American Privilege: Racism, Inequality and White Supremacy in the USA

This research paper analyses the idea of white privilege prevailing in the society of America. It discusses the relationship between privilege and racism, inequality, and white supremacy in the USA.

Running head: AMERICAN PRIVILEGE
AMERICAN PRIVILEGE
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Privilege and Racism..............................................................................................................3
Inequality................................................................................................................................4
Argument....................................................................................................................................6
Action plan.............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Annotated bibliography:.............................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
This research paper analyses the idea of white privilege prevailing in the society of
America. There is a huge debate among the national parties of the country about the
existence, importance and consequences of privilege. It has been pointed out by the critics
that there is predominance of racial supremacy which ultimately read to social conflict and
struggle. The concept of privilege in America is mainly the privileges enjoyed by the white
people over other communities especially the blacks. To some scholars this privileges are the
source of their counterpart, namely racism which has been increasing disparity and
discrimination and ultimately violence in the society.
Discussion
Privilege is a special advantage, right and immunity granted to one person or a group
of people. The inner struggles of history that occurred in America, has constructed as well as
normalized by the established framework of the society. These privileged people are
identified and classified but those who encounter them. This categorization is based on the
socially constructed norm, that their acts are done unconsciously. It can be said that once an
individual is war of the fact of privilege, it becomes difficult to eliminate it. However, some
people in America are not aware of the reason why their treat privileged people differently
and some ignore this realities of privilege intentionally (Colin & Lund, 2010). Some types of
privilege include male privilege, white privilege, privilege associated with physical abilities,
attractiveness, privilege based on sexual orientation, privilege pertaining to class and social
status, privilege relating to mental health and most importantly racial privilege. There are
different criticisms regarding the impotence and existence of privilege in the American
society, some set of scholars have pointed out the dark side of privilege which is the root
cause of decimation issues prevailed in the state.

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White privilege is a transparent preference which is quite difficult to address. A
deeper inspection reveals the way it creates the sense of entitlement, causes special perks and
scope for the white people to elevate their status in the world.
Privilege and Racism
The existence of privilege in the American society, has numerous factors associated
with it but the predominant issue is the skin color which allows them to enjoy some more
benefits than that of the other communities. According to Michael (2009), the white skin
privilege is not something that the white people of America essentially create, do, or enjoy on
purpose. According to the supporters of the white privilege, it is a transparent ideology that
saturates the society. These critics analyses the idea of white privilege under the light of
racism philosophies. Racism is a doctrine which functions in three different levels. First, of
all the racism claims to find subtle racial differences among the people on the basis of
intelligence of the individual and character. Through this, racism contrasts and compares the
factors of different races then asserts the superiority of one race on the other (Johnson, 2014).
Towards the end, the theories seek to maintain and execute the power and dominance over
inferior races through a complicated system of values, beliefs, behaviors, usage of language
as well as policies. This dogma of racism ranges from individual to the organizational level.
It reflects as well as enforces an unescapable view. This is how the whites in the culture of
the US are assumed to be superior than the other people of color.
Racist beliefs encourage the thoughts like white people are smarter than others or
whites are more responsible in their works. The idea of racism manifests itself through
individual level by hating crime or the institutional behaviors through discrimination in terms
of employment. Racism also manifests through the individual’s use of language through the
usage of slurs and organizational policy of preferring Eurocentric norms (Baumgartner &
Johnson – Bailey, 2010). The racial status quo is this maintained and contributes benefits to

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one section of the society based on race. These subtle differences provide the white people of
America the perks which they do not earn but the people of color do not enjoy also. In
addition to this, these perks make the whites fairly immune for various challenges. These
advantages help the whites to manipulate, create and shape the society best for their
functioning. This formation benefits them to navigate as well as interact with one another
hence dominate the world.
Inequality
The history of the USA has a history of constructing as well as policing of the racial
categories. Hence the issues of racism and privilege always applicable to any of the national
events. This issue has created debate that includes controversy over the confederate status of
the state, the idea of white supremacy along with immigration bans. The most important
advantage of white privilege chiefly focus on the maintenance of white supremacy in the
society where the white people will have the right to hold the ultimate power over any other
race. As pointed out by Denevi and Pastan (2006), this concept of white privilege in by one
means supportive of inequality in every level of society as well as economy. According to
these scholars, White privilege can be described as the means of insulation which allows the
White persons to express the awareness about their privilege to execute supremacy of power
over other people of color which is the reason, the gap between the communities is fast
growing. On the other hand, as the theorists of sociology and philosophy opine that with
privileges, there come the responsibilities which the White persons needs to execute as their
duties. Denevi and Pastan (2006) has also stated that the privileged class needs to arrange for
meetings of diversity clubs, join conferences along with workshops and speak to the others
regarding their mounting understanding of how their privileges work for increasing racism
issues.

