Minority Status Benefits

Privileges are things that a person receives that gives them an advantage over most people (Merriam-Webster). These are benefits that only certain people receive for being in a certain group or discourse. Peggy McIntosh, director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, wrote “White Privilege and Male Privilege” and states “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privileges, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (605). She argues that whites and males receive certain privileges, yet they do not even notice them. This shows that different races and women are still put at a disadvantage, but the people who receive the benefits are blind to the problem. Many people will argue that she is correct

Privilege is defined as “a special advantage or authority possessed by a particular person or group” in the Cambridge Dictionary. Globally, white individuals are often granted privileges than minority groups do not receive. While white privilege often goes unnoticed by white individuals, it causes many disadvantages for people of color and effects how they see themselves. Furthermore, Affirmative Action attempts to equal the playing field for minorities but is faced with contention by many white people.

privilege while white people deny, as often as possible, that they have it and that such a

Privilege is simplified as basically an individual have can have something that others normally cannot. Unfortunately having a privilege can easily be overlooked and taken advantage of. White privilege, which is privileges associated with favoring only whites, has been around for a long time. White privilege is often associated with racism, due to whites being superior to other races in the past. Some Americans even tried to make up some false scientific proof that white American males were superior to other races by looking at skulls. “White American male skulls were measured as the base for the superior race, with all other men of color's skulls being measured to demonstrate the inferior races.” (Module 2, Pg 1) In the development of America, whites definitely had a lot more freedom than other races. Asians would work on plantations, and blacks were seen as slaves, a white slave was very rare or sometimes even unheard of. One example of whites having a privilege over other races is the freedom to have an education. In the past whites were just wealthier since they had been in America longer, so the new generation was able to go to school. A lot of institutions were, “White Only” so other races could not receive an education. Whites also had more private restrooms, facilities, water fountains, and more than the colored civilians. The second example would be the natural assumption that whites are smarter than other races. Whites have the privilege or advantage of getting jobs or into higher schools, because of the natural instinct that whites are always intelligent. Jason Richwine, who has a PhD in Public Policy, believes that whites will always have a higher IQ than hispanics. “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.” ( Module 2, Pg 6)

Whether intentional or not, white privilege often affords white people opportunities that are not made available to those of other races. This is especially true of educational and economic opportunity. One cannot underestimate the legacy of racial oppression in the United States as it contributes to this idea of white privilege. Historically, even after the abolition of slavery, social

To further this, part of white privilege is simply being treated better than people of color for being white. White privilege manifests itself in several ways. One way is that people do not assume the worst qualities of white people, that they are violent, criminals, thieves, etc., because of their race, or that they tend in that direction, or if they prove that they are not, they are an exception. Another manifestation of white privilege is that white people face far lower rates of incarceration and punishment for the same crimes as people of color and less severe punishments. One other manifestation of white privilege is white people do not have to worry about not getting a job, or some other marker of success, because of their race. People of color have to deal with employers hiring just as qualified, or even less qualified, white people over them. As Johnston says, “…my access to privilege doesn’t determine my outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations I have will result in something good for me” (p.

This privilege is further carried out through generations in society partly due to structural functionalism. Structural functionalism states that our lives are guided by social structures that show patterns of social behavior. These same social structures suggest the direction our lives will go, whether it be in family, the community, or any group of people. In reference to race and white privilege, this works to keep white people in higher position and other races in less favorable positions. Due to slavery and the many events following that, White people have always been the safest, most important, most financially secure, and have had the better educations. Even though time has passed and laws have been made to set equality, society has not caught up. Because of structural problems, many minorities are born into poverty, sent to

As a white male in today’s society, I never put much thought into how privileged I am already without even having to work for it necessarily. One of the reasons why I have never felt this way was due to being in a lower middle class family. As I have grown up, I have started to notice all the disparities in today’s societies between people of a different race, gender, and class. However, noticing the magnitude of the problems regarding race, gender, and class did not catch my attention until I was in high school, partly due to the fact that I became more mature in my metacognitive and observational skills. I started to notice what people were going through by the stories they told and sometimes by the clothes they wore, although I was never

However, as in my opening anecdote, sometimes our sampling of the population isn't so flattering. In those cases, we come to believe that the institutionalized power dynamics are an accurate depiction of the entire world, and we consciously draw "privilege" from them. The most common "privilege" in public discourse is white privilege, but institutionalized prejudice extends to things like male privilege, cis-privilege, and thin privilege. Sometimes it even leads to active bigotry.

It is ludicrous that some of us have more privilege then others. It is obvious when it comes to law enforcement white people have more of a privilege then other that have been blacks or Hispanics. This also effects the environment as well. If a black or Hispanics where to get pulled over or if caught walking around in a rich white neighborhood they will get stopped or pulled over just because of there color. There are enough theories and evidence that proves this is true about how class, gender, race status influences the outcome of offenders and crime victims that part take in the criminal justice system. The theories that backs up the people that are involve with the criminal justice systems are the feminist, the social disorganization

It is time to talk about privilege, and what I consider it is. Privilege is a special treatment a person or a group of people can receive. These privileges can be seen in every cultures and social levels, such as in work, in private clubs, schools, universities, religions, among other things. For example: I lived in Peru and in that country, there is a well-known private club called ‘Regatas’. Until a few years ago the only people that had the privilege of being a member of that club were men. Luckily, things change, now both genders can become members, but it took one hundred years to make that change.

“Conflictive type individual act as if they support class equity; however, they are classist with subtle issues that are not apparent at face value” (Jun, 2010, p. 313). I think my privilege in SES impacted my view of class equity. I believe if someone works hard in their career resulting in their SES being upper class, they deserve to be in that position. They should not be obligated to share the wealth if they worked hard for their income. At the same time, racism and sexism does not allow an equal playing field due to microinequities. Because I am oppressed in my gender and ethnicity, I have awareness of oppression and privilege in

Privilege can be defined as “an exceptional advantage, favor, immunity, or right specially granted to certain individuals or groups, but withheld from certain others.” The way in which privilege is distributed in the United States is through race. When the Europeans first landed in the United States, they brought along their culture, traditions, religions, and their perceptions of the world. It is their idea of the worldview of races which led to the society that we have today. The idea of the race worldview remained embedded in the American society and thus certain groups of people were allowed to have certain privileges. The question of who was able to enjoy the rights and privileges of white America came forward. In an already divided

As a white, straight male, I've come to recognise that I've inherited a certain amount of privilege through no fault of my own. Racism, homophobia and sexism are still massive systemic problems in the West today. While it might not be so obvious, and many people would claim that they play no part in this, we live in a system that is incredibly biased towards middle-class, white, straight, men. The opportunities and resources available to me would be radically different if I were not white, straight and male - if I wasn't privileged. It's easy to ignore this, especially when I'm the one usually benefitting from it. I mean, why should I complain about the fact I've been given a good education and can work doing a job that I enjoy? Why shouldn’t I just enjoy my privilege?

There is no short cut to get ready the existence of privilege, its practice by human being and it can only be solve by mankind. Often topics of discussions are racism, sexism, hetaerism, and gender discriminations. Many people have fought and die for equality in workforce and social living. People have normalized privilege, in our society we don’t like to get involved situations that we fear it will have implications to us even when we know that it’s wrong doing, however; until folks are ignoring when they witness discriminations of any type due to fearing or ramifications they are actually participating and being part of the privilege bubble.