americans are doing fine on their own has serious policy implications...politicians won’t talk about our community’s needs if they assume people don’t require assistance." According to the ], since the 1960s, "the idea that Asian Americans are distinct among minority groups and immune to the challenges faced by other people of color is a particularly sensitive issue for the community, which has recently fought to reclaim its place in social justice conversations with movements like #ModelMinorityMutiny." <ref name=YananWang>{{cite news|last1=Wang|first1=Yanan|title=Asian Americans speak out against a decades-old ‘model minority’ myth|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/20/asian-americans-speak-out-against-a-decades-old-model-minority-myth/|accessdate=12 January 2016|agency=]|date=20 October 2015}}</ref> | |||
| ===Intersectionality=== | |||
| {{see also|Intersectionality}} | |||
| Gina Crosley-Corcoran is a white feminist writer who was born into a poverty so severe, she recounts frigid winters in northern ] without heat or running water. In her article, ''Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person'', she recounts that as an adolescent she was "making ramen noodles in a coffee maker with water fetched from a public bathroom".<ref name=crosley-corcoran /> During her childhood, she was constantly discriminated against because of her poverty. Initially hostile to the concept of white privilege, even after being directed to read Peggy McIntosh's essay "Unpacking the invisible knapsack," she says there are many points in the essay "where the word 'class' could be substituted for the word 'race,' which would ultimately paint a very different picture." During her college years, she began to embrace the concept of ], which "recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and definitely not privileged in others." Thus, even impoverished white people who might be labelled "white trash," while disadvantaged economically, still enjoy advantages not available to people of color, distinct from economic discrimination in the same way that discrimination based on ] and discrimination based on ] or ] are also distinct. | |||
| Intersectional analysis was originally pioneered by black feminist ], who now heads the ] (AAPF). According to a primer released by the AAPF, "disadvantage or exclusion can be based on the interaction of multiple factors rather than just one. Yet conventional approaches to social problems are often organized as though these risk factors are mutually exclusive and separable." <ref name="AAPF">{{cite web|title=A primer on Intersectionality|url=http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/pdf/intersectionality_primer.pdf|publisher=]}}</ref> AAPF notes the importance of intersectional analysis in the case of '']'' heard by the ]: "In this historically race and gender segregated auto industry, women were only permitted to work in front office jobs and African Americans were limited to heavy industrial work... The problem for African American women was even more acute: the front office jobs were only available to women who were white, and the industrial jobs were appropriate only for Blacks who were men." The Court dismissed their case because "neither white women nor black men were similarly excluded". Intersectional analysis, which was born from the analysis of this case, not only recognizes that white privilege is distinct from economic privilege, but also realizes that privilege (and conversely, oppression or discrimination) arising from different group memberships can be mutually-reinforcing, rather than acting independently as ]s.<ref name="AAPF" /> | |||
| ===Marxist critiques=== | |||
| The idea that white privilege has functioned as a social tool to divide white and black workers has proved particularly controversial. A ] critique of this perspective holds that racial differences are secondary to economic difference, and that white privilege is therefore secondary to class privilege. According to this view, analyzing white privilege is misguided because it distracts from class struggle.<ref>Alan Sawyer, "", ''Proletarian Cause'', September 1972.</ref> Historian Eric Arnesen has challenged this understanding of "whiteness" as ill-constructed ]. Arnesen calls whiteness a "moving target" in historical studies, writing: "Whiteness is, variously, a metaphor for power, a proxy for racially distributed material benefits, a synonym for 'white supremacy,' an epistemological stance defined by power, a position of invisibility or ignorance, and a set of beliefs about racial 'Others' and oneself that can be rejected through 'treason' to a racial category." Arnesen disagrees with the idea that white privilege divided the labor movement, as well as with the underlying concept of inherent labor unity, arguing that many types of difference have divided the working class.<ref name="Arnesen"/> | |||
| Arnesen's arguments about race and organized labor form the basis for a larger argument about "white privilege" as a concept in the social sciences. Arnesen also rejects the idea of a basic connection between the identity of whiteness and the ideology of white supremacy.<ref name=Arnesen/> The "white privilege" concept creates the image of a person so favored by society that they are unaware of unfairness and domination—yet this may not be the experience of all people with "white skin".<ref>Hartigan, ''Odd Tribes'' (2005), p. 241.</ref> | |||
| Arnesen has also wrote that some claims about the psychology of whiteness and white privilege are difficult to prove, or even wrong. He compares whiteness studies with Freudian psychoanalysis because of its rigid pre-determined structure.<ref name=Arnesen/> | |||
| ==Global== | |||
| White privilege functions differently in different places. A person's white skin will not be an asset to them in every conceivable place or situation. White people are also a global minority, and this fact affects the experiences they have outside of their home areas. Nevertheless, some people who use the term "white privilege" describe it as a worldwide phenomenon, resulting from the history of colonialism by white Western Europeans. One author states that American white men are privileged almost everywhere in the world, even though many countries have never been colonized by Western Europeans.<ref>], "", ''The Guardian'', 19 September 2003.</ref><ref>Merry M. Merryfield, "Why aren't teachers being prepared to teach for diversity, equity, and global interconnectedness? A study of lived experiences in the making of multicultural and global educators", ''Teaching and Teacher Education'' 16(4), May 2000; accessed . "Although white, middle class Americans may experience outsider status as expatriates in another country, there are few places on the planet where white male Americans are not privileged through their language, relative wealth and global political power."</ref> | |||
