According to dictionary.com privilege is a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most.

So Anika Sundheimer thinks famous people are the only privileged individuals and no one else of any color is privileged.

http://theodysseyonline.com/oakland-university/why...

O.K., let’s say she is right. So why are these famous people privileged? Maybe they were born with a talent that gave them fame and as a result, they acquired a fortune. Or better yet they are like the Kardashians and were just born into this lifestyle. It is their uncontrollable and natural born state that has put them at an advantage in comparison to your average non-famous person. So if this can and does exist why can’t white privilege exist? White privilege is the right, immunity or benefit enjoyed by a majority in the power white race beyond the advantage of other races.

Is this definition to say that white people do not struggle? Of course not. Let’s be clear, we all struggle. Like Anika says “Hardships and struggles do not care what color we are.” But the people who inflict unwarranted aggression against a person because of their race do. The term “white privilege” was not coined out of thin air. My dear friend Anika, its birthplace is at the corner of white supremacy in history and inequality, three blocks down from racial misrepresentation and high-income disparities among the races. To say that white privilege equates to white people experiencing no troubles misrepresents the actual argument behind the term.

I realize white people have problems but this issue of their privilege is relative, not absolute. For example, white men are statistically proven to be hired over black men. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census studies show that an African-American male with an associate’s degree has nearly the same chance of getting a job as a white male with just a high school diploma. Racism is an ideology that builds a state of mind, it may never go away because you can’t always change people’s beliefs. The problem, however, is that it exists, whether openly or hidden, in people who hold the power and authority to grant these rights, immunities and benefits.

Now, I don’t plan to make Ms. Anika come to some realization of what racism is and how white privilege works. I don’t expect her to grasp that concept for many reasons. One she is white, as she stated in her article, and lives with her privilege to the extent that it is a norm. That’s like asking a fish what it is like to live in water. That fish who has lived in this state its entire life and has known nothing other than his water would respond in confusion. “Water? What’s water?” or maybe “Air? That doesn’t exist.” I can’t expect her to see the opposing point of view when hers is so comfy and causes her complacency. Seeing is believing and perspective is the prime of human sight both literally and figuratively.

The term “white privilege” is the product of underprivileged minorities, once again proving its basis of being relative. Anika even names some of these privileges for me. So while she may be a bit aware she didn’t get the memo about white privilege because it doesn’t apply to her. Just like I don’t expect men to know how labor pains feel, I don’t expect white people to know that they have the upper hand in being considered the superior race throughout the world and time.

However, Anika is spot on about one thing. No longer are we a society accepting this standard of superiority as white. This instead is being replaced by a leveling of the playing fields. Affirmative action gives privilege to minorities where it didn’t exist before. In track and field, runners must run around a track. But the runners do not start at the same position, some are positioned up further than others. Though this may seem unfair, the fairness comes in when those on the inner part of the track who are further back, have the opportunity to catch up because there is less circumference for them to cover when rounding the track. The policy of affirmative action allows minorities who have been purposefully disadvantaged in the past to advance. For blacks, this was a 300 to 400-year disadvantage with only a 50 to 60-year equal opportunity to advance.

Ms. Sundheimer has great intent when she suggests that “the nation should be working toward equal economic and quality education opportunities along with poverty, in hopes that maybe it'll help solve race problems, too.” But she misses one vital variable. These issues of unequal economic and quality education opportunities along with poverty are results of the race problem. The race problem must be solved first. Though correlation doesn’t equal causation, it is no random coincidence that the majority of poverty touches the majority of minorities. However, Anika makes the assumption that this lack of opportunity is due to a lack of hard work. If so, the majority of minorities are lazy and the advantages of whites are synonymous with had work? If hard work was the only way to wealth and key to success than black slaves –ancestors of one of today’s minority groups –should have been millionaires for their 400 years of servitude.

I say all this to explore the thought that while any race can be born into wealth and privilege why is it that white people populate the highest of economic positions in the U.S.? Do the majority of white people naturally work harder than others? Or is this intergenerational wealth from rich plantation owners and a number of other factors like the racial privilege? What we are witnessing today with affirmative action and the realization of white privilege is progress. One day this fantasy that privilege has no color will actually be true. For now, though this is just that, a fantasy; this sounds great in theory but so far from reality.