Between Barack and a Hard Place

1. “When the perpetrator of a particular act is a person of color, then that entire race is to blame, and placed under suspicion. That does not happen to those people who are white.” This is the epitome of white privilege. White culture, the culture of power, has the ability to blame an entire race for the acts of one or a few individuals. Some African American kids join a gang, and commit a crime, the entire race is blamed and stereotypes, but if a white person shoots up a school, it is the singular act of a mad man. White privilege allows for anonymity in society that is not granted to people of other races.

2. “White privilege allows us to view criminals of the dominant group as individuals, while too often viewing black and brown folk through the lens of a group pathology whenever one of ‘theirs’ violates one of ‘our’ legal or moral norms” This statement reiterates what was said in point one. White privilege allows for a white person to commit a crime as a singular act, white if a person of a different race commits a criminal act; their entire race is to blame.

3. “Job applicants with white sounding names were 50% more likely than job applicants with black sounding names to get a job – do we feel what that means” Another privilege of power, having a white sounding name. This correlates to a reading that we read earlier in the semester, which gave similar statistics. People with black sounding names do not get call backs for job interviews. In order to get a job, you need to subscribe to the culture of power, part of the culture of power, is having a white sounding name, which is considered to be ‘normal.’

Even in a ‘post-racial’ society, where we have a black president, things are still not much better for African Americans. Having a black sounding name means that you will have a harder time getting a call back for a job interview. A person or color committing a crime is incriminating their entire race. We do not live in a post racial society, even though we have a black president. There are still massive problems that stem from white privilege.