| In some accounts, global white privilege is related to ] and ].<ref>Melanie E. L. Bush, "", ''ACRAWSA e-journal'' , 2010.</ref> | |||
| ==In the United States== | |||
| {{Split section |White privilege in the United States|discuss={{TALKPAGENAME}}#Split proposed |date=January 2016}} | |||
| ===History=== | |||
| Some scholars attribute white privilege, which they describe as informal racism, to the formal racism (i.e. ] followed by ]) that existed for much of American history.<ref>Williams, ''Constraint of Race'' (2004).</ref> In her book ''Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America'', Stephanie M. Wildman writes that many Americans who advocate a merit-based, race-free worldview do not acknowledge the systems of privilege which have benefited them. For example, many Americans rely on a social or financial inheritance from previous generations, an inheritance unlikely to be forthcoming if one's ancestors were slaves.<ref name="Wildman">{{cite book|last=Wildman|first=Stephanie M.|author2=Armstrong, Margalynne|author3=Davis, Adrienne D.|author4=Grillo, Trina|title=Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America|publisher=NYU Press|location=New York|year=1996|isbn=0-8147-9303-7|url=https://books.google.com/?id=LK-aQDstH6kC&dq=Privilege+Revealed:+How+Invisible+Preference+Undermines+America&printsec=frontcover|accessdate=2008-07-19}}</ref> Whites were sometimes afforded opportunities and benefits that were unavailable to others. In the middle of the 20th century, the government subsidized white homeownership through the ], but not homeownership by minorities.<ref name="Massey">{{cite book|last=Massey|first=Douglas|author2=Denton, Nancy|title=American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass|publisher=Harvard University Press|date=1998-01-15|isbn=0-674-01821-4|accessdate=2008-07-19}}</ref> Some social scientists also suggest that the historical processes of ] and decentralization are instances of white privilege that have contributed to contemporary patterns of ].<ref name="Pulido">{{cite journal|last=Pulido |first=Laura |date=March 2000 |title=Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=12–40 |issn=0004-5608 |url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/anna/2000/00000090/00000001/art00002;jsessionid=3rmbt81dt5utk.alice |accessdate=2008-07-19 |doi=10.1111/0004-5608.00182 |format=– <sup></sup> |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20110604235301/http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/anna/2000/00000090/00000001/art00002;jsessionid=3rmbt81dt5utk.alice |archivedate=June 4, 2011 }}</ref> | |||
| ===Wealth=== | |||
| According to Roderick Harrison "wealth is a measure of cumulative advantage or disadvantage" and "the fact that black and Hispanic wealth is a fraction of white wealth also reflects a history of discrimination".<ref>"." ''New York Times'' 18 October 2004.</ref> Whites have historically had more opportunities to accumulate wealth.<ref name=wealth>{{cite book|author1=Melvin L. Oliver|author2=Thomas M. Shapiro|title=Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksJuX02DNwC&pg=PT53|year=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-95167-8|pages=53–4}}</ref> Some of the institutions of wealth creation amongst American citizens were open exclusively to whites.<ref name=wealth/> Similar differentials applied to the ] (which excluded agricultural and domestic workers, sectors that then included most black workers),<ref>Ira Katznelson, '''', p. 43</ref> rewards to military officers, and the educational benefits offered to returning soldiers after World War II.<ref>Ira Katznelson, '''', p. 114.</ref> An analyst of the phenomenon, ], professor of law and social policy at Brandeis University, says, "The wealth gap is not just a story of merit and achievement, it's also a story of the historical legacy of race in the United States."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15704759|title=Census Report: Broad Racial Disparities Persist|date=2006-11-14|publisher=MSNBC|accessdate=2008-07-19}}</ref> | |||
| Over the past 40 years, there has been less formal ]; the ] however, is still extant.<ref name=wealth/> George Lipsitz asserts that because wealthy whites were able to pass along their wealth in the form of inheritances and transformative assets (inherited wealth which lifts a family beyond their own achievements), white Americans on average continually accrue advantages.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|107–8}} Pre-existing disparities in wealth are exacerbated by tax policies that reward investment over waged income, subsidize mortgages, and subsidize private sector developers.<ref name="Lipsitz">{{cite journal|last=Lipsitz|first=George|date=September 1995|title=The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the "White" Problem in American Studies|journal=American Quarterly|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=47|issue=3|pages=369–87|doi=10.2307/2713291|jstor=2713291}}</ref> | |||
| Thomas Shapiro wrote that wealth is passed along from generation to generation, giving whites a better "starting point" in life than other races. According to Shapiro, many whites receive financial assistance from their parents allowing them to live beyond their income. This, in turn, enables them to buy houses and major assets which aid in the accumulation of wealth. Since houses in white neighborhoods appreciate faster, even African Americans who are able to overcome their "starting point" are unlikely to accumulate wealth as fast as whites. Shapiro asserts this is a continual cycle from which whites consistently benefit.<ref name="Shapiro">{{cite book |first=Thomas M. |last=Shapiro |title=The Hidden Cost of Being African American; How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518138-8|date=2003-12-12}}</ref> These benefits also have effects on schooling and other life opportunities.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|32–3}} | |||
