Argumentative Essay On White Privilege

911 Words2 Pages

White privilege is an underlying basis of advantages from which white people are able to benefit. Whether these benefits are known or understood by the white people who hold them, these advantages provide a cycle of greater opportunity. A person who is privileged on the sole basis of his or her skin tone is allowed the peace of mind that is ignorance. This ignorance allows the personal and individual effects of racism do not directly affect those who are white. McInstosh came to the realization that she “had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage,” (McIntosh 1). In this reflection, McIntosh concludes that her education on racial bias was white-centered and therefore continuing the perpetuating cycle of institutional racism. White privilege
The concept of white privilege is one which causes strong emotional reactions from those on either sides of the argument. White privilege is often misunderstood by those who benefit from it. These benefiters, such as Princeton student Tal Fortgang, discredit the notion of white privilege because it lessens, “everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out before I even arrive,” (Fortgang). What arguers fail to understand, however, is that white privilege does not solely operate on an anecdotal or personal basis. Every person holds their own background of hardships and hoops to jump through in order to be successful. This concept is true for people of all skin tones. White privilege,

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