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Briana Lewis

Professor Bailes

Argumentative Essay

November 15, 2016

The Concept of White Privilege Through the Eyes of a Minority

June 17, 2015 marks the day that sparked a year full of heightened racial tensions in

America. A young white male by the name of Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel African

Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the oldest black church of the South,

and opened fire on nine African American individuals who were attending Bible study. The

deceased include: Tywanza Sanders, Reverend Sharonda Singleton, Cynthia Hurd, Reverend

DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Myra Thompson, Reverend Daniel

Simmons Sr., and even a South Carolina Senator, Reverend Clementa Pinckney (Park and

McLaughlin). Besides the fact that the senseless massacre of innocent people was motivated in

honor of White Supremacy, Dylann Roof murdered a South Carolinian government official. Let

that sink in and think about the consequences that you would expect such a person to receive.

Upon Dylanns arrest, he was fully apprehended alive, even though he obviously posed a threat

to the officers lives as he was armed with the weapon that was used to kill the church goers, and

was even photographed being taken to get food by the police officers on his way to jail

(McCormack). Because of the arresting officers claims of Dylanns cooperativeness, one may

assume that the treatment of Dylann Roof, post-massacre, was ordinary; a guy did a horrible

thing and got locked up for it. I am here today to express to those who may refuse to believe or

be oblivious to the fact that if Mr. Dylann Roof phenotypically expressed an ounce of African

descent, he would have not been handcuffed alive.

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America is full of cases in which a white person gets cut slack or is under-punished for a

crime that they committed (Brock Turners 6-month sentence for rape, for example). Yet, when a

completely unarmed, 40-year-old black man, by the name of Terence Crutcher, is stranded on a

road due to the failure of car engine on his way back from COLLEGE, he was approached by the

police, stereotyped as being a bad dude due to his skin color/appearance, and killed. Officer

Betty Shelby claims that she opened fire because she feared for her life, categorizing the

suspects appearance as threat (Robinson and Graham). In what dimension of this world does

that make sense? An openly racist white serial shooter can be apprehended alive, but a random

black man gets killed because he needed help, but looked scary? Situations and scenarios as such

(that have obvious connections to racial/social injustices) are where all the frustration that

minorities experience, and are now vocalizing, comes from. Because, I bet you that Dylanns

white privilege is what saved his life the day that he took so many others.

These are two recent examples on the comparisons of white privilege and how it affects

all parties. Significant problems that are driven by this topic of white privilege are police

brutality in America and prevalent racial divisions. Events and actions that are significant to the

concept or topic of white privilege are the killings of unarmed, black men and women, the Black

Lives Matter movement, general protesting, the difference in severity of legal punishment

between white Americans and minority Americans, and the racial hate acts that have arose from

the 2016 Presidential election. When minority groups, particularly African Americans, choose to

speak out against the obvious racial problems that society begs everyone to overlook, they get a

bad reputation and are often labeled as a group of people who over-exaggerate these issues in

pursuit of becoming well known, or possibly acquiring monetary gain, or simply just always

wanting to play the role of the victim. Minorities are not overreacting regarding being upset
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and vocalizing concern about the dominance of white privilege because it is a real and obvious

issue that our country is currently facing. But the first step for Americans to begin to heal the

wounds of racial barriers that run as deep as our countrys foundation, we must admit and

acknowledge that we have a problem.

White privilege is so normal and subconscious in our everyday lives, that even I did not

realize what it was until I started college. White privilege can be described as the beneficial side

of racism that goes to the people who are born in America with a white or less pigmented skin

tone. Benefits include having an automatic higher rate of success, unquestionable justice/mercy,

governmental favoritism, and a sense of normalcy and belongingness to this country regardless

of the economic background of ones family. The average white family has 12 times the

accumulated net worth of the average African American family and 8 times the accumulated net

worth of the average Latino family. If you dont have assetswealth something accumulated,

your income means very little in the case of an economic downturn. And these working class

white families who are struggling, make no mistake about it, nonetheless are going to be better

off than those black families who make four times as much annual pay due to their

accumulations (Wise, Tim).

