White Privilege essay for FYS.

1. 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 systemdo 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

2. 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 systemhas 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

3. 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 systemand 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.

4. 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/