White privilege still present in society
Over the next five weeks, staff writer Monica Stone explores the idea of “privilege” on campus.
Attending an institution like CU can start to add up.
A resident freshman enrolled full-time in the College of Arts and Sciences at CU in the spring of 2008 pays $8,588 for full time enrollment plus room and board. That’s before the costs of textbooks and other fees mandated by the Board of Regents.
It would take a person working full time at minimum wage over seven months to make that kind of cash.
Freshman out-of-towners pay a minimum $16,334 for tuition and room and board costs, per semester.
It would take over 14 months working full-time at minimum wage to raise the money.
The price tag of a higher education has been in the hot seat recently, with prospective college students unable to pony up the dough.
CU enrollment numbers have stayed level or grown steadily since 1988.
According to the CU 2007 fact sheet, in fall of 2006, 85 percent of the total student population at CU was white.
Although CU takes ongoing measures to expand diversity on campus, the majority of students are white. Members of the CU campus reflect on the idea of correlations between privilege and skin color-a theory coined “white privilege.”
Amy Wilkins, an assistant professor in the department of sociology, said white privilege is so pervasive, it is often unnoticed.
“White privilege is the privilege of being invisible and not having to think about your race,” Wilkins said. “The idea is that whiteness is an unmarked category.”
Jessica Pettitt is a social justice and diversity consultant and facilitator. She explained white privilege in metaphor for riding a bike.
Two people are riding along on a beautiful sunny day. The first person has the wind at their back, so they can speed along. They appreciate the weather and surroundings. The second person is riding into the wind. They are working so hard to pedal into the gust, they cannot experience the beautiful day. Neither individuals know of the source of the wind, the first person is so used to it, they hardly notice it is there.
She said the wind in the analogy is white privilege. It helps some, and hinders many.
“Privilege is not naturally occuring,” Pettitt said. “We made it.”
Sophomore communications major Kaitlyn Levasseur said classes she has taken at CU have helped develop her current view of the subject.
“It is so embedded in our lives, a lot of people don’t think it’s privilege,” Levasseur said. “They think we’re neutral, like we’re standard.”
Brad Jones graduated from CU in the spring of 2005. He is the former President of College Republicans and former student body president for the College of Arts and Sciences. He is currently the managing editor for facethestate.com.
Jones said he couldn’t get out of CU without a number of his professors “brainwashing” him about white privilege.
“I think white privilege is a contrived term by academics to perpetuate racial inequality,” Jones said.
Jones said encompassing someone’s life experience to skin color is a far too simplistic way to view the world, and instead of seeking social justice, the idea has the perverse effect by disseminating inequality.
“It is a chance amount of heresy for somebody to question the concept (at CU),” Jones said. “It is a useless term, a dangerous term. It has poisoned and made it more difficult for academics.”
Zach Bresler, a sophomore psychology major, works at Jamba Juice in the UMC. He said he sees a good sample of diverse students filter through throughout his workday. He agrees with Jones that the idea of white privilege is no longer practical.
“I think (white privilege) is a (expletive) perspective,” Bresler said, “In this day and age, in the overall population, it is in everybody’s heads.”
Fellow Jamba Juice worker Justin Adkins is a freshman business major. He said white privilege is something used by minorities as a scapegoat, and that the civil arena is an equal playing field.
“Everyone has a pretty equal shot of doing what they want,” Adkins said.
Lorenzo Trujillo, assistant dean of the Law School, said that white privilege does exist, but not necessarily for everyone.
“There is in fact documented research that white privilege does exist,” Trujillo said. “But you see it on a practical level, for instance in incarceration rates.”
Trujillo said there is a higher rate of incarcerations for Native Americans, black and Latino populations when compared to white individuals.
“Humanity discriminates,” Trujillo said. “It is just human nature.”
Some people are so passionate about the issue of white privilege, that they devote their life to alleviate it.
Professor of political science Eric Juenke said he is hesitant about using the term white privilege, as it frames the issue in a politicized light.
“For me, the term puts a heavy burden on whites in the present for things that many or most had nothing to do with,” Juenke said.
Instead, Juenke used the term “historical residue,” framing it with, “even though you are not responsible for this, you still have to deal with it.”
La’Neice Littleton is a senior ethnic studies major and spokeswoman for the Black Student Alliance on campus. She dates the emergence of privilege to pre-America.
“[White privilege] is old as old can be,” Littleton said. I would go back to the colonizing of our country, the holocaust of Native American people, and the holocaust of slavery.”
Juenke said not to discount the huge steps that have been taken for social equality in our country, even though the present might not be perfect. He attributes the slowly evolving social sphere to the political system.
“The political system is purposefully structured for history to be sticky,” Juenke said. “Paradoxically, at the same time, the system is already structured for change. What we see is, even though things change, things change slowly, it takes time.”
Juenke identified some of the historical residues manifesting themselves currently are lending for housing and the public education system. However, other socioeconomic factors other than race affect an individual’s life.
Jones said that focusing on the concept of white privilege does not get to the root problem. Instead, he said to look at people’s access to education, access to housing, barriers to entrepreneurship and regressive taxation.
CU houses a large array of people and opinions. Student opinions on campus seem to parallel the polarized issue. Some say they face the backlash of what the call white privilege in their daily lives.
“My entire life, I have been aware that I am not white and things were going to be difficult for me,” Littleton said. “It really pisses me off that I have to work ten times as hard to succeed.”
As a real-life example of what she calls white privilege, Littleton brought up the issue of shopping for Band-Aids, where the color named, “flesh” is of a white person’s skin tone.
Rasheed Lawal, a senior integrative physiology major is the vice president of the African Student Association.
“When I walk into a room of white adults, because I’m tall and an African American male, the way they view me, treat me, is completely different than a white student my height,” Lawal said. “Its like I have to prove something. But everyone has to prove something, whether you are white or black.”
Other students, like junior biological chemistry major Carolyn Nguyen, has never heard of the term. She said she has not seen it in her life as a student.
“I don’t really find it applies to me,” Nguyen said, “I don’t look in the mirror and immediately identify as an Asian.”
Student Justin Adkins said Boulder is a very open, accepting and friendly place, he does not see the white privilege as an issue.
Whether conscious or not, the media plays a huge role in every person’s life. Sophomore women and gender studies major Julie Combest said she sees examples of white privilege manifest themselves in mainstream media.
“In the media, almost everywhere you look, white people are portrayed in a positive light,” Combest said. “The way the media frames things is focusing on the successes of white males. It focuses on criminal aspects of people of color.”
Littleton agrees, saying the way people of color are portrayed in the news is always something negative. Something as simple as shopping for a birthday card can send messages of white privilege.
“When you go into Target to buy a card, everyone is white, an animal or a cartoon,” she said.
“Many people reasonably feel like that’s just a code for, ‘I’ve got to feel guilty for being born’,” Juenke said.
Jessica Pettitt said that a white person first realizing their privilege can lead to anger, guilt and defensiveness. But, there it is beneficial for white people to “recognize that they have perceived unearned privilege. It precedes them in the room and is still in the room when they leave.”
Brad Jones said he sees value in discussing the theory.
“It is a good idea to kick around,” Jones said, “But it is not the be all end all to inequality in this country.”
Lawal said privilege is something everyone can benefit from evaluating.
“Everyone should be aware of the privilege you have,” Lawal said. “Things you do can inadvertently hurt other people.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Monica Stone at monica.stone@colorado.edu
