Read the articles below:
http://mic.com/articles/89653/7-actual-facts-that-prove-white-privilege-exists-in-america
Now, make comment on the material benefit of white privilege.
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The first article is a little harsh on white privilege, but in some cases it is true that whites do not get accused of a certains things like being angry when they are not angry just because the blacks especially the females tend to have a serious face. Blacks tend to be looked down upon. Also, it is that Blacks can’t work their way up to the level of Whites and it’s not that Blacks are lazy. The fact is that many employers prefer whites than colored people. These employers have this mentally of a stereotype person of color as being a thief, a criminal and etc as the article pointed out that about 60 percent of the people in jail in the USA are people of color.
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I agree but I also disagree with Rose, only because even when the blacks do become successful they still are looked down upon. So regardless where a black person stands doesn’t mean that they will have better privileges like before they became successful.
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I can agree with Rose: it’s so much harder for minorities to obtain jobs because of employers already having a thought in their minds about what the potential employee will be like.
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I agree Rose, there are many cases where whites do not get accused and black people do. Its also very true, blacks cannot work there way up the chain, becuase stereotypes. Yes, 60 percent of people in jail are people of color. But who put them there?
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White privilege obviously does occur in our society today. I benefit greatly from it because I am white. White people do not usually realize how much they are ahead of everyone else and how much they get handed because of their skin color. I’m sure quite a few of the 7 Facts that Prove White Privilege Exists in America are true but some “were” probably true. Not much of anymore! Someone in the comments of the High School Dropout” article mentioned inheritance. If you really think about it, white people have ancestors that date back but for blacks, they were slaves for part of the time so the white people had a head-start.
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I concur with the additional information Fiona provided about inheritance.
I didn’t take into account that whites inherit a lot of their privileges from their ancestors, and that African-Americans don’t have the same opportunity because of slavery. I remember sections of those concepts from the “House We Live In” video we watched; good memory!
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You beat me to it. I also saw that. I wish the graph elaborated more on that. For instants, showing how many families benefit from inheritance or showing how many white families gain more currency in a particular profession as opposed to minorities.
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My thoughts on this are that white privilege is very real, and will continue to be apart of our society until actions are taken against company’s, university’s, real estate agents. We have numerous amounts of statistics, research, and real life examples and yet nothing has changed and will continue to stay the same until steps are taken. The fact that a white high school dropout can make more than a African American college graduate shows you how “racist” America still is. I just wish that people could actually know this without having to take a class in college.
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Yeah I agree with Resingh but in reality if something was wanted to be done in society it would have been done awhile ago. If it could happen it would be a lot easer to do. Society is stuck between two different things and plus who is going to want to give up any privilege they were born with. It sucks,
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Weren’t the statistics shocking? Almost gross in a way. But I’m curious to know where these statistics were taken from and what the jobs that the white high school drop outs had.
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I was surprised by the second article’s wealth distribution to different education levels, but I wonder if the numbers are also affected because of the number of people that attend higher educational programs? Do demographics play a role in these statistics? If a large group of black/Hispanic students are born into financially unstable communities that would affect the number that could afford to go to college. That would not excuse, however, the drastic white wealth distributed to those who had less than a high school graduation over nonwhites. This would also feed into #1 of the first article: “You (whites) are less likely to be arrested.” This could be because the stereotypes around African-Americans and crime are reinforced because of the concentrated crime rates in ghettos. They have less wealth, thus have more demand for implementations to gain wealth, whether legal or not. The desperation of the young leads them to gang and drug violence. They prefer a life providing some form of “family” environment that they may not be getting at home, and are guaranteed some form of profit (to which they were probably not receiving before). Why go to school if you could be shot on the street? Why not stay home and sell drugs in a “safe” environment that could be controlled by unsafe means? In other words, the kids have more control in using their aggression to their gains, instead of becoming victims of who they perceive as external aggressors (other gangs, the police, their negligent parents). This leads to nonwhite students dropping out more frequently, thus higher statistics for whites being in school. This also feeds the stereotypes of “black gang violence,” thus leading to more black arrests than whites. Regardless of demographics, however, programs need to be implemented to break the stereotypes, safely redistribute the wealth and further education in those areas, or nothing will be done to stop, or spread, the “privileges” in “’white’ privileges.”
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I agree, there should be more programs for minorities to establish a better success rate. I also liked how you recognized the environment in which minorities live in. This is also a huge part of the drop out rate.
