FYS White Privelege assignment

1. Watts 1
Justin Watts
White Privilege
FYS-100-105
September 17, 2015
During this activity, the ending results were pretty clear to distinguish from. As students
were questioned about their previous family history, the goal was to reach the sidewalk. The
sidewalk in this activity represented the perfect life, or the American Dream. As the questioned
drew to a close, the results became clear. The people that were either at the sidewalk or very
close to it were all white people. Behind the white people were black people and foreigners.
As this exercise went on, I began to understand what was happening. As I looked around,
I truly began to see how privileged I am by growing up as a white male in America. I felt bad for
the black people and the foreigners because I felt like they were embarrassed.
From this exercise, I learned that white privilege is a current issue and that just by being white,
success is practically almost given to you.
With this information, I can now understand white privilege better. Instead of worrying
about what I don't have, I can now focus on what I do have. Because of the privilege that I have,
I barely ever have to struggle but I do realize that there are people within miles of me that are not
able to say the same thing. I need to also realize that just because I am white, I am not better than
anyone else and just because I was one of the people closest to the sidewalk, that does not mean
that I am any better than the person that was farthest away from the sidewalk. We all have trials
that we go through in life, but being white or black has an effect on those trials.