The term “white privilege” is a bit controversial. It refers to a set of unearned advantages white people have over people of color by virtue of simply being white. Some have found the term unnerving because of the belief that it neglects their working class struggles. This belief is a complete misunderstanding. White privilege should not be confused with class privilege (i.e., the accumulated privilege and access to resources that come on account of being middle and/or upper-class). It is completely possible to be racially privileged but financially disadvantaged.
In 2003, Harvard sociologist Devah Pager conducted a study on the impact of criminal records on black and white men. She found that having a criminal record decreased one’s chance of receiving a callback for a job interview. This finding was true for both black and white men. What she found afterward, however, was shocking. Pager discovered that white men received twice as many callbacks as black men. In fact, even white men with criminal records were more likely to receive an interview callback than black men without criminal records. Furthermore, Pager found that employers seemed to assume black men were more likely to have criminal records. While white men were rarely asked about their criminal histories, black men were almost always asked about their criminal records. Despite controlling for education, job experience and other factors, Pager found that the only difference between the black and white applicants was race, which advantaged whites and disadvantaged blacks.
In another study, researchers Russell J. Skiba and Natasha T. Williams examined the issue of differences in disciplinary treatment within schools. Their findings showed clear racial differences between the disciplinary actions taken upon cases involving black students and cases involving white students. Skiba and Williams found that black students often faced harsher punishment than white students for the same offenses. For example, if a black student were to talk back, then educators would impose punitive measures (e.g., detention, suspension, etc.) on him. On the other hand, if a white student were to talk back to a teacher, then educators would blame the occurrence of such behaviour on behavioral issues such as ADHD and refer them to a counselor. From Skiba and Williams’ findings, we see that white students receive rehabilitative responses rather than the same punitive measures experienced by black students simply because they are white.
Of course, a white person may still deny his privilege. This phenomenon is actually unsurprising, as Stanford University psychologists find that white people often deny benefitting from white privilege on the grounds that they have experienced their own hardships. When the possibility of white people benefitting from racial privilege is brought up, white people often express feeling “threatened” because it endangers their self-conception as succeeding solely on the basis of merit. Now, in response to accusations of white privilege, some may cite affirmative action and claim blacks and other people of color are more advantaged than whites. While I agree affirmative action is problematic in some ways, simply calling it an “advantage” is misleading. Surely, if a society imposed a policy that advantaged one group over another, then we may conclude that such a policy is unfair. However, we must understand that the group intended to benefit from that policy has been (and continues to be) marginalized by virtue of their race. Therefore, rather than simply being a policy to advantage the targeted group over others, affirmative action is an attempt to redress past and present wrongs.
White privilege is a fact and has real consequences. If you are white, you may be disadvantaged because of your socioeconomic background, gender, sexuality or some other factor, but in America, it will likely not be because of your race. Both the lives of whites and racial minorities are shaped by race. The difference, however, is the type of lived experiences, which whites often fail to notice. We must acknowledge that racial inequalities exist because some groups experience an advantage on account of their race. If we do not acknowledge this reality, then progress to close these gaps will continue to be limited.
Alexander Adames is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.adames@cavalierdaily.com.
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