The Experience of White Privilege in White Like Me

White Privilege is a real thing in our society, it’s has been internalized making it seem like it's nothing different, it's just part of life. The definition of Privilege is a special right to resources such as housing and jobs. Within Privalage there are resources being yanked away from the hands of minorities. People of color are labeled, but when it comes to whites they are seen as normal, healthy human beings. The whites don’t get labeled with stereotypes, instead, they have protection from Law Enforcement unlike people of color. Tim Wise shares that even though he and the people around him were involved with drugs, he was protected from the criminal justice system just for being white. It didn’t matter that the police knew they were all heavy users, there were no consequences for them.

White denial is a concept the whites use to assure everybody else that racism isn’t a thing. They argue that they aren’t getting any racism upon them, so it must not exist. They think that the world lives in a Post-racial society. Tim says that white privilege affects his life in ways he doesn’t see because, in his life, it has become the norm. Time Wise shows us that whites defended themselves and their reputation by stating that saves were treated as some of the family when in reality this was a blunt out lie. This is carrying abroad white denial were the whites are denying any sort of racism being real. White denial goes deeper than this, whites feel that blacks aren’t being oppressed, if anything they feel that they themselves are the ones being discriminated against, they are also the people who complain about affirmative action, affirmative action wants to create more education and job opportunities. Everyone has the ability to self- determine themselves, and whites do not have the right to force any of their distorted view of reality on them.

Wise explains that Warefare is stereotyped as only a thing for black people, he says that whether we want to admit it or not, it is always associated with only black people, never whites, which is false. In fact, more whites receive help from a myriad of social programs than blacks do. Whites will never understand what it’s like to live in the United States as a black or brown person, they have a sense of entitlement and oppression. They have practically lost their culture for the purpose of being thought of as white. There is much psychology that is associated with negative things for whites such as suicide, eating disorders, and self-harm. This sets up whites to the idea that they can, or should, fill up to those “expectations”.

No matter how much people say they are anti-racist there are still internalized stereotypes and racism. Wise gives of the example of his grandmother who labeled her self as antiracist, and by the end, she had consented to the racist stereotypes and began to use the “N” word in a continuous way. The United States is the land of the White, we must think of a way to transform the authoritative class. To divide the poor working-class laws were created, they were very successful in doing this. There are recovery and power in the fight against racism, this fight is a tough one and a growing battle. Race was designed by the ruling class and used as a just cause for slave labor. It will take time and dedication so we must not give up. It can take many, many years for racism to be undone. If nothing is done there will be no change and people will permeate our sense of our reality. Everyone could benefit from eliminating racial suppression. We shouldn’t let evil win in the face of good.