Reflection Paper On Solidarity

I’ve spent nearly half of my life living in a largely white suburb in Minnesota. Despite the differences, I have always found a way to blend in with the community, and I have never felt as though my race has been a major burden on me. However, one of the regrets that I have is that I really take my community for granted. Many other Somalis in this state and around my community are refugees that don’t have the same access to education or jobs as we do. Sometimes I thank God for the comfortable situation that my family and I are in. Many minorities in the state and in the country aspire to have a good life with kids and a front yard. But with racial disparity in the way, it’s not always easy having that dream. To me, the best way people of any race can do that is challenge themselves and work to their goals. It took my dad more than a decade in America to finance and study in order to get his bachelors and master’s degrees. While it’s no guarantee that one could work and achieve success in this country, it’s always worth

Before any collegiate courses, I had not heard or given much thought to white privilege, and even once defined and mentioned in other courses I still have no let go of my oblivious nature. Absorbed in individual concerns I was unable to recognize the privilege and advantages I utilized throughout my life unknowingly. My behaviors and actions, such as the way I spoke or dressed, and even the simple availabity of my preferred food was never questioned or linked to my race. These advantages appear in McIntosh’s list of everyday advantages associated with white

In society, social privilege is bestowed upon particular individuals at birth- typically on the merit of characteristics that individuals have little or no control over, including: race, gender, nationality, physical ability, etc. (Black & Stone, 2005). Though these traits may seem arbitrary they bare very real social consequences and shape individual life experiences (Black & Stone, 2005). Racial privilege is rooted in a history of white supremacy and Eurocentric ideologies of early North American settlers (Black & Stone, 2005). Classically, this privilege has been discussed in the context of a white/black dichotomy, however, this is inaccurate given that members of all racial groups are affected by racial privilege or the lack thereof (Black & Stone, 2005).

We are always trying to figure out where we are in this world, or how we got where we are today. Obviously you have no choice of parents or where your born and these are two major contributing factors of who am I today. Being born white and a male society has immediately granted social advantages or white privileges. But, how privileged was I really? Being born in a highly populated city to first generations Americans without high school diplomas. I did have some advantages and I realized them growing up around my non-white friends. But compared to other white people I didn’t see my self privileged in many ways.

White privilege is an advantage in society that is unmerited. Though it is practiced in every day life (whether it’s subtle or not), the majority views it as “absurd” and “non-existent”. It is a taboo that creates feelings of guilt, hostility and anger, but it must be addressed and understood in order to be eradicated. It is necessary for white people to acknowledge their part in maintaining and benefiting from a society that has thrived on racial hierarchy and white supremacy for centuries. White privilege is essentially the flip side of racism; racism does not only disadvantage people of colour, but grants white people power and dominance in our so-called “post-racial” society (McKintosh, 1). In this essay, I will argue that positive and widespread representation and implied acceptance are the most important features of white privilege. Widespread representation is the most important feature of white privilege because we live in an age where the media not only reflects, but also controls our real worldviews and attitudes. The second most important feature of white privilege is adequate housing opportunities and implied acceptance and respect. It is necessary to eliminate this system that puts people in power based on their skin tone and these two aspects are crucial in order to reach that.

There are five words I grew up hearing continuously spoken from the mouths of my parents “Don’t take things for granted.” Unlike what many of my black friends or just black people in general can say, I grew up with everything I could ever ask for and more. My parents don’t consider themselves wealthy; instead they prefer the word comfortable. My mother grew up in segregated schools, but she also grew up in desegregated schools, of which her experience she said wasn’t bad for her. In 5th grade when they first combined whites and blacks it was just her and this other black boy in class and the both of them together were mistaken for being white because of how light their skin was. My father on the other hand had it much worse than my mother segregated or not. The stories he speaks of still to this day

At its core, white privilege is described to be an “invisible package of unearned assets” (McIntosh, 2002, p. 33) for white people. There are many layers explaining the manifestation of white privilege and even more explanations pertaining to its dominant presence in today’s world.

