White privileges

1. Daniel Robertson
FYS 100
White Privileges
“White privileges” is a very real thing, but only in some cases. Our last paper was
on the racial movement “Black Lives Matter” and there were statistics like how many
white people were shot last year by cops to how many black people were shot, and I
cannot remember the number exactly but white people had the higher number but the
difference was less than a hundred. That may surprise people but you have to think on
how many more white people there are compared to African Americans. That may be a
“privilege” we have, because in some cases cops may stereotype African Americans and
expect something that will not happen. With a white person that may not happen as
much. With some of the mass murderers we have like; the movie theatre in Colorado or
Columbine or even the elementary school in Connecticut. All of those murderers were
white and they all should have gotten the death penalty but they were all said to have
“diseases”, and yes they may have had some type of mental disease, I am not saying that
is not true but when you see another race kill someone or a group of people the public
never hears of them having a “disease” or mental issue. That may be another “privilege”
classified as a “white privilege”. These “privileges” are not what some people think of.
And these may not necessarily be privileges but most of them are people stereotyping or
honestly being racist. The definition to white privilege, from my point of view, is that
white people may get benefits or more opportunities rather than people of different
ethnicity. And that is very true as well. In a chart I found from Business Insider it says
that white households make an average of 67, 175 dollars a year but both Hispanic and

2. Black households make an average of around forty-thousand dollars a year. The
information for the chart was between the years of 1967-2011 but there could not have
been that big of a change in the few years after. The difference between those races are
almost a thirty thousand dollar difference. This is where people get the term “white
privileges” because they see a difference like that and they think that the opportunity for
each race is not fair and that white people get more chances in more of the fields. Which
with a difference like that there may be some truth in that statement. Although, the chart
does show the stat for how much Asians make during that span and it is actually higher
than what the average white American household makes, 68,521. When someone sees
that statistics they may write it down as the African American and Hispanic households
not trying hard enough or possibly not trying to further their education. With that stat
though, it may not go to white privileges but the jobs of each race. But some would say
that that is a privilege and I kind of agree. You make as much as you are willing. It is like
school, you get out what you put in. If you put the work in your entire middle and high
school career you may get a chance to attend college for free, no matter the race. And if
you get that chance and keep up the work throughout college then you can get a career
and get a good job so on and so forth. That being said, some mostly African American
and Hispanic schools may not get that chance because they may be under funded or
reasons like that. I am not saying that Hispanic and African Americans are lazy just
because they do not make as much as white or Asian households do. What I am saying is
that they may not get the opportunities like the white students do.
White privileges is a thing, and we need to destroy it. Every race needs to have
equal opportunities and treated equally. We as a country need to get rid of racism, need to

3. be equal as a whole, need to get rid of stereotypes, need to get rid of “white privileges”.
We will not reach our top level as a country if we keep separating ourselves from each
other and not giving the same chances to everyone as we give to another race.

4. WORK CITED
Woodruff, Mandi. “The Income Gap Between Blacks and Whites Has Only
Gotten Worse Since The 1960s.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc. 29 Aug. 2013.
Web. 21 Feb. 2016.