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I believe the first article like it wasn’t much of a shock because everything it said was pretty much true. As sad as that is, blacks are just less likely to have any advantages, it’s one of those blacks are constantly being judged by their cover and assumed to be bad when in reality they are just as important or just as equal as any other person. Whites have privileges because they aren’t looked down upon or thought to be a “thug”. When people think of whites they think of wealthy, smart, and able. Whereas black people are thought to be poor, uneducated, and don’t have any stability.
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When I read the article I felt the exact same way. It is incredibly sad and depressing but it is true and I no longer am in shock when I read this because of how much we have been learning and reading about it. Because of this the black community has to work that much harder at being recognized differently or being seen differently. The fact that you can call a man who went to stanford on academics scholarship a thug because he let his feelings out on camera is just ridiculous and that would have never been said if Sherman was white.
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Whites benefit from all of the privileges because they have less things to worry about when they want to do things. They don’t have to worry about the cops being on their back, or not getting jobs, or usually getting into some colleges. They have one less worry than a black person.
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I agree with you on this but, their chance of all of those things are less likely to happen, not so much no chance at all.
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The first article was beating a dead horse we all know these things all ready. the second article did shock me a little but I think that that the real problem is the fact that so many people are dropping out. I also agree with Raelin because the stereotype is that whites are wealthy and educated and blacks are poor and uneducated
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I agree with kmetzger10 about the first article. The article repeats everything we have already heard and learned about. It is kind of annoying to keep seeing the same things over and over again. I guess it is just trying to make a point.
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Reading into the first article i must say, i wasn’t surprised of what i was going to see. It is ridiculous to know the world we live in is primarily based on skin color. It’s even more terrifying that people of color have to go along with it because nothing can be done about white privileged. people who are white cannot escape it if they wanted to because it has been set in place since the beginning. It’s not their fault, it is how this country was built.
I wish they could show more data because the information just looked sloppy. I also want to see the difference of income for both minorities and whites who live in lower class areas. I know the article said that, “all white families, even those at the lowest education level, have a higher median wealth than all black and hispanic families, even those at the highest education level.” I don’t know if i can completely agree because there is no evidence that proves that. The graph just shows a grouping of statistics and basically says, “Look white people have more money.” I’m not saying it is not true because in reality it is but, if you are going to present data, at least make it clear.
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I think that the articles on white privilege were pretty accurate, they talked about how the black man will not have the same advantages and opportunities as the white man. Also how they are treated differently just because the color of you’re skin is very wrong and whites ( not all of them obiouvously) subconously are stereotyping these blacks as not as capable and reliable as the white man.
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White privilege is very real, otherwise discrimination wouldn’t be a thing. Whites really do have the upper hand in today’s society but I’m not really sure who is to blame for that. Stereotyping because of one’s ethnicity or skin color is wrong and it would really just be a better world if racism didn’t exist. However, something like white privilege does exist. Whites don’t have to worry about not getting a job because of discrimination, whites don’t have to worry about ever being homeowners, etc. It’s a sad world we live in when not everybody is seen equally.
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I agree with you Emily. I think that it’s really unfair that white people have the privilege for everything, just because they’re white. It’s impossible to say that white privilege doesn’t exist, because we can see it in our everyday lives. The littlest things can be white privilege. We’re just so used to it, to the point where we don’t even notice it anymore.
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I am going to start with the second reading, because these statistics are very true. Based solely off where I am from, I know of many people who did not make it though high school or did but did not receive any further education, but are still making $90,000-$130,000 a year. I am from Alaska, widely known for the oil industries, and many of the oilfield workers make as much as doctors, but the only difference is is doctors had to go to college for 4+ years. But to get on with my point, I know very few colored people, probably 2 people to be exact, that work in this industry, the rest of the people are white. These statistics are very surreal. But like i mentioned, this statement is based solely off of where I am from.
White privilege is very real, and anyone who disagrees needs to open their eyes. Colored people have always received the short hand of the stick, and reading the first link makes this clear. Us whites definitely do take advantage of our color, almost too much, because there are many things we could do to make situations better for others of color, and we chose not to. B all means, this doesn’t account for everyone, but the people it does, you know who you are.
This may be off topic, but after reading all our benefits over people of color in the first link, what if every once in awhile, when we see racism happening, we asked ourself “what can i do to make this different?” and put actions to our thoughts, because we have the upper had, we have those privileges needed to make a change.
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Wow that’s a really interesting viewpoint. I never would have known that about Alaska!
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The first reading is already something we have all heard, we know society judges Black and Hispanics in the least positive way. So I’m just going to jump into talking about the second article as well. These statistics are true but, I would like to know in what state this survey took place. From the results I can see the amount of Black and Hispanics that took part in this survey did come from poverty. I would have to disagree, from where I grew up the Hispanic population was very well and over these income statistics. In fact, whites were where most of the poverty came from. Considering that they do have white privilege it shows that in some areas that doesn’t mean anything. Neither of my parents have a college education and I grew up in a white suburb, with just the amount of wealth the whites around me had. Even though white privilege is around it didn’t seem to affect my parents or many Hispanics in my area. Just goes to show not all whites have the upper hand of the stick.
