In today’s blog post, we will be looking at the theory of White Privilege and how it still applies in today’s society. In the article “White privilege in the lives of Muslim converts in Britain” states that White privilege which I define as receiving benefits and advantages, or increased opportunities and decreased restrictions due to being racialize as white in a context where whiteness is considered as superior to non-whiteness (Moosavi, 2014). In today’s society we still see white privilege everywhere, an example would be how a black man would be arrested for possession of marijuana and spend time in jail, while a white man would be slapped on the wrist and be given a warning or ticket. People in our society would call the police on a black man if they look suspicious, yet if a white man does the exact same thing people would ignore it and assume there is nothing going on. One of the reasons behind this is purely discrimination over something so simple as the difference in skin pigment.
As you can see in the video, many people do not notice the amount of racism they have in them. Although people did state that the race of the actors had nothing to do with the way they acted is completely nonsense. People immediately stopped the black actor and called the police on him. While the white actor only had a problem once after an hour or so pretending to steal the bike. If this does not convince you that white privilege is an actual thing, than this case will. Two similar rape cases with one white male accuser and one black male accuser. In a article “Brock Turner Gets Months in Jail- A Black Student Got 5 Years for a Rape He Didn’t Commit” states that in 2015 a 20 year old white male Stanford swimmer was found sexually assaulting an unconscious women behind a frat house which led to him receiving a six month sentence with the possibility of serving three months for good behavior. While a black high school football player who was accused of rape when he was 16 years old received more than five years in prison and another five years on parole for being a sex offender, before his accuser admitted to fabricating the allegations (Noman, 2016). Keep in mind Turner was twenty-two years old while the black male was only sixteen, the black man was trailed as an adult for the same felony crime as Turner. With this being said there was solid proof of the white male raping an unconscious women and was served the least amount of jail time for rape (he only served three months in jail) while the case for the black male had no proof other than the lying “victim” was automatically charged and served five years in prison as a teenager.
Not only do white privilege get off easy with the law, they also get the better end of the stick in workplaces. According to the article, “The historical origins of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations” states that privileged social position of white workers that evolved over time ensured future generations would inherit a racialized social status in society and in the workplace. In other words, the domination of whites in the upper levels of organizations would come to be viewed as natural (Nkomo, Akram, 2014). Not only do whites have advantages but gender plays a role as well. With this being said people normally see CEO as white males. White males are mainly given leadership position because of the advantage the stereotype in which they are simply better at leading. Whites have been dominating the upper levels of organizations, for instance almost every United States president was a White men (other than President Obama). Every single United States president was all men. According to Healey in the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class textbook “stereotypical ideas about gender that existed at the time and, which remain to some degree today (e.g., men are “naturally better” leaders or “naturally more intelligent” compared with women) (Healey, 2019 pg. 191).” With this being said we as a society have not yet overcome this statement our ancestors left us hundreds of years ago. Which is the main cause of men dominating the leadership positions while women are seen as supporters for the men. Growing up people would mention that boys are supposed to grow up becoming doctors while girls are supposed to become nurses.
Another example of white privilege is within the healthcare system. According to some research, “Minorities are facing possible ‘double jeopardy’ when it comes to their health: getting both less effective treatment and more treatment that has little value to them. Finds that blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to get so called low-value health care (Mangan, 2017)”. With this being said there have been studies that prove white privilege still exist in the healthcare system. White people have been getting top doctors and top patient care while non-whites have been getting terrible treatments, which is back by many years of research. The researchers also states that non-whites patients who have dementia have been inappropriately receiving feeding tubes, compared to white patients (Mangan, 2017). It is proven that non-white patients have been getting medical treatment that is potentially harmful in many cases and treatment that is unnecessary and economically inefficient. It seems as if doctors are using minorities as “test subjects” to certain sickness before giving whites the treatment.
In conclusion, our society have yet to move forward the discrimination our ancestors have left behind. Everywhere we go there will always be white privilege until we as a society come together and see pass skin pigment.
Reference List
Healey, Joseph F., Andi Stepnick, and Eileen OBrien. 2019. Race, Ethnicity, Gender, & Class:the Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Mangan, D. (2020). Minorities more likely than whites to get ‘low-value’ health care. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/05/minorities-more-likely-than-whites-to-get-low-value-health-care.html
Moosavi, L. (2014). White privilege in the lives of Muslim converts in Britain. Ethnic And Racial Studies, 38(11), 1918-1933. doi:https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1080/01419870.2014.952751
Nkomo, S. M., & Ariss, A. A. (2014). The historical origins of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29(4), 389-404. doi:http://dx.doi.org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1108/JMP-06-2012-0178
Noman, N. (2020). Brock Turner Gets Months in Jail — A Black Student Got 5 Years for a Rape He Didn’t Commit. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.mic.com/articles/145788/brock-turner-gets-months-in-jail-a-black-student-got-5-years-for-a-rape-he-didn-t-commit
Social Inequality 2020 