Some People Say, “White Privilege Does NOT Exist”

Even after I have provided you with all of this information there may still be people who believe that white privilege does not exist or that it is an excuse that other races use to justify their upbringing. Some people even believe that there is no such thing as white privilege but instead black or even Asian privilege.

The most common reason that people use when in disagreement with white privilege is that there are people of color who are rich are better off than poor white Americans.

John Hawkins stated an idea similar to this in his article, “Only Losers Whine About “White Privilege” That Doesn’t Exist. One of his example about why white privilege does not exist was, “Who has more “privilege” in life, Sasha Obama or a white child of the same age whose father is a gardener? Who’s the more privileged one? Oprah Winfrey or one of the white housewives who watches her show? Spike Lee or a white guy who delivers his pizza?”

In these examples he is comparing people of not only different races BUT of completely different economic status. He is not comparing how Sasha Obama has been treated compared to previous presidential children or how Spike Lee is treated differently compared to Caucasian movie directors. He is essentially comparing apples to oranges or in this case a pizza guy to a movie director.

Another reason that people use when in disagreement with white privilege is that minority races have certain privileges not white people.

Bill O’Reilly discussed this idea on his show, The O’Reilly Factor. Now he did not deny that in general blacks have a harder time living in America, but he insisted that white privilege does not exist in America. He said that white privilege is not the reasoning behind this but instead Asian Privilege. He justifies this by stating statistics on Asian Americans having a higher salary that Caucasian and African American citizens and how Asian Americans are more likely to come from stable environments.

But all of this sounds like he is just trying to put the blame on another race. Never did he take into consideration the fact that Asian Americans are a minority! You cannot compare the percentages of the majority race that are multiple times larger than a minority race.

Unfortunately O’Reilly is not the only one who believes that minorities experience more privileges. Growing up I constantly heard about how whites do not have privileges but blacks do because we have Black History Months and minorities can have certain organizations that are catered specifically to their race.

Minorities are able to join clubs and organizations that cater to their race but there are people who feel as though if whites were to do that it would be perceived as racist. The reason why minorities are able to do this is because it is a way for minorities to connect with one another. Growing up in a predominately Caucasian area, I personally appreciated organizations like these because I was able to connect with people who looked like me and shared similar experiences to me. And often times these organizations that are catered to people of color do not exclude Caucasians therefore it is not racist.

Another excuse people use to rationalize why white privilege does not exist is the fact that there is a Black History Month and not a White History Month. Having a Black History Month is not a privilege. There is not white history month because white history is just HISTORY. Black history is often time only taught to students once a month while “white history” is taught year round.

O’Reilly continuous to talk about how African-Americans blame society for the reason why they are treated differently. He talks about how African-Americans and their leaders use slavery as a crutch for why white privilege exists. He stated, “Until personal responsibility and a cultural change takes place. Millions of African-Americans will struggle. And their anger, some of it justified will seethe. The federal government cannot fix this problem. Only a powerful message of responsibility can turn things around.”

Now society is to blame for white privilege but not because of slavery but based on facts like a black man is more five times more likely to be pulled over by police than a white man or that a Latino man is almost three times more likely to be pulled over than a Caucasian man simply because of the color of their skin.