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From the “7 actual facts” about the white privilege in America, young people born in a white family have advantages from basic living condition, education opportunity, career prospects, all the way to the limitations of social image, even personal safety. And all those stereotypes eventually cause (or “will cause”, or “causing”; it’s actually a present progressive, only began at a early age) the wealth gap and segregation between different ethnic groups in America. Another chart I found on Google (says the source’s from Bureau of Justice Statistics) seems back up for the “most popular topic” people like to mention when talk about “white privilege”, that is you tend to find more black people in American prison. According to the chart, in 2011, there’re 284, 631 African Americans serving time in US State prisons while 228,782 whites did. (But the intriguing thing is, only 162,489 Hispanics did at the same time, which honestly does not fit into my expectation). Some might argue that the reason why one get him(her)self into prison can really trace back to their own personal problems. But all these cannot be separated from the overall social environment and the psychosocial stereotypes that might prevents minorities from receiving the same result as white teenagers do, and therefore a vicious circle formed.
As Beccam2014 said about the statistic in the second article, “If a large group of black/Hispanic students are born into financially unstable communities that would affect the number that could afford to go to college.” We only present the “truth” in order to make people support idea, or in other words, in a way we want them to see. This is why I really feel reluctant to make a definite, sharp point: I don’t know if I can trust the information I’m given, and just simply “speak of my own experience” sometimes can be partial.
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After reading the “7 Actual Facts” article i was not surprised by anything I read after the passed few in this class i have don’t feel the need to think about it and wonder how, or if this is happening. It has opened my eyes to the fact that we need change, and we need it now, we don’t have time to wait for the next generations to come along, whites specifically need to take a stand and put this on the priority list because the world will never be a better place until it is an equal and opportune place. Then the second article has the data to back up everything in the first article in every category the white community had a significantly higher pay and this is a major thing that if it can be brought to equal levels then we can finally make progress.
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After reading the “7 Actual Facts” article, I was shocked to see the realness of white privilege. I was not surprised by anything I read because in class this week we discussed the realness of white privilege. I think it’s time to step up and put this privilege into the light and take a stand. The second article had all the data to back up what we learned in class and what we learned in the first article. Based on the data, for every category the “white community” had a higher pay.
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Looking back at the “7 Actual Facts” article, I’m really disgusted in how harsh these “facts” were, but then again were partially true. However i really disagreed with the fact that the author said African-Americans were seen as angry. Everyone perceives everything differently. I think whites look just as angry as blacks. We all have the same facial expressions, being shades darker does not alter that at all. But it is really sad to know that it is true that if you’re black, you’re more likely to get arrested or under the custody of the police. We can see that with the Trayvon Martin case, Ferguson case, and the most recent incident involving police officers smashing a window with an African-American in the passenger seat, claiming he was resisting arrest, then tased him. Being that the victim was black, I believe that even with his and the rest of the african american individuals that were with him, eye-witness testimonies would have done absolutely nothing because of their color. Thankfully, they had video evidence. Along with not just that, but for the fact that blacks are not given equal opportunity economically is really where you can see that whites, to this day, still discriminate against blacks no matter what they claim. There is absolutely no reason for a white high school graduate to be payed just as much as an african american graduate. It is unbelievable that people know this and continue to let this happen. Without someone who has a voice that matters that can step forward and can make a difference,blacks will continue to be mistreated.
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I definitely agree that being white gives you a lot more privilege towards everything. We often do not realize it, either. When I was reading through the 7 facts, I noticed that they were all very reasonable and true. I often see more black people being arrested than whites shown on TV. I also didn’t even realize that when white people dress “thug”, we don’t really care. But when a black person dresses “thug” like, we noticed it and we distance ourselves away from them. It’s an unconscious action and we don’t realize how much we actually benefit from being white. It’s really sad when I scroll down the list and agree with every single one of them. I wish that it weren’t the case, but it is. Black people are still being treated unfairly and people think it’s okay to joke about things that are actually really serious issues. It’s really unfair and I think we need to work on that to make this a better country.
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As we have previously learned and continue to learn, whites do have white privilege. To deny this would be an act of arrogance and denial. This doesn’t mean that whites have had the easy way in life, but rather an easier pathway than those of color. We keep on learning about white privilege, so when will we see that there has been some good done about this ongoing issue in our society?
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