| Peggy McIntosh, co-director of the SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, posits that white people in the United States can be sure that race is not a factor when they are audited by the IRS.<ref name="Unpacking"/> | |||
| ===Employment and economics=== | |||
| {{further|Racial wage gap in the United States}} | |||
| Report 1025, June 2010.</ref>]] | |||
| Racialized employment networks can benefit whites at the expense of non-white minorities.<ref name="Royster">{{cite book |first=Deirdre A. |last=Royster |title=Race and the Invisible Hand |location=Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-23951-2 |year=2003}}</ref> Asian-Americans, for example, although lauded as a "model minority", rarely rise to positions high in the workplace: only 8 of the Fortune 500 companies have Asian-American CEOs, making up 1.6% of CEO positions while Asian-Americans are 4.8% of the population.<ref name="Diversity Inc">{{citation |url=http://www.insightintodiversity.com/asian-americans-in-leadership-the-invisible-minority-by-dr-edna-chun|title=Asian Americans In Leadership: The Invisible Minority - By Dr. Edna Chun}}</ref> In a study published in 2003, sociologist Deirdre A. Royster compared black and white males who graduated from the same school with the same skills. In looking at their success with school-work transition and working experiences, she found that white graduates were more often employed in skilled trades, earned more, held higher status positions, received more promotions and experienced shorter periods of unemployment. Since all other factors were similar, the differences in employment experiences were attributed to race. Royster concluded that the primary cause of these racial differences was due to ]. The concept of "who you know" seemed just as important to these graduates as "what you know". | |||
| Since older white males predominantly control blue-collar trades, they are more likely to offer varying forms of assistance to those in their social network, often other whites.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Karsten|editor1-first=Margaret Foegen|title=Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Workplace: Organizational practices and individual strategies for women and minorities|date=2006|publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=978-0-275-98805-0|page=120|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3OHETydthM0C&lpg=PA120&ots=1c6TMXR7vk&dq=white%20males%20social%20network&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref> Royster says that this assistance, disproportionately available to whites, is an advantage that often puts black men at a disadvantage in the employment sector. According to Royster, "these ideologies provide a contemporary deathblow to working-class black men's chances of establishing a foothold in the traditional trades."<ref name="Royster" /> | |||
| This concept is similar to the theory created by ] which analyzes the importance of social networking and ] with his paper "The Strength of Weak Ties" and his other economic sociology work. | |||
| Other research shows that there is a correlation between a person's name and his or her likelihood of receiving a call back for a job interview. ] and ] found in field experiment in Boston and Chicago that people with "white-sounding" names are 50% more likely to receive a call back than people with "black-sounding" names, despite equal résumé quality between the two racial groups.<ref name="Bertrand">{{cite journal|last=Bertrand|first=Marianne |author2=Mullainathan, Sendhil|date=September 2004|title=Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment in Labor Market Discrimination|journal=American Economic Review|volume=94|issue=4|pages=991–1013|url=http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/0002828042002561|doi=10.1257/0002828042002561|accessdate=2008-07-18}}</ref> White Americans are more likely than black Americans to have their business loan applications approved, even when other factors such as credit records are comparable.<ref name="Bates">{{cite book|last=Bates|first=Timothy|author2=Austin Turner, Margery |title=Minority Business Development: Identification and Measurement of Discriminatory Barriers|editor=Fix, Michael E.; Austin Turner, Margery |publisher=Urban Institute|location=Washington, D.C|date=March 1998|series=A National Report Card on Discrimination in America: The Role of Testing|chapter=5|isbn=978-0-87766-696-7|url=http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=308024|accessdate=2008-07-18}} at p. 104</ref> | |||
| Black and Latino college graduates are less likely than white graduates to end up in a management position even when other factors such as age, experience, and academic records are similar.<ref name="Williams">Williams, ''Constraint of Race'' (2004), p. 359, fig. 7.1.</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Income Gaps Persist Among Races|last=Hartnett|first=William M.|date=2003-10-20|publisher=Palm Beach Post}}</ref><ref name="Mason">{{cite journal|last=Mason|first=Patrick L.|date=May–June 1998|title=Race, Cognitive Ability, and Wage Inequality|journal=Challenge|volume=41|issue=3|pages=62–81|issn=1077-193X |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1093/is_n3_v41/ai_20809842|accessdate=2008-07-18}}</ref> | |||
| Cheryl Harris relates whiteness to the idea of "racialized privilege" in the article "Whiteness as Property": she describes it as "a type of status in which white racial identity provided the basis for allocating societal benefits both private and public and character".<ref>{{cite journal | title = Whiteness as Property | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 1998 | first = Cheryl | last = Harris | volume = 106 | issue = 8 | pages = 1707–1791 | accessdate = 2013-03-14 | doi=10.2307/1341787}}</ref> | |||
| ===Housing=== | |||
| {{further|Racial inequality in the United States#Housing}} | |||
| ] was formalized in 1934 under the Federal Housing Act which provided government credit to private lending for home buyers.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|5}} Within the Act, the Federal Housing Agency had the authority to channel all the money to white home buyers instead of minorities.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|5}} The FHA also channeled money away from inner-city neighborhoods after World War II and instead placed it in the hands of white home buyers who would move into segregated suburbs.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paula S. |last=Rothenberg |year=2005 |title=White Privilege |location=New York |publisher=Worth Publishers |isbn=0-7167-8733-4}}</ref> These practices and others, intensified attitudes of segregation and inequality. | |||
