I was brought up to respect every individual as equal, no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. As citizens of the United States of America, we all possess equal rights. No single American is greater than any other because one was born here and the other immigrated. The color of your skin does not define your worth. However, it is evident today that racial tension is still extremely present. The reason is because whites have been the dominant race for so long that they fail to recognize the privileges that comes along with having skin this color.
In Jose Antonio Vargas’ short documentary White People, Vargas asked a group of students what they believed the disadvantages were to being white. Silence followed, until one African American student finally spoke out and said she believes there are no disadvantages to being white. Following her comment, a male white student said, “It’s like asking a rich person: ‘tell me how hard your life is being rich.”’ I had never really thought about the disadvantages to being a certain race before this and I think this is part of the problem. In a society today where riots are forming after young people of color are being shot by police, everyone needs to recognize the advantages and disadvantages that come along with specific races.
No other race can understand what other races go through on a day-to-day basis. White people do not live their lives as African Americans, Mexicans, Asians, or any other race. They live their lives as whites and they cannot see much beyond that. If you go back to the quote above comparing a white person to the rich and dissect it, you find that the student is saying being white means you are automatically as privileged as the rich. The student is saying being white is having an abundance of opportunities, privileges, or advantages. A rich person can’t explain their lifestyle to someone because they are so accustomed to it. It’s the same with a white person. They live that lifestyle everyday, failing to recognize the privileges they have because they are “rich” in that sense.
You cannot ask a white person what it is like to be white because they cannot tell you. First, they must understand the hardships other races face that many of them will never have to face, and then, by default, they can describe what it is like to be white.
Many people do not believe that any reform is needed because they believe there is no evidence of racism in today’s society. Aside from the obvious clues, there is other evidence that proves these people wrong. African American preschoolers are punished more frequently and severely than their white classmates. Another astonishing finding shows that the prison sentences of black men are often 19.5 percent longer than those of white men with the same or similar crimes. Perhaps the most shocking is that employers often turn away job applicants if their names “sound” African American.
These findings alone demonstrate that white, troubled preschoolers have an advantage because of their race. In addition, white criminals have an advantage because of their race, and often times job seekers who are white are more likely to get a callback because their names are “white-sounding.” Therefore, race is a primary ingredient in any decision making today.
The privileges that white people often times expect should not exist. No man who commits a crime should receive any less sentencing because of his skin color, just as no person applying for a job should receive any more callbacks because their name is Molly or Jake, rather than Imani or Deshawn. However, without any thought, white people expect these upper hands. The reality is that, unless something drastically changes, they will continue to get these unfair advantages.
I stopped being color blind when I realized there was no point in that. As a white person in a society where racism is still present, I need to recognize color. I need to use my born privilege to change the way people are viewing color; the way people are handling situations of racial tension. I never have been and never will be a racist person, but what good do I do in keeping my mouth shut? As a society, we need to talk about race. We need to recognize all the things that are not equal for the dominant and minority groups. We need to fix them, and we can’t do that by being color blind.