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As mentioned before, the matter of inequality has more to do with the aspect of
privilege of the whites in America. Inequality as different facts that affect both economic as
well a non-economic fields of society. The inequality of income has deep rooted connection
with the wellbeing of the society, happiness index and creation of social capital. The phase of
racial equality is essential for accomplishing mission to support the deprived section of the
American society. Inequality leads to poverty then racial segregation where the people of
color experience many disadvantages such as availing health care facilities and employment
which pose no problem to the white people of the USA (Journal.thriveglobal.com 2018). Far
too many people of color reside in racially isolated neighborhoods namely ghettos in the
metropolitan areas. In addition to this, there are segregated rural along with tribal
communities live across the country with no privilege in spite of being extremely poor. For
helping such people Christopher (2013) in his article Commitment to Racial Equity has
mentioned about the Healing America" initiative of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation that
promotes racial galling while addressing the issue of structural racism.
To support this inequality, factor the media and other organizations of the country has
been taking initiative so that the income gap can be judged easily. This help in understanding
the status of the privilege and the deprived class of people in recent America (Neuman,
2016). The earning has been increasing so also the income gap. However, from the part of the
government, it has aimed may times to reduce this gap hence used various policies to
strengthen the deprived or the minorities to empower through different regulations but as the
members of Conservative party Charles Murray blame these initiatives. According to him,
these social welfare programs are the cause of making the back people more poor and
funding the race-based economic inequality. As mentioned before, the blacks here are
mentioned to be less intelligent that the whites hence they need back up from the government

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but the Whites do not need any such implicit regulations to support themselves (Nytimes.com
2018).
Argument
Despite the fact that there are some immunities availed by the whites in the western
societies, it does not mean that they lead a smooth life or they do not have any struggle in
their lives. Most of the critics against the idea of supremacy of the White Americans, have
opined that most of the white Americans are not even aware of their privileges. Moreover,
their interests are not being catered through legislations like those for the Blacks. As the
Article ‘The Fallacy of White Privilege’ by Dennis Prager revels that a generation of high-
school as well as college students are being taught that a great number of unearned privileges
aim to serve the white Americans (Nationalreview.com 2018). Despite there is no written
evidence of such thing in the country but they are believing these facts and a sense of
intolerance has been steaming among these students. This is however, potent of exposing
open discrimination and abusive action against the competitive classes. Hence, this charge of
white privilege demands rational inquiry.
To begin with, there is no evidence present which can argue that the issue of white
privilege is applied all the white people of America but it is only applied to the great majority
of whites. To the author, there are various variables other than race which determine the
success in America. In addition to this, if the whites in the country had the benefits and
facilities as the critics are proclaiming, then the percentage of committing suicide by the
whites of America would have been less than that of the Blacks (Neuman, 2016). Secondly,
there is another criterion to avail the privileges of the Whites, one need to have both the
children form singular race but in many cases, it does not happen. Thirdly, the recent data has
revealed that the Asian American are about to surpass the white Americans and become the
wealthiest group in America and as they are better in IQ test, credit scores and other positive

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measure they obviously get better privilege by the government. Finally, it can be said that the
privilege of being white is not the only criteria to get facilities, the people of minority section
residing in America are getting considerably greater facilities than that of the whites.
Action plan
Objectives Measures Time frame Resources
Creating awareness Public awareness
events regarding
challenging racism
and promoting
diversity.
Increasing
communication and
sharing knowledge
about the privilege
Year one and
ongoing
Staff time
advertising
Increasing vigilance Proper
documentation of the
incidents
Eight months Staff training,
Funds to hire
consultants,
Instruments for
documentation
processes
Strategy
development
Meetings with the
communities and
board of directors
Two years Community hall as
venue, instruments
for presentation

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Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated that there is a great debate regarding the American
privileged which is seen as an attempt of the left wing to keep the people away from the
actual problems of homelessness, racism and unemployment due to outsourcing. The issue of
white privilege has been seen from the perspective of racism and supremacy for dominance
over other communities. Clear avoidance to race based prejudice is the chief way to avoid
such problems.

