White Privilege

After watching the Tim Wise video in class, it pretty much reinforces what I had previously thought and experienced throughout my life. For example, I’ve always been treated differently if I go somewhere by myself then if I were to go to that same place with my mother, who is white. If I go into a nice department store by myself, all eyes will be on me. If I go with her, they leave me alone.

White privilege might be more powerful than any degree offered from an esteemed university. I say this not because it can make you more money than that respected degree from said university, but whiteness can afford you more possibilities. I truly believe that.





I also think Wise’s message is more powerful coming from a white male rather than a black or Latino man. If he was African American, he’d be labeled as having Angry Black Man Syndrome, spewing his radical opinion.

The media definitely uses privilege because it ultimately has the decision on what will run on TV or in the paper. My father always talks about how for years and years The Oklahoman never would put a black man on the cover unless it was a suspect. I’ve heard the exact same story about Jamie Foxx’s extremely small, hometown newspaper. After he won the Academy Award for Ray, his paper refused to put him on the front page even though it was a small community.

List of Privileges I notice:

1) I don’t know if this is a true privilege or not, but today the bus from Lloyd Noble started to take off while a white woman was far in the distance walking toward it. The bus driver waited. I’ve been in the exact same situation about a hundred times, and the bus driver left me.
2) I went out to eat and saw a waitress bring a couple of guys a check. They left the money in the little “foldy thing,” and as they passed her on the way out they said the money is on the table. I can’t say if they were minorities the waitress wouldn’t have said something like “hold on a second while I make your change” a.k.a. make sure there’s actually cash there.
3) “Michael Phelps just made ONE bad decision. Get off his back.”
4) I have a white friend who is mortgaging a house at the age of 22 IN THIS HORRENDOUS ECONOMIC TIME. I’m not even sure if at my age I’d even be shown houses for sale. Again, I’m not sure if this is white privilege, but I know it probably doesn’t hurt…
5) I can walk in Target today and see 100 white Barbie’s and 2 black Barbie’s.
6) White privilege=not getting followed around in stores
7) White privilege=not being a representation for your entire race
8) White privilege=being able to say something AND then not have the person you were talking to say: “Wow, you’re very articulate.”

I do think society believes in the one-drop rule. There have been numerous times when my brother or I had tried to date a white girl when their family would have none of it……and we’re only half black! It obviously still matters, but I also think image counts for a lot, too. Especially when you first meet someone, you are what you look. I know some more biracial people who are very fair skinned. Some really don’t look black at all.

It’s harder for us to bear the responsibility of changing our actions based on this new awareness/information because as adults we have been taught about race since we were little kids. Habits are hard to break. But, this also provides us with one of the greater opportunities. We cannot only change our own behavior, but we can shape the behavior of our own kids. I’m glad that if one day I do have kids, they will grow up with a wide variety of races to encounter family-wise. Half of understanding races and what divides them is interaction. The other half is tolerance.