Over the course of time in our country, many groups in our society have experienced being set apart from sustainable communities. Among them are the immigrants, the homeless, the African Americans, those with physical or mental disabilities and the Native Americans. According to McIntosh (1988), “Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ “ (p. 1). Unquestionably, this was the case back in the nineteenth century when the “White” people thought it

In her 2012 TEDx Talk, “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion”, Peggy McIntosh discusses how race is a privilege system and how white people are given an advantage without even realizing it. In her lecture McIntosh says, “These privilege systems, which locate us above and below the hypothetical line of social justice, were invented and we were born into them. And we all know both sides and that is the reason for compassion, about the sadness of having been born into systems that gave us such… such different ‘politics of location’”. Here, it seems that McIntosh’s main goal is to inform people that we are born into a privilege system because of our skin color and the only way that we can prevent a social hierarchy we must be able to recognize that we are all different. I think that the human population should be able to identify that people are different and have compassion for the differences in society our world today could have little to no race issues. After listening to McIntosh’s arguments, I support the ideas she makes throughout her works and I find that privilege systems are still prominent in today’s society.

As a result of this individualistic ideology and confirmed by media, whites enjoy the comfort of not dealing with the “social burden of race.” Until whites can face the reality and openly discuss the imbalance between opportunities that whites and black have in American society, the injustice of segregated privileges will continue without any prevail.

Many white Americans are living with the fear that they didn't really deserve their success, and that maybe luck and privilege had more to do with it, than brains and hard work. There are numerous reasons for the widespread discrimination at all levels, but the main reason for the existence of discrimination is a privilege to certain groups of people, and widespread social prejudice towards certain groups of people. Differences between people have always existed, but they gain in importance only when are different importance given to certain differences, so it creates privileges. People who are privileged in one society are often not aware of their privilege. It is very easy to be oblivious to the privilege. The problem of discrimination

The deep but subtly entrenched nature of white privilege into the American social structure is problematic because it creates complications to overcoming this type of racism. The difficulty in detecting white privilege facilitates the denial of the role white privilege plays in affecting an individual’s living experience in America. The reality is that white privilege does make a difference in the opportunities available to certain individuals. However, this difference is not as subtle. The biggest problem white privilege poses, aside from the discrimination and bias it employs, is that it is difficult to identify. Due to its intrinsic nature, eradicating its effects requires a reconstruction of the white supremacist American social system.

By associating the potential existence of racism with consumption, a form of rationalization is that we now live in society that does not recognize and reward race, but merit. In turn, whites do not inherently realize the privileges that they are born with. Peggy McIntosh actually used the terms unearned entitlement and unearned advantage to describe disproportionate lead that whites have over blacks (McIntosh, 103). The fact of the matter is that most white people are in denial that they have been born with unearned entitlements that minorities do not have and according to McIntosh this is because they have been taught not to recognize it. As much as white people have been taught not to recognize that they have been given white privilege, blacks and minorities recognize that they do. Although many believe that the playing field is now level, is apparent that there is an uphill struggle for people of color. But how should one first recognize this struggle?

To begin, I would like to examine the privilege that I inherited when I was born to a white mother and father. It is important, as a white person, to end the silence that so many white people engage in daily, regarding their privilege. It is not common to hear people speaking about the privilege they experience. This may be due to guilt. It may also be because most people wouldn’t want to willingly admit that all they were able to achieve, the stability they feel in their lives, and the pride they feel for the success that they created for themselves, in large part is due to how people in society perceive them as members of a privileged group. This isn’t to say that those who have achieved success have not earned it, but it must be said that skin color has made certain things easier for white people, and that it may have played a large role in their ability to achieve their potential. Of course I worked hard to be where I am today, but I

Although some individuals may wish or even naively claim that we live in a post-racial society, the reality in twenty first century America is that individual and institutional racism continues to take a horrible toll on young people of color, who are at greater risk of race-based violence, unjust criminalization, as well as economic, political and educational discrimination. The powerful advantages that come from being born white are immeasurable and painfully real. It is critical that white individuals recognize the depth of their privilege, but doing nothing more than that can appear self-congratulatory, and as an attempt to exempt them from responsibility. An example of one writer’s over-simplification of white privilege can be found