| The "single greatest source of wealth" for white Americans is the growth in value in their owner-occupied homes. The family wealth so generated is the most important contribution to wealth disparity between black and white Americans.<ref name=possessive>{{cite book|author=George Lipsitz|title=The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics, Revised and Expanded Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PIqUajTEfk0C&page=PA32|date=21 August 2009|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=978-1-59213-495-3|pages=32–3}}</ref>{{rp|32–33}}{{Dubious | Housing | reason = Poorly sourced. Provide more authoritative sources on talk page.|date=March 2014}} It has been said that continuing discrimination in the mortgage industry perpetuates this inequality, not only for black homeowners who pay higher mortgage rates than their white counterparts, but also for those excluded entirely from the housing market by these factors, who are thus excluded from the financial benefits of both equity appreciation and the tax deductions associated with home ownership.<ref name=possessive/>{{rp|32–3}} | |||
| Brown, Carnoey and Oppenheimer, in "Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society," write that the financial inequities created by discriminatory housing practices also have an ongoing effect on young black families, since the net worth of one's parents is the best predictor of one's own net worth, so discriminatory financial policies of the past contribute to race-correlated financial inequities of today.<ref name=whitewashing>{{cite book|author1=Michael K. Brown|author2=Martin Carnoy|author3=David B. Oppenheimer|title=Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EwuLgYWeYMC&pg=PA79|date=18 September 2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-93875-5|page=79}}</ref> For instance, it is said that even when income is controlled for, whites have significantly more wealth than blacks, and that this present fact is partially attributable to past federal financial policies that favored whites over blacks.<ref name=whitewashing/> | |||
| Chip Smith describes some ways he views whites as privileged:<ref>{{cite book |first=Chip |last=Smith |year=2007 |title=The Cost of Privilege |location= Largo, Maryland |publisher=Linemark Printing, Inc.|isbn=0-9791828-0-8}}</ref> | |||
| * Whites are offered more choices; 60%–90% of housing units shown to whites are not brought to the attention of blacks. | |||
| * 72.1% of whites own their own home opposed to 48.1% for African Americans | |||
| * 46% of whites had help from their family in making down payments on homes compared to 12% for African Americans | |||
| * Whites are half as likely to be turned down for a mortgage or home improvement loan | |||
| * Whites pay on average an 8.12% interest rate on their mortgage, lower than the 8.44% African Americans pay on average | |||
| * The median home equity for whites is $58,000 compared to $40,000 for African Americans | |||
| ===Education=== | |||
| {{further|Racial achievement gap in the United States}} | |||
| Education policies in the US have contributed to the construction and reinforcement of white privilege.<ref>Wildman, Stephanie M. 18 March 2010.</ref><ref name="White">Olson, Ruth. "White Privilege in Schools." Beyond Heroes and Holidays. 1998. Endid Lee. Teaching for Change, 1998</ref> Wildman says that even schools that appear to be integrated often segregate students based on abilities. This can increase white students' initial educational advantage, magnifying the "unequal classroom experience of African American students" and minorities.<ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Shapiro |year=2004 |title=The Hidden Cost of Being African American; How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=144 |isbn=978-0-19-518138-8}}</ref> | |||
| Williams and Rivers (1972b) showed that test instructions in Standard English disadvantaged the black child and that if the language of the test is put in familiar labels without training or coaching, the child's performances on the tests increase significantly.<ref>Williams, R.L. and Rivers, L.W. (1972b). The use of standard and nonstandard English in testing black children. As presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association</ref> According to Cadzen a child's language development should be evaluated in terms of his progress toward the norms for his particular speech community.<ref>Cadzen, C.B. (1966). Subcultural Differences in Child Language: An Inter-disciplinary Review. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 1966, 12 pp. 185–214</ref> Other studies using sentence repetition tasks found that, at both third and fifth grades, white subjects repeated Standard English sentences significantly more accurately than black subjects, while black subjects repeated nonstandard English sentences significantly more accurately than white subjects.<ref name="Marwit">{{cite journal|last=Marwit|first=Samuel J.|author2=Walker, Elaine F.|author3=Marwit, Karen L.|date=December 1977|title=Reliability of Standard English Differences among Black and White Children at Second, Fourth, and Seventh Grades|journal=Child Development|publisher=Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development|volume=48|issue=4|pages=1739–42|doi=10.2307/1128548|jstor=1128548}}</ref> | |||
| According to Janet E. Helms traditional psychological and academic assessment is based on skills that are considered important within white, western, middle-class culture, but which may not be salient or valued within African-American culture.<ref>Helms, J.E. (1997) The triple quandary of race, culture, and social class in standardized cognitive ability testing. In D.P. Flanagan, J.L. Genshaft, & P.L. Harrison (Eds.), contemporary intellectual assessment: theories, tests, and issues (pp.517–532). New York: Guilford Press.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Helms | first1 = J.E. | year = 1992 | title = Why is there no study of cultural equivalence in standardized cognitive ability testing? | url = | journal = American Psychologist | volume = 47 | issue = | pages = 1083–1101 | doi=10.1037/0003-066X.47.9.1083}}</ref> When tests' stimuli are more culturally pertinent to the experiences of African Americans, performance improves.<ref>Hayles, V.R. (1991). African American Strengths: a survey of empirical findings. In R.L. Jones (Ed.), Black Psychology (3rd ed., pp. 379–400). Berkeley, California: Cobb & Henry Publishers.</ref><ref>Williams, R.L. and Rivers, L.W. (1972b) The use of standard and nonstandard English in testing black children. A presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association</ref> However, white privilege critics say that in K-12 education, students' academic progress is measured on nationwide standardized tests which reflect national standards.<ref>{{cite web|title=Common set of school standards to be proposed|first=Nick|last=Anderson|work=Washington Post|page=A1|date=March 10, 2010}}</ref><ref>But see, {{cite web|url=http://www.fairtest.org/joint%20statement%20civil%20rights%20grps%2010-21-04.html|title= Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act|date=2004-10-21|accessdate=2008-01-03}}</ref> | |||
