White Privilege In Untouchable

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.

Throughout the song, Tupac gives an inside look on the social problems affecting African-Americans and suggests possible solutions. In the first stanza of the song, Tupac first talks about how certain social issues are linked together; he makes a correlation between his skin color and being poor. Tupac says “I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.” Then he explains how poverty causes crime by saying “My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.” And finally, he demonstrates the relationship between police brutality and race by saying “Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.”

The song’s overall message is to emphasize the absurdity of belief that African-American people are predisposed to a criminal way of life due to their race, or, in other words - because of their DNA. The second line of the song goes “Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA” (Lamar), where loyalty means being loyal to the African-American community, and royalty stays for the proud of being a representative of this community. In the next lines, Kendrick states that he is predisposed to violence and evil as they are encoded in his DNA: “Realness, I just kill shit ’cause it's in my DNA; I got dark, I got evil, that rot inside my DNA” (Lamar). Once again, it is needed to understand that these words are used with double meaning. Saying so, Lamar depicts the

While most rappers establish their credibility by boasting about their wealth and position in their lyrics, “The Way I Am” makes it clear that this rapper refuses to change his lifestyle to conform to the expectations set for rappers. Although, like most rappers, he does take an autobiographical stance in this song, he is more specific and honest in his lyrics than the majority of rappers. He reveals details about his family by claiming he often feels like his father because he “hate[s] to be bothered.” While the majority of rappers might replace a personal detail like this for one that describes their materialistic gains, Eminem ensures that his audience sees fame from an honest perspective. He provides another brief example of a personal problem he has had with fans approaching him while he’s with his family. With lines expressing these sentiments, he gives the impression that he doesn’t care about his fans’ opinions. He criticizes his fans for disturbing him, claiming that he doesn’t owe them anything. This criticism serves the purpose of establishing authority through his lack of interest. Due to the aggressive indifference his lyrics express, the interpreter will likely assume the rapper has the authority to devalue others’ opinions. The intent of the song is not to prove that he is worthy of praise, fame, or glory. On the contrary, the lyrics as a

Long before the 90s, race and ethnicity have been a controversial issue all over the world, particularly in the United States. In sociology, the concepts of race and ethnicity is connected to the concept of minority and majority groups, with the social structures of stratification, power, and of course inequality. Race is a term that describes the physical differences that are considered socially critical to cultures and groups, while ethnicity is a term that describes the shared culture, like beliefs, language, practices, and ancestry. Agitation for equality has been seen in the music world, particularly among the blacks in the United States, the majority of black musical artistes have written songs relating to how black lives matter. This paper will analyze an old rap lyrics of the 90s titled as “Erase Racism” in relation to race and ethnicity.

The term “privilege” is when a person has the right or confused with having the right to do something. For example, for someone to advance their education is not a privilege perhaps it is a right. In some cases during certain situation person can be granted the privilege. White privilege is a word greatly used in social rights that advantage individuals to be acknowledged as white in Western countries, afar what is frequently proficient by non-white individuals in the same social, political, or economic conditions (Rothenberg, 2016). However, when a certain race color is treated more superior than another race is giving the advantage or benefit to have the opportunity to do anything they want without anyone trying to stop them.

Wise’s examination of the inconspicuous character of racism 2.0 dovetails fittingly with our course’s recurring theme of institutionalized racism. In class lectures we have defined institutionalized racism as the discriminatory practices that have become regularized and routinized by state agencies, organizations, industries, or anywhere else in society. Although such practices might not be intentionally racist, they end up being racist nevertheless as consequence of the systematized and unspoken biases that have become increasingly convoluted and entrenched within society over time. It also doesn’t help white people to recognize these discriminatory practices considering they have been unconsciously tailored to be consistent with white perspective and mentality. In her article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh examines not only how white folks often consider themselves to be a normative figure within society, but also how they are carefully taught not to recognize the advantages they gain from the disadvantages that impair people of color. In the article, McIntosh acknowledges the reality of her own white privilege and expresses, “In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth” (McIntosh 4). In fact, even if white folks do not believe themselves to

White privilege is a term used to describe the advantages in society that white people have over people of color. This concept is not new. It has been around, in America especially, for many years. We can see examples of white privilege in contexts such as slavery, the Civil War, and segregation. While we have overcome many racial issues in this country, racism and white privilege still exist today.

One of the major topics in the documentary was what white privilege was and what it means to those being interviewed. The term “white privilege” seemed to evoke many different responses, some couldn 't even answer when asked "What are the disadvantages of being white?" by the interviewer. One of the interviewees even taught a class on white privilege to other white students at is college. There he posted several privileges that white people had over those of color and discussed them, including that whites can ignore the issues people of color face and the ease of getting a job when you are white compared to being a minority. Other points brought out under the white privilege umbrella was the sense of entitlement white people experience, the lack of police harassment, and lack of prejudice they have to experience.

The context and setting of this rap is American in the 1970’s. Historically, this period came after the Civil Rights Movement, during the start of the Nixon era. The Vietnam War was dividing the nation’s population into anti-war protestors and those that supported the war effort. It was an era of recession and continued change for minorities. One of the issues was enforced racial integration after the Civil Rights Movement, which many institutions had still not complied with. The struggle to find equality even after the movement was something African Americans at the time had to deal with. The support for the black power movement was one of many results of this struggle. The media and press largely did not report on the alienation that was still present. This was an inspiration for Scott-Heron and this song in particular.

The theme of the song is made clear through lines 38 and 39, “... if you’re thinking of being my baby, It don’t matter if you’re black or white.” The whole song repeats lines like the two stated as well as lines like 16 and 17, “I am tired of this stuff, I am tired of this business.” This song conveys a message that skin color doesn’t matter. It is no cause or excuse for discrimination. “Black or White” is a very modern and complementary work to Emily’s poem, both speak of the wrongness of judging others based on

Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, is recognized for his work as a rap artist who is able to connect with his audience through humor and rhythmically dicey lyrics. Eminem’s “My Name Is” music video is able signify whiteness and rearticulate race with the use intertextual editing techniques that parody common representations of whiteness. Eminem is using his “My Name Is” video as an approach to solidify his style of rapping and thus create new political and cultural authenticities that entice questions of race representation in the 1990’s and beyond. (Kajikawa).

Because Eminem is such a well-known artist, his audience can be expanded. Therefore, global English-speaking hip-hop/rap listeners are the tertiary audience. The purpose of this song is to show everybody that he is the best rapper on earth. He uses poetic communication to convey his message.

Bada$$ brilliantly incorporates the lives of African Americans into the song by using repetition to show exactly how minorities do not have a sufficient voice in this country. He demonstrates his hatred towards government leaders by repeating, “I’m out for dead presidents to represent me / Dead fuckin’ presidents to represent me / I’m out for dead presidents to represent me / Because I’ve never known a live one

Yet, the most significant flaw in this essay can be seen through the author’s simplistic view of the scope of racial injustice. Remarkably, the author only refers to white privilege in terms of its impact on what she calls “the problems facing Black America.” She fails to acknowledge or perhaps has no insight that white privilege involves the preference for ‘whiteness’ over all persons of color. Every non-white group is impacted by individual and institutional racism. Every non-white group grows up with the knowledge that their white peers have certain automatic privileges. Every child of color has to learn to navigate through the floodwaters of racism