Privilege: Character As The Basis Of Privilege, By Tal Fortgang

1281 Words3 Pages

"Why can 't black people just work harder?" Hard work results in success, and black people are in many cases looked at as less successful than white people. Therefore, that means that black people simply work less hard than white people. This is the perspective that many privileged white people may have when discussing the issue of white privilege. They fail to realize that white privilege plays a significant role in what opportunities someone might have. In Princeton University student, Tal Fortgang 's essay, "Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege", he criticizes those who tell him to "Check your privilege". He argues that the phrase discredits his achievements, and that white privilege is not the reason that he became …show more content…

He simply looks at them as wrong. It 's okay to disagree with something, but there should be an argument to back it up. "Furthermore, I condemn them for casting the equal protection clause, indeed the very idea of a meritocracy, as a myth, and for declaring that we are all governed by invisible forces (some would call them “stigmas” or “societal norms”), that our nation runs on racist and sexist conspiracies." He disagrees with people who think that white privilege influences who controls the power, but doesn 't say why, almost like he 's expecting everyone to agree with his perspective as common sense. Conversely, McIntosh 's uses an argument to legitimize her perspective to her readers. She lists 46 advantages that she can perceive, that were given to her by white privilege. Reasons like number 41, "I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.", number 44, "I can easily find academic courses and institutions that give attention only to people of my race." are advantages that lead her to the conclusion that "The pressure to avoid it (white privilege) is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one 's life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.". The conclusion that meritocracy, the idea that those who put in hard work rise to power, is a myth, because of the discrepancy between opportunities offered to people based off of their race, sex, etc. is a logical

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