White Privilege – An Advantage to some, A Burden to many

White Privilege- An Advantage to some, A Burden to many

In America, there has been an illusion of a supposed attainable equality. Social equality does not exist in America. One of the reasons for this is the presence of White privilege.

It is sometimes difficult to notice one’s own faults unless told. Likewise, an individual of the white race may not realize that he or she has certain privilege conferred because of race. However, people of other race may realize these conferred White privileges.  After conducting three Interviews with three (3) individual of the same decent, it was clear that White privileges does exist.  All responses from these individuals were very similar with one difference. This response came from two Haitian American female. The third was interviewee was a Jamaican American female.  It is worth noting that all these individuals are educated and in the labor force.

The pattern of response was more similar than different.  All three individual agreed that white privilege was well and alive in the society.  Similarly, they all agreed that white privilege is not a fair and need to be done with. Their experiences with white privilege correlated as well.   However, their suggestions for eliminating the white privilege differed.

All three interviewees reveled that white privilege existed. They all explained that white privilege is well rooted into the almost all social structures in America and that it is hard for it to be “unnoticed by a black person”  They revealed that securing a job was due to the first preference for a white individual over a non-white. Hence my interviewees suffer economically due to the presence of White privilege. My Haitian American interviewee explained that privilege was eminent at her internship site. She revealed that she could actually count the number of minority employees at her workplace. Majority of the employees there where of white descent. She explained, “It was a good internship site, so why would they hire minorities, white people come first”. Likewise the rest of the interviewee explained same situations at the place of work.   These African Americans agreed of the presence of White privilege and the woes it causes for them in the long run.  One interviewee explained that she would not dream too much of moving up at her current work place. She explained it was not because she lacked the motivation or skills but it just wasn’t foreseeable in a white dominated company. From this it is evident that that this interviewee has lost some character that she could have developed. This problem can be blamed on the white privilege that existing our economic structures.

It is evident that white privilege exists and it isn’t favored, as least by some members of the African American community. As a result, all agreed that race coded privilege should be eradicated.   This is where their difference became eminent. Two interviewees suggested that the government should get involved to control white to non-white employee ratio in every company. Although this helps a small part of the situation, they both agreed it was at least “something”. However, the other suggestion was to leave white privilege issues to time. As time goes by, social equality would gradually become a reality.

From these interviews, it is evident that white privilege exists. It affects the lives of non-white individuals, in this case African Americans. White privileges are fixed in to the economic structures. The individuals in this interview affirmed that they have to let goes some dreams and goals because of the presence of White privilege.  Sad but true.

 

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