Declaring that all white people have white privilege does not mean that white people do

not struggle socially and or economically. It just means that most of them tend to struggle a bit

less. An author and Master of Public Health candidate, by the name of Gina Crosley-Corcoran,

wrote an article about her views on white privilege that was published on the Occupy Wall Street

website entitled: Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person. According to the article,

Corcoran stated that she was raised in an environment of poverty and grew frustrated with people

throwing around the word privilege to her because in her eyes, privileged people were not
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raised the way that she was raised. In her childhood, she resided in RVs, spent winters in

Chicago without heat and running water, and was often sent to collect water from public

restrooms and boil it for use. While very understandable, she goes on to state that she didnt

understand white privilege until she discovered a 1988 piece, written by Peggy McIntosh,

titled: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. She then concluded that being born

with white skin in the United States of America has undeniable advantages. To help spread

awareness to those who may become offended by the phrase white privilege, Crosley-

Corcoran proposed a more distinct concept of privilege as the term: intersectionality.

Intersectionality can be described as the phenomenon of classifying as privileged in certain ways

or categories and not classifying as such in other ways or categories. Within this

intersectionality is where the varying scopes of discrimination can be examined whilst raising

awareness to the modern American society (Crosley-Corcoran, Gina).

Although economics and class have a lot to do with and are valid factors of determining

white privilege and who it applies to, there are more subtle, subconscious ways in which it

manifests. How often are you followed around in a retail store? When walking into CVS or

Walmart to fetch Band-Aids, does the flesh skin tone material somewhat resemble your own

skin? What about the people who are beyond shades darker? When you turn on the television or

open up a book, what race is widely represented almost 100% of the time? When, or if, you

vocalize your concerns about racism, how often are you labeled as playing the victim

(McIntosh, Peggy)? Instances such as these that are described in Peggy McIntoshs White

Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through

Work in Womens Studies. Working Paper No. 189 serve as a small look at what its like to

white in America. It is proof that for those who are granted privileges based on gender, race,
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class, age, or sex, these privileges are merely just normal. Thats why it makes sense for

people to be unaware about white privilege. Its been around for so long that, now, its like

asking fish to notice water or birds to discuss air (Kendall, Francis).

According to Francis E. Kendall, history is filled with examples of the purposeful

construction of a systemic structure that grants privileges to white people and withholds them

from others. These examples include, but are not limited to; the concept of Manifest Destiny

and the removal of Native Americans, how the Constitution lays out that white people are

allowed to hold black people as property (also known as slavery), opting not to teach black

families how to read in order to eliminate the ability to self-educate, the passing of laws that

were created to maintain the legal separation and inequality of whites and African Americans

(Plessy v. Ferguson) (Kendall, Francis), altering immigration laws in order to make it more

difficult for Mexicans, Jews, and the Chinese to immigrate into the country, and the exclusion of

people of color when affirmative action was used to promote opportunities for white women

(Kendall, Francis).

Because of these fundamental laws that were outlined by our countrys Constitution,

racism is still alive and well. Even more so now than the past ten years due to the current 2016

Presidential election. This country was founded on the very principle of separation; from the

Declaration of Independence from Great Britain being the best break-up letter in history to the

2016 Presidential election, the United States of America is a country divided. The greatest

division that this country has ever experienced, and is still experiencing, is the division of race.

According to the 5th edition of Psychological Science, the social identity theory is described as

ingroups that consist of individuals who perceive themselves to be members of the same social

category, also known as, original U.S. citizens or pilgrims.

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Ingroups are groups to which particular people establish themselves to belong and

outgroups are those to which they do not belong. In the scenario of the divisive foundation of the

American country, pilgrims would be an ingroup and Native Americans were the outgroup. After

a while, pilgrims and conquistadors from Europe began practicing and expressing the outgroup

homogeneity effect and ingroup favoritism by simply killing off a vast majority of the Native

American race. The outgroup homogeneity effect is the tendency to view outgroup members as

less varied than ingroup members and ingroup favoritism is the tendency for people to evaluate

favorably and privilege members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup (Gazzaniga,

Michael, et.al,).

