Anthony Greene

Professor Blanco

White Privilege

17 February 2016

White Privilege

White privilege is the idea that Caucasians are given societal privileges, or opportunities,

over people of color under the same social circumstances. White privilege has been a hot topic

recently with many people urging change within the judicial system, the educational system,

and many other branches of the government and society. Many recent movements that have

urged change, especially in the judicial and law enforcement system is the formation of the

Black Lives Matter movement. Others argue that white privilege is simply a myth that society

has created solely because of the lack of people of color represented in culture or the high

crime and incarceration rates when it came to people of color. Many people who support the

conservative Republican party and Republican representatives believe that white privilege is

not a valid argument, saying that there are many people of color given opportunities, as well as

the judicial and law enforcement system do their job correctly and do not let the idea of race

get in the way.

White privilege is a phenomenon that exists within our society. Over time, there have

been many improvements upon the discrimination of people of color, however, discrimination

still exists to this day. One of the largest aspects in which white privilege exists is with the

judicial system. White privilege, juvenile justice, and criminal identities: a qualitative analysis of

the perceptions and self-identification of incarcerated youth by Rachel A. Feinstein, is an

academic journal about studies completed on the subject of white privilege. It is also a study

conducted by Ms. Feinstein herself with thirty juvenile prisoners of many different races and

their experiences with white privilege. According to Ms. Feinstein’s article, many white

Americans are oblivious to their own privileges. White privilege is something most white

Americans are unconscious of, they don’t realize their privileges. In Ms. Feinstein’s article, many

of the privileges that white Americans receive often come from law enforcement and the

judicial system. Ms. Feinstein goes on to say that the criminal justice system has a history of

being more lenient on whites when it comes to sentencing, second chances from police officers,

and better opportunities for bail. Ms. Feinstein’s study found that the black participants showed

the greatest difference from whites when it came to feeling as if they were being labeled as a

criminal both before and after being arrested.

According to Race and Education by Reed Karaim, there has been a huge gap between

whites and blacks when it comes to education as well. In Mr. Karaim’s article, he says that there

seems to be a re-segregation in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Even years after desegregation, people

believed that the black and white students were held at different academic expectations. In

2000, a federal judge released the school district from it’s desegregation order. This led to

something called the “white flight”. The white flight was where almost all of the white students

transferred to two new schools that were built after the desegregation order was lifted in 2000.

A school that was once a third white, now became 99 percent black. The UCLA Civil Rights Co-

Director, Gary Orfield, says “There's no doubt school segregation is increasing in terms of

declining contact between African-American and Latino students and white students — it's

been happening for nearly a quarter of a century for black students, for half a century for Latino

students,”.

In conclusion, there is obvious discrimination when it comes to people of color and

white Americans receive more privileges than minorities. Many ways whites receive these

privileges are through the judicial system and law enforcement. Whites receive better care

while incarcerated over minorities. Another way whites receive privileges is also through

education. Segregation is becoming more prominent throughout the nation and Tuscaloosa is

just one example of that. While there are some cases that people of color, especially African

Americans, are finding more success throughout their lives, the very civil rights that African

Americans fought for in the 60s are still being trumped on to this day.

Citation Page

Rachel A. Feinstein (2015) White privilege, juvenile justice, and criminal

identities: a qualitative analysis of the perceptions and self-identification of incarcerated

youth, Contemporary Justice Review, 18:3, 313-333, DOI:

10.1080/10282580.2015.1057708

Karaim, R. (2014, September 5). Race and education. CQ Researcher, 24, 721-744. Retrieved

from http://library.cqpress.com/