White Privilege

After reading “White Privilege...”, it appears clear to me that there are many unforseen

and inadequately acknowledged privileges that citizens of the majority enjoy, often at the

expense of the minorities ‘under’ them. Unfortunately, I believe that there are too few remedies

to offer for this problem in today’s society. We as a people often do not recognize the disparity in

quality of life and equal opportunity amongst different races, and I believe this stems from the

fact that a lone socioeconomic faction, that of wealthy Caucasian males, has been in power and

controlled the course of our nation since its birth.

History has always been recorded by the winners. That is, those who succeed and hold

power can choose to acknowledge what they wish and ignore the smaller, unpleasant details.

Thus, a history of racial prejudice and an ingrained expectation of opportunities for whites have

not been projected upon us to the full extent. I believe whites, in an attempt to mitigate past

hardships endured by blacks and other minorities, do not acknowledge past injustices, and more

importantly past accomplishments, of members of the black race. In essence, we ignore the

injustices of the past as if they didn’t exist so we can feel better about ourselves and, at the same

time, believe this is the best way to make things equal for all races: to start anew.

As a member of the majority, I can say that civil liberties in which we assume everyone

possesses equal opportunity, such as a voice to be heard in the government, are rarely all that

they may seem. For example, it may seem obvious to us that, since senators and representatives