That same display of homogeneity and favoritism extended from Natives to African

slaves to even African American citizens in 2016! Though much understanding and effort and

progress has been made since the forming of America in regard to race, the job is still unfinished

and the current U.S. political climate has the capability of proving that the American identity is

still divided or that the American identity is making strides in trying to reverse the catastrophic

effects of its foundation. As we all know, the Democratic and Republican nominees for the 2016

Presidential election were Secretary Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, respectively. It is

nothing but obvious that racial tensions and flares have arose since the announcement of Donald

Trump as the Republican party nominee and that is no coincidence. He has publicly degraded

Hispanics with the infamous phrase build that wall!, as well as blacks by proclaiming to them,

and I quote; Youre living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of

your youth is unemployed what the hell do you have to lose? (Henderson, Nia Malika). He

has also degraded and mocked disabled and mentally ill persons, and pretty much all people that

differentiate from the white, or normal, race. Mr. Donald Trump is even publicly endorsed by
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the Ku Klux Klan; a white supremacist hate group whose members have been murdering their

black peers in attempts to Make America Great Again since 1865. Though very detrimental,

they were still and always will be unsuccessful in that attempt, regardless of the outcome of the

election.

Trump supporters are more than aware of the popular distaste of Donald Trump in

the eyes of minorities and this has caused them to have more extreme defensive attitudes as time

in the election went on. This phenomenon can otherwise be known as group polarization. When

endorsers such as the KKK experience group polarization, they result in groupthink activities

such as KKK rallies, infiltration of law enforcement in order to murder black males, and even a

declaration of a race war, should Trump lose the election. Groupthink is the tendency of groups

to make bad decisions when the group is under pressure, facing external threats, and or is biased

(Gazzaniga, Michael, et.al,).

Though plenty do not like Trump, plenty also do not like Hillary due to her

untrustworthiness in regard to her email scandal. I personally believe that a political mishap is

nothing in comparison to the questioning of morals, ethics, empathy, kindness, and leadership;

yet, most of the general public sees one bad thing about Hillary (that makes sense, dont get me

wrong) and they go into conformity and hop on the bandwagon that she is undeserving of the

title as President. Conformity can be described as the altering of ones behaviors and opinions to

match those of other people or other peoples expectations (Gazzaniga, Michael, et.al,). The

situational attribution to those who tend to flip flop their views on Hillary, especially amongst

white voters, are factors such as peer pressure, shunning from communities, and family history

influence. Situational attributions are explanations of peoples behavior that refer to external

evets, such as the weather, luck, accidents, etc. Whereas personal attributions are explanations of
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peoples behavior that refer to their internal characteristics such as abilities, traits, moods, or

efforts (Gazzaniga, Michael, et.al,). An example case of personal attribution that can be seen in

this Presidential election is the common phrase: Im voting for Donald Trump because he

speaks his mind. Bullshit.

The last of these attributions is known as the fundamental attribution error. This is the

explanation of other peoples behavior with the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and

underestimate situational factors. Fundamental attribution error is represented through the media

of this election because although Trump is an obvious, nasty human being, it does seem as

though the media portrays him out to be much worse than what he actually is. What voters, and

society in general, fail to realize is that the media controls everything that we see and dont see;

which, could cause society to subconsciously comply to one side of the election more than the

other. For example, because the word compliance represents the tendency to agree to do things

requested or suggested by others, it easy to comply to the effort of Hillary being investigated by

the FBI and being a potential candidate for prison because (in my opinion) the media made the

email scandal seem like more than what it actually was. Once opinions of the character of a

candidate is swayed, the vote is swayed. But overall, the divisiveness of the political arena in the

United States and the 200+ acts of racial hatred that have been reported, following Trumps

victory, proves that this nation is divided beyond repair.

Given the relationship between minorities, particularly blacks, and white people over the

past century; minorities have every right to be afraid of the current state of the country. White

privilege is often used to protect and mask the underlying prejudice that is expressed through

actions, words, and or nonverbal communication. A big part of white privilege being publicly

displayed in current events is the murders of unarmed black men by white police officers and
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how those officers go unpunished or are on a paid leave (or paid vacation, if you ask me) from

work. Officers who are minorities that are choosing not to police their fellow policemen and

policewomen and officers who are white that are choosing to exercise their white privilege by

remaining silent in such situations should all be ashamed of themselves. With that being said and

contrary to popular belief, minority groups are aware of the fact that there are more good cops

than bad, but where are they? Not all of them are willing to acknowledge that there is an issue

and stand up for what is right, like Seth Stoughton. Seth Stoughton, a formal police officer and

current researcher of policing, stated in his article, How Police Training Contributes to

Avoidable Deaths, that There have been too many lives lost to police killings, especially

those of young black males. In the article, he expresses that officers shoot to kill because they are

trained as if they are the targets and have been taught that hesitation is fatal. He then goes on to

state that it is necessary that the police training system needs to be refined to compensate for the

unconscious racial biases that lead officers to perceive a greater threat from black men than from

others. (Stoughton, Seth). The research done by Stoughton shows that police officers are just as

fearful of minorities as minorities are of them they just have guns and comrades that are

willing to make up an alibi.

