Essay About Past Injustices And White Privilege

White Privilege
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After reading “White Privilege”, it appears clear to me that there are many unforseen
and inadequately acknowledged privileges that citizens of the majority enjoy, often at the
expense of the minorities under them. Unfortunately, I believe that there are too few remedies
to offer for this problem in todays society. We as a people often do not recognize the disparity in
quality of life and equal opportunity amongst different races, and I believe this stems from the
fact that a lone socioeconomic faction, that of wealthy Caucasian males, has been in power and
controlled the course of our nation since its birth.
History has always been recorded by the winners. That is, those who succeed and hold
power can choose to acknowledge what they wish and ignore the smaller, unpleasant details.
Thus, a history of racial prejudice and an ingrained expectation of opportunities for whites have
not been projected upon us to the full extent. I believe whites, in an attempt to mitigate past
hardships endured by blacks and other minorities, do not acknowledge past injustices, and more
importantly past accomplishments, of members of the black race. In essence, we ignore the
injustices of the past as if they didnt exist so we can feel better about ourselves and, at the same
time, believe this is the best way to make things equal for all races: to start anew.
As a member of the majority, I can say that civil liberties in which we assume everyone
possesses equal opportunity, such as a voice to be heard in the government, are rarely all that
they may seem. For example, it may seem obvious to us that, since senators and representatives