| African Americans are disproportionately sent to ] classes in their schools, identified as being disruptive or suffering from a learning disability. These students are segregated for the majority of the school day, taught by uncertified teachers, and do not receive high school diplomas. Wanda Blanchett has said that white students have consistently privileged interactions with the special education system, which provides 'non-normal' whites with the resources they need to benefit from the mainline white educational structure.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Blanchett | first1 = Wanda J. | year = | title = Disproportionate Representation of African American Students in Special Education: Acknowledging the Role of White Privilege and Racism | url = http://edr.sagepub.com/content/35/6/24 | journal = Educational Researcher | volume = 35 | issue = 24| page = 2006 | doi = 10.3102/0013189X035006024 }}</ref> | |||
| Educational inequality is also a consequence of housing. Since most states determine school funding based on property taxes,{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} schools in wealthier neighborhoods receive more funding per student.<ref>{{cite book|last1=National center for education statistics|title=The condition of education 2000|date=2000|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|location=Washington DC|pages=102|url=http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000062.pdf|accessdate=15 July 2014}}</ref> As home values in white neighborhoods are higher than minority neighborhoods,{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} local schools receive more funding via property taxes. This will ensure better technology in predominantly white schools, smaller class sizes and better quality teachers, giving white students opportunities for a better education.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Erin E. |last=Kelly |year=1995 |title=All Students Are Not Created Equal: The Inequitable Combination of Property Tax-Based School Finance Systems and Local Control |journal=Duke Law Journal |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=397–435 |doi=10.2307/1372907 |publisher=Duke Law Journal, Vol. 45, No. 2 |jstor=1372907 }}</ref> The vast majority of schools placed on academic probation as part of district accountability efforts are majority African-American and low-income.<ref>Diamond, John B. & James P. Spillane. (2004) "High Stakes Accountability in Urban Elementary Schools: Challenging or Reproducing Inequality?" Teachers College Record, Special Issue on Testing, Teaching, and Learning. 106(6) 1140–1171.</ref> However, Congress enacted the ] of 2001 to address such school performance disparities. That act provides for a large increase in federal school aid to address property tax disparities and gives parents the right to switch schools if their neighborhood school fails to progress to meet national performance standards. | |||
| ] and housing allow a higher proportion of white parents the option to move to better school districts or afford to put their children in private schools if they do not approve of the neighborhood's schools.<ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Shapiro |year=2004 |title=The Hidden Cost of Being African American; How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=157 |isbn=978-0-19-518138-8}}</ref> | |||
| Some studies have claimed that minority students are less likely to be placed in honors classes, even when justified by test scores.<ref>Gordon, Rebecca. 1998. Education and Race. Oakland: Applied Research Center: 48–9; Fischer, Claude S. et al., 1996.</ref><ref>Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press: 163</ref><ref>] and Barbara Diggs-Brown, 1999. By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race. NY: Dutton: 95-6.</ref> Various studies have also claimed that visible minority students are more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled from school, even though rates of serious school rule violations do not differ significantly by race.<ref>Skiba, Russell J. et al., The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment. Indiana Education Policy Center, Policy Research Report SRS1, June 2000</ref><ref>U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System: Youth 2003, Online Comprehensive Results, 2004.</ref> Adult education specialist Elaine Manglitz says the educational system in America has deeply entrenched biases in favor of the white majority in evaluation, curricula, and power relations.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Manglitz |first=E |year=2003 |title=Challenging white privilege in adult education: a critical review of the literature |journal=Adult Education Quarterly |issue=2 |pages=119–134 |doi=10.1177/0741713602238907 |volume=53}}</ref> | |||
| In discussing unequal test scores between public school students, opinion columnist Matt Rosenberg laments the Seattle Public Schools' emphasis on "institutional racism" and "white privilege": | |||
| <blockquote> | |||
| The disparity is not simply a matter of color: School District data indicate income, English-language proficiency and home stability are also important correlates to achievement...By promoting the "white privilege" canard and by designing a student indoctrination plan, the Seattle School District is putting retrograde, leftist politics ahead of academics, while the perpetrators of "white privilege" are minimizing the capabilities of minorities.<ref name="STRosen">Rosenberg, Matt (2007-04-11), . ''The Seattle Times''.</ref></blockquote> | |||
