Assignment #2 Interviews around white privilege
This assignment involving interviews on the topic of white privilege was intriguing due to previous material covered in class. I was interested to see how three of my peers felt about white privilege because it definitely exists and has an undermining effect on daily life in our country. I interviewed three friends who are of the same racial background as myself, white, and got similar feedback with different reasoning in each case. All three thought white privilege exists today yet they differed on how to deal with this issue, with a general consensus that it will be nearly impossible to completely eliminate it from our country as a whole. All acknowledged that change is needed, yet the change has to come from an extremely high level where the issue is originally rooted.
The patterns of responses I received were interesting and all had a unique twist. The first person I interviewed felt that white privilege is so deeply rooted in our country due to our past that it is essentially impossible to eliminate it completely from our existence. No matter how hard we try to say racism does not exist anymore and we live in a melting pot which provides equal opportunity for all, this clearly isn’t true and my friend felt strongly about this. The more we try to downplay the reality involving disparities between education, income, and health, the farther from a solution we go. He agreed when my final interview yielded statements about how our government is set up in such a way that we will continue to see predominantly white males as those in power in America. This was the most essential point he and my other friend made, one I will come back to momentarily.
The other person I interviewed felt that white privilege is similar to the infiltration of drugs in America. Over time, there have been substantial efforts to rid our country of both hard and lesser drugs, but it is clear that they will always find their way in somehow. He noted how the right thing to do is to keep trying to eliminate the drug trade, but the likeliness of total success is slim. With regard to white privilege, we have had white people in power for such a long time that it is nearly impossible to change that and create equal power distribution, although efforts should continually be made regardless. He made a point about the racial background of our presidents up until Obama, where it has been one white male after another. The lack of diversity in our upper class is shocking due to the amount of diversity overall in our country. This leaves the question of how it keeps ending up this way when there are so many races and ethnic backgrounds circling our nation every day.
The answer came in part from responses of two people I interviewed but also from knowledge any person can gain simply by paying attention to our country and its political action. The term “money primary” refers to the concept of how you need the most campaign funding and donations in order to emerge as a real presidential candidate in today’s day and age. Capitalism is a real phenomenon that starts with the elite upper class and leaves nothing for the poor. First, the people who have the most money and resources to begin with are those who get their voices heard. This gives them the ability to gain publicity through advertising and shut down competitors with marketing techniques. We then have rich white men running for president, getting financial influence from other rich white men on Wall Street, lobbyists, and big businesses or corporations. Who are the owners and CEOs of these corporations? Rich, white men. What is happening is our two-party system leaves no room for a labor party or working class influence, and even less room for the poverty stricken lower class that needs their voice heard the most.
Our government is set up so that money guides who makes it big, and to gain wealth as a candidate you need to appeal to businesses and gain trust amongst those who have the potential to fund your political campaign the most. This distraction of campaign funding leaves less time for actual policy work and ultimately discourages participation from the lower class in voting. Obama gave hope for minorities and has had a huge influence on our country, but as one friend I interviewed stated, he can’t make up for the CEOs of the big banks and all other Wall Street influence that continually keeps the upper class predominantly white. Ultimately, our government is set up to keep producing rich, white males. Until our two-party and overall system is shut down and rebooted, the trend will continue in this fashion.