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Annotated bibliography:
Baumgartner,, L., & Johnson - Bailey, J. (2010). Racism and White Privilege in Adult
Education Graduate Programs: Admissions, Retention, and Curricula. New Directions For
Adult And Continuing Education, 1(125), 27-40.
Through this journal I have come across the knowledge that White privilege is a large part of
the hidden infrastructure of American society that directs, drives and invisibly yet subtly
determines outcomes like employment, housing and education.
Christopher, G. (2013). Commitment to Racial Equity. Reclaiming Children And
Youth, 22(1), 38-41.
From this peer reviewed journal I get the knowledge of "Healing America" initiative of the
W. K. Kellogg Foundation and how it has been helping the people of deprived communities
in the USA.
Colin,, S., & Lund, C. (2010). The intersections of white privilege and racism: Moving
forward. New Directions For Adult And Continuing Education, 2010(125), 91-94.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ace.365
This journal takes good care of defining the racism problem that has been originated from the
ideology of White privilege in the United States. The education system is also supporting the
fact that there are facilities for some groups in the various sections of government.
Denevi, E., & Pastan, N. (2006). Helping Whites Develop Anti-Racist Identities: Overcoming
Their Resistance to Fighting Racism. Multicultural Education, Vol.14(2), 70-73.
This article discusses the definition of white privilege and the cost of racism to the Whites
in America.

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Johnson, H. B. (2014). The American dream and the power of wealth: Choosing schools and
inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity. Routledge.
American dream is the factor which creates discrimination among the people of America
where everyone wants to be American and fulfil their dreams to be wealthy.
Journal.thriveglobal.com. (2018). “American Privilege” Is Open to All – Thrive
Global. Thrive Global. Retrieved 30 March 2018, from
https://journal.thriveglobal.com/american-privilege-is-open-to-all-6178749c9b5a
This journal reveals that the psychology of staying happy takes too much effort hence getting
privilege is the only way to get benefits which will lead to get advantage over others hence
being American is necessary.
Michael, M. (2009). System Maker and Privilege Taker: U.S. Power and the International
Political Economy. World Politics, 61(1), 121-154.
This article reveals that The United States has been always a system maker Privilege Taker
through which the country gets the best possible facilities to its citizens based of various
criteria.
Nationalreview.com. (2018). White Privilege: Myth & Reality | National
Review. Nationalreview.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018, from
https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/02/white-privilege-myth-reality/
This article describes that to avail privileges there are too many variables and not all of the
American whites are eligible for privilege.
Neuman, S. B. (2016). The American Dream: Slipping Away?. On Poverty and Learning:
Readings from Educational Leadership (EL Essentials), 83.

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The purpose of this article is to explore how white privilege and racism function in the
education and social programs regarding admission, retention as well as making curricula.
Nytimes.com. (2018). Opinion | White Economic Privilege Is Alive and Well. Nytimes.com.
Retrieved 30 March 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/opinion/sunday/black-
income-white-privilege.html
In understanding white privilege, this article allows the readers to know the disadvantages of
the whites that prevail and exist and form a counterbalance, namely racism.

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References:
Baumgartner,, L., & Johnson - Bailey, J. (2010). Racism and White Privilege in Adult
Education Graduate Programs: Admissions, Retention, and Curricula. New Directions
For Adult And Continuing Education, 1(125), 27-40.
Christopher, G. (2013). Commitment to Racial Equity. Reclaiming Children And
Youth, 22(1), 38-41.
Colin,, S., & Lund, C. (2010). The intersections of white privilege and racism: Moving
forward. New Directions For Adult And Continuing Education, 2010(125), 91-94.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ace.365
Denevi, E., & Pastan, N. (2006). Helping Whites Develop Anti-Racist Identities: Overcoming
Their Resistance to Fighting Racism. Multicultural Education, Vol.14(2), 70-73.
Johnson, H. B. (2014). The American dream and the power of wealth: Choosing schools and
inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity. Routledge.
Journal.thriveglobal.com. (2018). “American Privilege” Is Open to All – Thrive
Global. Thrive Global. Retrieved 30 March 2018, from
https://journal.thriveglobal.com/american-privilege-is-open-to-all-6178749c9b5a
Michael, M. (2009). System Maker and Privilege Taker: U.S. Power and the International
Political Economy. World Politics, 61(1), 121-154.
Nationalreview.com. (2018). White Privilege: Myth & Reality | National
Review. Nationalreview.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018, from
https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/02/white-privilege-myth-reality/
Neuman, S. B. (2016). The American Dream: Slipping Away?. On Poverty and Learning:
Readings from Educational Leadership (EL Essentials), 83.

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Nytimes.com. (2018). Opinion | White Economic Privilege Is Alive and Well. Nytimes.com.
Retrieved 30 March 2018, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/opinion/sunday/black-income-white-
privilege.html