| ] scholar and affirmative action–opponent<ref>{{Cite book|title = Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country|last = Steele|first = Shelby|publisher = Basic Books|year = 2015|isbn = |location = |pages = 1–28}}</ref> ] believes that the effects of white privilege are exaggerated. Steele states that blacks may incorrectly blame their personal failures on white oppression, additionally saying that there are many "minority privileges": "If I'm a black high school student today... there are white American institutions, universities, hovering over me to offer me opportunities: Almost every institution has a ] committee... There is a hunger in this society to do right racially, to not be racist."<ref name=abc>{{cite news|title=Does White Privilege Exist in America? Scholars Debate Whether Society Overlooks Minorities|url=http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2629192&page=1|date=2006-11-05|author=Stossel, John|authorlink=John Stossel|author2=Binkley, Gena|publisher=] (])}}</ref> | |||
| Anthony P. Carnevale and Jeff Strohl show that whites have a better opportunity at getting into selective schools, while African Americans and Hispanics usually end up going to open access schools and have a lower chance of receiving a bachelor's degree.<ref> {{wayback|url=http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Separate&Unequal.FR.pdf |date=20130907064328 }}</ref> | |||
| ===Military=== | |||
| In a 2013 news story, Fox News reported, "A controversial 600-plus page manual used by the military to train its ] officers teaches that 'healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian' men hold an unfair advantage over other races, and warns in great detail about a so-called 'White Male Club.' ... The manual, which was obtained by Fox News, also instructs troops to 'support the leadership of non-white people. Do this consistently, but not uncritically,' the manual states."<ref>" ," Fox News, October 31, 2013.</ref> | |||
| ===Development of anti-racist thinking=== | |||
| Education about white privilege and workshops exploring white privilege are offered to students at elite private schools in New York City such as ], ], ], the ], ] (LREI), the ], and the ]. A diversity consultant may be hired to conduct the workshops or readings such as "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack", an article by Peggy McIntosh may be explored. White affinity groups have emerged in school communities which explore and educate white students regarding privilege issues.<ref name=NYT022015>{{cite news|author1=Kyle Spencer|title=At New York Private Schools, Challenging White Privilege From the Inside|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/nyregion/at-new-york-private-schools-challenging-white-privilege-from-the-inside.html|accessdate=February 22, 2015|work=The New York Times|date=February 20, 2015|quote=Educators charged with preparing students for life inside these schools, in college and beyond, maintain that anti-racist thinking is a 21st-century skill and that social competency requires a sophisticated understanding of how race works in America.}}</ref> | |||
| ==In South Africa== | |||
| ] | |||
| White privilege was legally enshrined in South Africa through ], which lasted formally into the early 1990s. Under apartheid, racial privilege was not only socially meaningful—it became bureaucratically regulated. Laws such as the 1950 ] established criteria to officially classify South Africans by race: White, Indian, Coloured (mixed), or Black.<ref>Deborah Posel, , ''African Studies Review'' 44 (2), September 2001.</ref> | |||
| Many scholars say that 'whiteness' still corresponds to a set of social advantages in South Africa, and conventionally refer to these advantages as "white privilege". The system of white privilege applies both to the way a person is treated by others and to a set of behaviors, affects, and thoughts, which can be learned and reinforced. These elements of "whiteness" establish social status and guarantee advantages for some people, without directly relying on skin color or other aspects of a person's appearance.<ref name=Vice/> White privilege in South Africa has small-scale effects, such as preferential treatment for people who appear white in public, and large-scale effects, such as the over five-fold difference in average per-capita income for people identified as white or black.<ref>Sally Matthews, "", ''Mail & Guardian'', 12 September 2011.</ref> | |||
| "] whiteness" has also been described as a partially subordinate identity, relative to the ] and ] (a type of prejudice towards Afrikaners), "disgraced" further by the end of apartheid.<ref>Melissa E. Steyn, , ''Communication Quarterly'' 52(2); {{DOI|10.1080/01463370409370187}}</ref> Some white South Africans fear that they will suffer from "]" at the hands of the country's newly empowered majority,<ref>Samantha Vice, "", ''Mail & Guardian'', 2 September 2011.</ref> but the constitution of South Africa is strong<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rowan|first1=Philp|title=In love with SA's Constitution|url=http://mg.co.za/article/2012-02-24-in-love-with-sas-constitution|accessdate=21 November 2015|work=Mail & Guardian|date=24 February 2012}}</ref> and most of what appears to be reverse racism, in particular ] is actually an attempt to right past wrongs in order to achieve ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rabe|first1=Johan|title=Equality, Affirmative Action and Justice|date=2001|page=293|url=https://books.google.co.za/books?id=XKPvUWlQ1GwC&pg=PA293&lpg=PA293&dq=affirmative+action+equality+of+opportunity+substantive&source=bl&ots=hOCkuNTdjJ&sig=sPFBrQVAXDaDJKVmwFtGNC2ejTA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOrsm0rqLJAhXIRBQKHbdKCi8Q6AEIQTAF#v=onepage&q=affirmative%20action%20equality%20of%20opportunity%20substantive&f=false|accessdate=21 November 2015}}</ref> | |||
| ==In Australia== | |||
| <!-- Commented out: ]" badge reflects past immigration ] intended to maintain white supremacy in Australia]] --> | |||
| White privilege in Australia parallels the pattern of dominance seen elsewhere in colonialism. ] were excluded from the process that lead to the ], and the ] restricted the freedoms for non-white people, particularly with respect to immigration. Indigenous people were governed by the ] and treated as a separate underclass of non-citizens.<ref name=Perera2005>Suvendrini Perera, "", ''Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association Journal'' , 2005</ref> Prior to ], it was unconstitutional for Indigenous Australians to be counted in population statistics. | |||
