Some really good points and I agree with a lot of it. I am mixed race (black/white) which has always made me look at both sides of racial issues with much care and deep thought before making my own opinions. As you may assume my views are mixed, but both sides do have blame and responsibility for current race relations.

I can not agree more, and it is something I have said myself numerous times, we need to look at each other as individuals and not groups that are loosely tied together by one aspect, race. I never really realized or understood “white privilage” being a colored kid whose black side of the family are successful college graduates (PhD) with lucrative careers and receiving a great education myself at some of California’s top public schools.

I am now 25 and I actually see somewhat of what they mean by that. I use to say it’s BS and I still don’t agree with the perceived severity of it nor do I think all white people are racist that need to feel guilty. Yes, I believe Americans needs to be reminded of the horrors and that racism still exist every now and then, so we don’t repeat history.

I realized that white privilege has nothing to do with financial success or this ideal that white people always have the upper-hand. It is far more settle than that in that it is American culture itself. Almost all of our television programming is created for white Americans. Having a token black guy doesn’t make a show something the black community wants to watch or can enjoy.

There is a difference in culture and with that comes completely separate perspectives of what is funny or relatable to one or the other. The media is full of ideals, values, principles, and ways of life that most white Americans relate and live by. Black culture is deemed as “trashy” or “ghetto” and it is belittled whether we are aware of it or not. Afros, cornrows, dreads, and nappy hair all have negative connotations to them and vastly viewed as “dirty.”

Not counting sagging pants, black fashion is viewed the same way. Basically anything popular in black communities is inferior to what is popular in white communities. Yes, some of black sub-culture isn’t the most tasteful as it pertains to glorifying criminal behavior and degrading women, but even the parts that have nothing to argue is immoral or truly distasteful is taken seriously by Americans. If white people dress like many blacks do then they are deemed “wiggers” and frowned upon, but if blacks where popular white fashion they are seen as respectable.

Every major American ideal of what people should act like, look like, believe in, and do is solely the ideals of white Americans. We learn our history through the stories and perspectives of white Americans and their concepts for America and American way of life. If blacks do not fit in with the “American way of life” then they are thugs or ghetto scum.

That is what I have come to realize about this ideal of “white privilage”, but I do not feel that this done by all whites with malicious intent or intentionally to oppress blacks. It is woven subtly in the fabric of American culture and is a subconscious way of thinking for most white Americans.