Those unarmed black victims that were slain by police from 2012 - 2016 include, but are

not limited to: Keith Childress, Bettie Jones, Kevin Matthews, Leroy Browning, Roy Nelson,

Cornelius Brown, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Christian Taylor, Jordan Davis, Mike Brown,

Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Keith Scott, Gregory Gunn, Terrence Crutcher, Walter Scott, etc.

The list goes on and on and such a vast array of people, including children, from one race being

gunned down by a few bad people who were sworn to protect and serve this country, is

psychologically damaging. How black minorities view the killing of their fellow brethren by
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police officers is similar to a report that was conducted by Elklit, Ask, and Sessel Kurdahl. The

psychological reactions after witnessing a killing in public in a Danish high school is a

scholarly article on a study done by the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.

This study was based off of a true-life event in which a Danish school girl was brutally murdered

by her, then, ex-boyfriend (who committed suicide afterwards) in front of 320 of their high

school peers. The objective of the study was to examine the prevalence of posttraumatic stress

disorder (PTSD) and possible risk factors of PTSD (Elklit, Ask, and Sessel Kurdahl, 1) in the

320 students who witnessed the murder 7 months after its occurrence. With 25% of students

being confirmed of having PTSD at a subclinical level, it was concluded that PTSD is a

possible consequence of witnessing killings or murders in public (Elklit, Ask, and Sessel

Kurdahl, 1). This source states that school shootings and killings result in massive public

attention because it is easy to imagine yourself or your children as targets in daily environments

(Elklit, Ask, and Sessel Kurdahl, 1). The anxiety of minorities and their reactions to certain acts

of hate in America are psychologically validated meaning that they are; indeed, not

overreacting. The previous statement that school shootings and killings result in massive public

attention because it is easy to imagine yourself or your children as targets in daily environments

(Elklit, Ask, and Sessel Kurdahl, 1) is easily relatable to fatal police shootings and police force

killings that have been resulting in massive public attention because it is easy for minorities to

imagine themselves, or their brothers, or their uncles, or their fathers, or their husbands as targets

in daily environments (which they seem to really be, given the circumstances). The basis of the

factor of PTSD can also attest to why, particularly, African Americans seem to be on edge and

defensive about the entire situation and choose to rally together in groups for protesting or social

support; hence, Black Lives Matter.

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Speaking of the Black Lives Matter movement, when first assigned this research paper, I

instantly knew what topic that I was going to dissect. With the recent events that took place in

the United States over that I have acknowledged earlier in the paper, and the fact that I am a

minority that attends a predominately white institute, it was a no brainer that I would choose the

topic of Black Lives Matter. As I began to research about the entire BLM movement, I found

myself not totally agreeing 100% with their principles even though I fully support their motive.

Most of my disagreements with the actions of the movement lie in lack of recognition of those,

who are not minorities, that understand and help promote the purpose. Some may even believe

that the use of the Black Lives Matter movement as a tool of awareness for the injustices of

American events and actions that are fueled by white privilege is illegitimate, racist, and anti-

American (Phillips, Olivia).

According to author, Trey Sanchez, the true nature of the BLM movement has been

codified and labeled as anti-American, Marxist, and racist (Sanchez, Trey) due to its new

platform. The article further describes this new BLM platform to be wholly against capitalism,

war, and white supremacy (Sanchez, Trey). With demands for economic justice, an immediate

end to the criminalization of black youth, and safety/health/education investments for blacks,

along with political power, community control, and reparations, it is easy to conclude that the

Black Lives Matter Movement is neither reasonable nor rational and that the creation of the

BLM movement because it appears that all Black Lives Matter really wants is for the roles to

be reversed. I believe that the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement is not the solution to

racism. I also believe the above claims are inaccurate because there are so many common

misconceptions about the BLM movement and what it stands for, and I know this because I too,

was unsure about the entire formation of the movement. Misconceptions include that the BLM
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movement is a one-issue movement, the movement is ignorant to black on black crime, so its

safety investments and end of criminalization pleas are void, and that the movement is a

leaderless movement (so how could it handle political power and community controls?). The