| Holly Randell-Moon has claimed that news media are geared towards white people and their interests and that this is an example of white privilege.<ref>Deirdre Howard-Wagner, "" in ''The Future of Sociology'', ed. Lockie ''et al'', Australian Sociological Association, December 2009.</ref> Michele Lobo claims that white neighborhoods are normally identified as "good quality", while "ethnic" neighborhoods may become stigmatized, degraded, and neglected.<ref name=Lobo>{{cite journal | last1 = Lobo | first1 = Michele | title = Re-Imagining Citizenship in Suburban Australia | url = | journal = ACRAWSA e-journal | volume = 6 | issue = 1| year = 2010 }}</ref> | |||
| Some scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} claim white people are seen presumptively as "Australian", and as prototypical citizens.<ref name=Lobo/><ref name=Ganley/> Catherine Koerner has claimed that a major part of white Australian privilege is the ability to be in Australia itself, and that this is reinforced by, discourses on non-white outsiders including ] and ].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Koerner | first1 = Catherine | year = | title = Whose Security? How white possession is reinforced in everyday speech about asylum seekers | url = http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/3acrawsa613.pdf| journal = ACRAWSA e-journal | volume = 6 | issue = 1| page = 2010 }}</ref> | |||
| Some scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} have suggested that public displays of ], such as the celebration of artwork and stories of ], amount to ], since indigenous Australians voices are largely excluded from the cultural ] surrounding the history of colonialism and the narrative of European colonizers as peaceful settlers. These scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} suggest that white privilege in Australia, like white privilege elsewhere, involves the ability to define the limits of what can be included in a "multicultural" society.<ref>{{cite web|last=Larbalestier|first=Jan|title=White Over Black: Discourses of Whiteness in Australian Culture|url=http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no2_2004/larbalestier_white.htm|work=Borderlands e-Journal|accessdate=9 November 2012}}</ref><ref>Deirdre Howard-Wagner, "'", TASA Conference, December 2006.</ref><ref>Maryrose Casey, "", ''Critical Race and Whiteness Studies'' , 2012.</ref> Indigenous studies in Australian universities remains largely controlled by white people, hires many white professors, and does not always embrace political changes that benefit indigenous people.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fredericks | first1 = Brownwyn | title = The Epistemology That Maintains White Race Privilege, Power and Control of Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Peoples' Participation in Universities | url = http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/45acrawsa518.pdf| journal = ACRAWSA e-journal | volume = 5 | issue = 1| year = 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lampert | first1 = Jo | title = The Alabaster Academy: Being a Non-Indigenous Academic in Indigenous Studies | url = http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6253/1/6253.pdf| journal = Social Alternatives | volume = 22 | issue = 3| year = 2003 }}</ref><ref name=Hart2003>{{cite journal | last1 = Hart | first1 = Victor | title = Teaching Black and Teaching Back | url = http://www.geocities.ws/parentsaspartners/teachingblack.pdf| journal = Social Alternatives | volume = 22 | issue = 3| year = 2003 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gunstone | first1 = Andrew | title = Whites, Indigenous People, and Australian Universities | url = http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/44acrawsa517.pdf| journal = ACRAWSA e-journal | volume = 5 | issue = 1| year = 2009 }}</ref> Scholars also say that prevailing modes of Western epistemology and pedagogy, associated with the dominant white culture, are treated as universal while Indigenous perspectives are excluded or treated only as objects of study.<ref name=Hart2003/><ref>Lester-Irabinna Rigney, "", ''Kaurna Higher Education Journal'' 7, August 2001.</ref><ref>Aileen Moreton-Robinson, "Whiteness, epistemology, and indigenous representation", in ''Whitening Race: Essays In Social And Cultural Criticism'', ed. Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Aboriginal Studies Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-85575-465-5.</ref><ref>Ben Kelly and Nura Gili, "", ''Australian Social Policy Conference'', 2009.</ref> One Australian university professor{{who|date=February 2016}} reports that white students may perceive indigenous academics as beneficiaries of ].<ref name=Nicoll>{{cite journal | last1 = Nicoll | first1 = Fiona | title = 'Are you calling me a racist?': Teaching critical whiteness theory in indigenous sovereignty | url = http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no2_2004/nicoll_teaching.htm| journal = Borderlands | volume = 3 | issue = 2| year = 2004 }}</ref> | |||
| Some scholars{{who|date=February 2016}} have claimed that for Australian whites, another aspect of privilege is the ability to identify with a global diaspora of other white people in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. This privilege contrasts with the separation of Indigenous Australians from other indigenous peoples in southeast Asia.<ref name=Perera2005/><ref>Holly Randell-Moon, "", ''Critical Race and Whiteness Studies'' , 2012.</ref> They also claim that global political issues such as climate change are framed in terms of white actors and effects on countries that are predominantly white.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Jensen | first1 = Lars | title = The whiteness of climate change | url = http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/jeasa22jensen9.pdf| journal = Journal of the European Association of Studies on Australia | volume = 2 | issue = 2| year = 2011 }}</ref> | |||
| White privilege varies across places and situations. Ray Minniecon, director of Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries, described the city of ] specifically as "the most alien and inhospitable place of all to Aboriginal culture and people."<ref>Ray Minniecon, "", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 17 February 2004; quoted by Suvendrini Perera, "", ''ACRAWSA e-journal'' , 2007.</ref> At the other end of the spectrum, anti-racist white Australians working with Indigenous people may experience their privilege as painful "stigma".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kowal|first=Emma|title=THE STIGMA OF WHITE PRIVILEGE|journal=Cultural Studies|date=1 May 2011|volume=25|issue=3|pages=313–333|doi=10.1080/09502386.2010.491159}}</ref> | |||
