According to Michelle Alexander "Studies have consistently shown that people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, yet black people have been arrested and incarcerated at grossly disproportionate rates during the 40-year-old war on drugs" This is one example of white privilege and if these advantages are not acknowledged as problem nothing will be done to lessen or end the benefits that white skin has in America at the cost of other races. White privilege is the ends that racism provides.
White privilege is the freedom from being seen as the other. White privilege is the ability to make race the problem of the others that are dealing with racism. White privilege makes a black persons sagging pants something that they have to deal with in order not to be seen as a threat. What white privilege does is dehumanize brown and black people. So whatever is black that day can be seen as threatening, less than or negative and this is a never ending cycle, or institution, of oppression that creates obstacles for blacks or brown people in America.
One example of how a white person can fund a racist institution happens every Saturday across America. On a Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio someone can get into a club with plain cargo shorts on but a person with cargo camouflage shorts can not enter. Same cut same fit different pattern. The reason that the person with cargo shorts can enter and the reason that a person with cargo camouflage shorts can not enter is because camouflage shorts are very popular in black culture as evidenced by anyone that is an observer of black fashion. Black people in this situation have to be managed by denying them entry. It is not denial by race but it is denial by clothing items that are associated with race. This is a racist practice. The white person that goes into the club or does not say anything about club rules that are targeted at keeping out black people are taking advantage of their privilege and until whites speak out against these institutions racism will still exist. Something as simple as a persons wardrobe being made a systematic way to keep them out of establishments can affect a persons quality of life when it is passed on race. In some cases a persons race based clothing preferences has end with the loss on their life.
Racism is not just some blatant act, like calling someone a slur, it is institutions that grant some merit to skin color. The ends that racism produce is white privilege. To take advantage of white privilege keeps the cycle of racism going. White privilege is the ability to have zero concern with the institution of the police state where a black person is more likely to be stopped because of their skin color. White privilege is the ability to buy a flesh colored band aid that matches a white skin tone. White privilege is the ability to send a child to any school in America and not worry about them being disliked because of their skin color. A white person may think they have nothing to lose by allowing white privilege to continue but they do because white privilege is responsible for the profiling of black and brown people which leads to the incarceration of blacks and brown people which allows for them to discriminated against legally. So by not acting they are allowing black and brown families to be destroyed In many instances since a person that has been incarcerated and released is allowed to be denied housing, foods and jobs legally and it is hard to keep a family together with no source of income.
There has been a more complete list of white privileges made by Peggy McIntosh and according to her "If these things are true, this is not such a free country;one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own." "I now think that we need a more finely differentiated taxonomy of privilege, for some these varieties are only what one would want for everyone in a just society, and others give license to be ignorant, oblivious, arrogant and destructive." The destruction that white privilege has caused in this country is evident and it will not cease to continue to place a wet blanket over the lives of black and brown people all over America until it is acknowledged. Then it can be weakened and then it can be ended. Once ended then America see some economic disparities decrease.
America has a great system of government and economics for those who are able to use skin color to there advantage, as Peggy McIntosh says, "My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make." America does a great job in making millionaires out of people that don't come from wealth. Over 67% of millionaires in America did not come from money. And once the disadvantages to being non white in America are acknowledged, lessened and ended I think we will see more black and brown millionaires.
I think that there is a lot a people in black America that still believe in respectability politics the view that a black person has to be twice as smart, dress twice as well and be twice as prepared. And once we do those things then we will be seen as worth of being included. But the truth of the matter is that no matter what you do as long as you can not access the advantages of being white we will never be equal. That is why it is important for black people to rally against white privilege. The ultimate goal is to end racism and the privileges it give to white people.
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