BLM movement is not a one-issue movement because it also focuses on the concerns of the

failing public education systems and the school-to-prison or street-to-prison pipeline that has

claimed so many lives of black youth (Brown, Carolyn M.). The BLM movement is not a

leaderless movement because its composed of many local leaders and organizations (Brown,

Carolyn M.). This fact is essential to the operations of the movement as a whole. Finally, the

BLM movement is not ignorant to black on black crime because its member from the

community of Chicago recognize that black on black crime can cause the movement to back

pedal and in retaliation of that, created the Violence Interrupters to disrupt violent altercations

before they escalate (Brown, Carolyn M.). But of course, good work, as such, tends to go

unnoticed because thats not what the people want to hear. The people want to hear controversy

because controversy helps them fuel their sense of correctness. The Im right and youre

wrong instead of I disagree, but tell me why you feel that way so that I can better understand.

Many white peoples white privilege is what empowers them to think that their opinion is

the only relevant opinion, but in order to get towards a better place in America, socially, and

eliminate white privilege (and unfair privilege in general), we must communicate and be open to

understanding each other from all angles. Equal amounts of comprehension from all sides and

aspects of this age old racial division will be the platform that we, as citizens, must use to

harness the power from within to love one another fully and unconditionally, regardless of our

differences. We, as a people, need to step outside of our comfort zone and call our nations

problems for what they are. Bring up capitalism and white privilege at the Thanksgiving dinner
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table. Ask your white friend whose grandma that has ties to the KKK where their hatred of black

people came from. Discuss the differences between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter.

Talk about racism and discrimination with family members that have opposing views. Call your

local police department and chat about the police brutality thats been spreading throughout the

media. Ask your Latino, Asian, African, African American friends why they march and how you

can help. Have those difficult talks with your parents who cant understand why you didnt want

to vote for Trump or Hillary. It all starts with a conversation. Then understanding, acceptance,

and healing will follow soon after.

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WORKS CITED

Brown, Carolyn M. "11 Major Misconceptions About the Black Lives Matter Movement." Black

Enterprise. Black Enterprise Magazine, 15 July 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Crosley-Corcoran, Gina. "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person..."

OCCUPY WALL STREET. NYC General Assembly, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016

Elklit, Ask, and Sessel Kurdahl. "The Psychological Reactions After Witnessing A Killing

In Public In A Danish High School." European Journal Of Psychotraumatology 4.

(2013): 1-7. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

Gazzaniga, Michael, Todd Heatherton, and Diane Halpern. Psychological Science. 5 thed.

New York: W.W. Norton &, n.d. Print

Henderson, Nia Malika. "Race and Racism in the 2016 Campaign." CNN. Cable News

Network, 1 Sept. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Kendall, Frances E. Understanding White Privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic

Relationships across Race. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006. Web. 18 Sept.

2016.
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McCormack, Simon. "Cops Bought Dylann Roof Burger King Hours After Charleston

Shooting." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 23 June 2015. Web. 17

Nov. 2016.

McIntosh, Peggy. White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to

See Correspondences Through Work in Womens Studies. Working Paper No. 189

Wellesley College, Mass. Center for Research on Women. (1988). Web. 18 Sept.

2016.

Park, Madison, and Eliot C. McLaughlin. "A Year after Mass Shooting, Charleston Church

Embraces Its Community." CNN. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., 17 June 2016. Web.

15 Nov. 2016.

Robinson, Wills, and Regina F. Graham. "White Female Cop Who Shot Dead Unarmed Black

Man with His Hands up Is CHARGED with First Degree Manslaughter." Daily Mail.

Associated Newspapers Ltd, 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

Sanchez, Trey. "Confirmed: Black Lives Matter Anti-American, Marxist, Racist Organization."

Truth Revolt. TruthRevolt.org, 08 Aug. 2016. Web. 23 Nov. 2016

Stoughton, Seth. "How Police Training Contributes to Avoidable Deaths." The Atlantic.

Atlantic Media Company, 12 Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

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The Pathology of Privilege Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality. Perf. Tim

Wise. 2007. DVD. Tim Wise: On White Privilege (clip). 19 Feb. 2008. Web. 17

Oct. 2016.