| Studies of white privilege in Australia have increased since the late 1990s, with several books published on the history of how whiteness became a dominant identity. Aileen Moreton-Robinson's ''Talkin' Up to the White Woman'' is a critique of unexamined white privilege in the Australian feminist movement.<ref name=Ganley>{{cite journal | last1 = Ganley | first1 = Toby | title = What's all this talk about whiteness? | url = http://www.polsis.uq.edu.au/dialogue/vol-1-2-4.pdf| journal = Dialogue | volume = 1 | issue = 2| year = 2003 }}</ref> The Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association formed in 2005 to study racial privilege and promote respect for Indigenous sovereignties; it publishes an online journal called ''Critical Race and Whiteness Studies''.<ref>"ACRAWSA: About", ''Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association'', updated 30 January 2012; accessed 19 November 2012.</ref> | |||
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| ==References== | |||
| <!-- this 'empty' section displays references defined elsewhere --> | |||
| {{Reflist|30em}} | |||
| ==Bibliography== | |||
| * Allen, Theodore W. ''The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control'' (Verso, 1994) ISBN 0-86091-660-X. | |||
| * Blum, Lawrence. 2008. 'White Privilege': A Mild Critique1. Theory and Research in Education. 6:309. DOI: 10.1177/1477878508095586. | |||
| * Hartigan, John. ''Odd Tribes: Toward a Cultural Analysis of White People''. Duke University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8223-3597-9 | |||
| * Lipsitz, George. ''The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics'', Revised and Expanded Edition. Temple University Press, 2006. ISBN 1-56639-635-2. | |||
| * Olson, Ruth. White Privilege in Schools. Beyond Heroes and Holidays. 1998. Endid Lee. Teaching for Change, 1998. | |||
| * ]. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." (excerpt from Working Paper #189, "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondence Through Work in Women's Studies" (1988), Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, Massachusetts.) | |||
| * McIntosh, Peggy. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Beyond Heroes and Holidays. 1998. Endid Lee. Teaching for Change, 1998. | |||
| * {{cite book|last=Williams|first=Linda Faye|title=The Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|date=2004-08-30|isbn=0-271-02535-2|url=http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02253-1.html|accessdate=2008-07-18|page=429}} | |||
| ==Further reading== | |||
| {{Further reading cleanup|date=February 2011}} | |||
| * Allen, Theodore W. (Verso Books, 1994, New Expanded Edition 2012, ISBN 978-1-84467-769-6). | |||
| * Allen, Theodore W. (Verso Books, 1997, New Expanded Edition 2012, ISBN 978-1-84467-770-2). | |||
| * Allen, Theodore W. A Speech Delivered at a Guardian Forum on the National Question, 28 April 1973, rpt. in "White Supremacy a Collection" (Chicago: Sojourner Truth Organization), 1976. | |||
| * Allen, Theodore W. (1975), republished in 2006 with an "Introduction" by Jeffrey B. Perry at Center for the Study of Working Class Life, SUNY, Stony Brook. | |||
| * Allen, Theodore W. "Cultural Logic," 2001. | |||
| * Berger, Maurice. "White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999) ISBN 0-374-52715-6 | |||
| * Brown, C.S. (2002). ''Refusing Racism: White allies and the struggle of civil right.'' New York: Teachers College Press. | |||
| * Du Bois, W. E. B. 1920. "The Souls of White Folk", in ''Darkwater'' | |||
| * ]. ''White'' | |||
| * ]. ''Black Skin, White Masks'' | |||
| * {{cite book|title=Black Americans and White Racism |author=Marcel Lucien Goldschmid|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-03-077685-4}} | |||
| * Ignatiev, Noel. ''How the Irish Became White'' (Routledge, 1996). ISBN 0-415-91825-1. | |||
| * Ignatin (Ignatiev), Noel and Theodore W. Allen (Detroit: The Radical Education Project and New York: NYC Revolutionary Youth Movement, 1969), co-authored with Noel Ignatin (Ignatiev). | |||
| * Jackson, C. 2006. ''White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy.'' Retrieved October 31, 2006, from http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=718. | |||
| * {{cite journal | last1 = Levine-Rasky | first1 = C. | year = 2000 | title = Framing whiteness: working through the tensions in introducing whiteness to educators | url = | journal = Race Ethnicity and Education | volume = 3 | issue = 3| pages = 271–292 | doi=10.1080/713693039}} | |||
| * Perry, Jeffrey B., "Cultural Logic,'" July 2010. | |||
| * Roediger, David R. ''The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class'' (Verso, 1991) ISBN 0-86091-334-1, ISBN 978-0-86091-334-4, ISBN 0-86091-550-6, ISBN 978-0-86091-550-8. | |||
| * Roediger, D.R. 2005. ''Working toward whiteness: How America's immigrants became white. The strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs.'' New York: Basic Books. | |||
| * Rothenberg, Paula S., ed. ''White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism'' (Worth, 2004) ISBN 0-7167-8733-4. | |||
| * {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1080/13613320500110519 | last1 = Solomona | first1 = R.P. | last2 = Portelli | first2 = J.P. | last3 = Daniel | first3 = B-J. | last4 = Campbell | first4 = A. | year = 2005 | title = The discourse of denial: how white teacher candidates construct race, racism and 'white privilege' | url = | journal = Race Ethnicity and Education | volume = 8 | issue = 2| pages = 147–169 }} | |||
| * {{cite book|title=]|author=Steele, Shelby|publisher=]|date=2006-05-02|isbn=0-06-057862-9}} | |||
| * Steyn, Melissa E., ''Whiteness Just Isn't What Is Used to Be: White Identity in a Changing South Africa'', Albany: SUNY Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-7914-5080-2. | |||
| * Updegrave, W.L. (1989). Race and money. Money, December 1989,152–72. | |||
| * ]. ''White Like Me'' | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * (PDF) | |||
| * "", Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society, University of Urbana-Champlain. | |||
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