White privilege shaping our society

By: Sara Gwin

Posted: 1/29/08

Last Friday, I attended the Oregon Women in Higher Education conference and heard two lectures, which addressed the impact of race on education. Since then, I have been thinking about privilege and the kind of impact being white has had on the opportunities in my life.

I feel I have been blessed to have grown up in very diverse areas because I was able to see racism as it really is and to experience being around minority groups outside of society's stereotypes. Before the age of 8, I lived in Denver, Colo., and San Antonio, Texas; then my family moved to Oregon, where we eventually settled in Salem.

I remember that when I first started to learn about racism as a young child, I was very confused on why whites were the ones in power.

To me, Blacks were the ones who had the beautiful skin, so I couldn't understand why they were the ones discriminated against. But as I became more educated, I began to see that racism was not just about color, but about the stereotypes that were attached to them in this country. In the United States, white has become the norm - it is the race with the power and status everyone else is weighed against.

Coming out of McKay High School (a school with a minority majority), I saw discrimination in a variety of forms. In sports, I saw overt racism from referees and other teams in and out of league play.

I always knew I could get away with playing more aggressively than my teammates who were minorities because the way I played would never be considered "savage." In school, I knew it was more difficult for minority students to get into Honors or AP classes, whereas I had no difficulty. Even in my worst subject, I was never questioned as to whether the class was the right place for me.

And when I won awards, it was never assumed I had won because of my race; but when a member of a minority won something, there was always the question of whether it was deserved.

I came from a high school where a person is considered a success if they can make it out without getting knocked up or end up in jail. This past week, I heard about three more classmates who are now in jail and others who have ended up in desperate situations to make money.

I can't help but wonder how much white privilege played into my being in college. I don't think it was a matter of greater intelligence or work ethic, but of opportunity.

Because of where I come from, I feel like I grew up with a pretty good understanding about racism - at least for a white person.

However, this notion of white privilege was something I always struggled with - not that I didn't believe in it, but because I felt incredibly guilty about receiving it and not having the ability to deny those rights.

Whether we choose to accept and acknowledge it as an unfortunate consequence of being in a racist society, white privilege exists to further the oppression of minorities by continuing to empower the white majority.

Like Peggy McIntosh wrote in her well-known article, "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," for those of us who are white, it can be difficult to see past racism as just individual acts of meanness, but as invisible systems that continue the dominance of the white race.

White privilege is a set of unearned advantages we accrue on the basis of being white. This privilege is something that is very difficult to define because it is so entrenched in our culture.

For those of us within this category, it can very difficult to see how we are privileged, but those who are affected by it are well aware of it from a young age.

Minority parents know they have to teach their children how to live in a racist society in order to protect themselves.

These children are taught how to deal with living in a country that privileges the white race. From a young age, they are taught that their behavior will be judged more harshly than that of their white counterparts, and that their actions will continue to reflect on their race.

Numerous studies have found that whites have greater access to housing and the loans to afford them, access to employment - especially positions with more power - and access to education.

When it comes to justice issues, Black and Latino men are three times more likely to be pulled over and searched than white men, and they receive harsher punishments.

For first-time drug offenses, Black youth are 48 times more likely to be incarcerated than white youth, even for similar, if not identical, situations.

White privilege means we can get the benefit of the doubt in a number of situations because whites have not been stereotyped like Blacks or Latinos to suggest they are more apt to be violent and to commit criminal acts. I know when I go into a store, my race doesn't trigger the stereotype.

As a part of my white privilege, I can turn on the television or read the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented in a mostly positive light and without stereotypical representations that reflect on the character or my race.

I can be sure that my race will be present in the material I learn in class and even sometimes in a more positive light than it should be. I also know I can talk about issues of race without it being considered self-interested or self-seeking.

If we ever want to work toward eradicating racism and creating equality, whites have to be able to acknowledge how they are privileged in ways others are not.

This acceptance will enable us to have a better understanding of our society and open our eyes to the aspects that privilege has left us blind to.

Sara Gwin is a junior in psychology and women studies. The opinions expressed in her column, which appears every Tuesday, do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Barometer staff. Gwin can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.