The
term whiteness and white people has become increasingly
wide-spreading in contemporary research on race and ethnicity. Which
focuses on whiteness as it provides a different form
of racisms that offers insight into the privileges afforded to white
people and how these privileges are sustained. Whiteness is not a
thing but a process in which people of color are categorized based
upon their skin color, culture, language and so on. Generally white
people are the one who benefits from this power, and how whiteness
plays a role in reproducing racial inequalities, as a result
whiteness is invisible to white people, since its perceived as
natural or normal, and even as something that must exist because its
“truthful” or right. White people are simply tough not to
recognize white privilege its completely invisible to them.
Therefore, whites benefit from many of apparently neutral social
arrangements and institutional operations, all of which seems to
whites at least to have no racial basis, to be white then is a
privilege in which white people particularly cannot “see” but
most importantly find it difficult to acknowledge.
According
to the Tim Wise video Something that I thought was interesting is
when he mentions the idea that he is the one giving this lecture
because he “fits” the role of the person who should. what he
means by that is that he is a white, middle aged male. He says that
he is not the one who knows the most about this topic, and that there
are many black people who would be more qualified than him to give
the lecture, but he was chosen because he “fits” into the profile
that people give the subject. I think that this says a lot about how
white privilege is understood in society because it shows that the
general public is more comfortable talking about racism and white
privilege with someone that is white, and not black, even if that
black person was more educated on the subject. This also shows that
the colour of your skin has an impact on what other people think of
you. I admire Tim Wise for his honestly speaking about about white
privilege.
Tim
also mentions how he had the advantage of white privilege at school
simply because he was white, he never had to worry about his grades,
because his grades were never going to be associate with his race.
But for people of colour it is a whole different challenge, knowing
if they under performed in an academic environment, if they
mispronounce or simply made a mistake in answering the question, they
have to wonder where they have drop the ball not just for themselves
but for those who look like them who is presence in that campus would
always be questioned, and create negative stereotypes,Thats a white
privilege because they don't have to worry about such a thing.
According to his speech he explains how when white people were asked
if racial discrimination were a significant national problem for
those of colour and they were in denial of that unlike the minorities
who have experienced first hand, who admit to that to be a
significant problem. Therefore, white
denials is everywhere and has never changed starting from back in the
days.
for
more information regarding this topic click below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AMY2Bvxuxc
