Black Lives Matter Versus White Privilege: Analytical Essay

In this generation, children of all different backgrounds are experiencing at early age discussions that are about gender, equality, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Different cultures are at the forefront of everyday lives, but many people are avoiding the discussions that they need to have with their children because they fear that the conversation about race may lead to anger and frustration. Due to the current state that we have been in, I believe it is time that we are having this conversation with our kids to help better understand what is going on around their communities. These children need to understand how to love one another, without teaching them this lesson in their life they are prone to take advantage of their privileges, and some may be their white privileges.

Furthermore, white privilege is defined as an advantage that is possessed by a white person and the basis of their race in a society, white people are kept intact characterized by their racial inequality and injustice. According to the Washington Post, “ White privilege is taking societal advantages that come with being seen as the norm in America, automatically conferred irrespective of wealth, gender or other factors.” Now due to current times, minorities are becoming more vocal about how the experiences that they have had in America have been very different from those of their white peers.

The term white privilege is finally entering the mainstream, however, white privilege has always been around and has always been talked about, in 1988 professor Peggy McIntosh wrote about white privilege in an essay, Peggy described White privilege as an earned asset, she explains that it is an earned asset because a white person in America can count on cashing out on their privilege each day while remaining oblivious to the concept which has been talked about in academic circles. Now when white privilege is brought up for conversation Caucasians always seem to turn a blind eye and never noticed that the statistics that are given with minorities, for example, job applicants that apply with white-sounding names in the job field are 50% more likely to get called in for an interview or another example is how black defendants are 30% more likely to be in prison than white defendants for the same crime that is committed.

Now that white privilege is finally becoming mainstream, it is being talked about more therefore bringing more awareness to it. One of our main group activist that brings attention to white privilege is the Black Lives Matter activist group, the Black Lives Matter has been taking the time to help people understand the movement due to the death of George Floyd, George Floyd was A black man who was killed at the hands of police like many of our other brothers and sisters that have met the same faith, police brutality.

Due to that comment people from all over America and even the world have taken to the street to take part in the protest, as well as voicing their own opinion on social media, people are also signing petitions, and taking a part in fundraising events to help bring awareness. Now due to Black Lives Matter using their platform to take advantage and be more aware of white privilege, other activist groups have come to protest against the Black Lives Matter, such as the All Lives Matter group also known as the Blue Lives Matter. According to the Scotsman, “many supporters of the Black Lives Matter campaign have since taken to Twitter to point out the difference in the police approach to the black lives matter protesters and the dominantly white demonstrators who protested coronavirus lockdown measures in April.” As many have known since this protesting started amid the Covid-19 pandemic, people of colored have been tear-gassed, arrested, beaten, and attack all by the same police departments all over our great country, while caucasian people who were protesting this lockdown due to them not wanting to wear a mask or practice social distancing were praise by the police department, I saw some officers hand out water to those that were thirsty and even snack for protesting against all of our safety, while people of color who are just fighting for something as simple justice for all their brothers and sisters. White privilege has existed for years, ever since Black people were enslaved and brought to America to do the white man’s dirty work, the white privilege had existed, it might not have been the same as it was back then, however, it still existed nonetheless.

In conclusion, white privileges are here to give white people advantages that minority people are not able to achieve with a great effort, even though the system is built to keep my minorities down, there are always ways that we can bring more awareness to white privilege, we all have our implicit bias, civilization is about working against our instinct. We won’t be able to change our prejudice until we can address that we have them in the first place, we need to be able to educate each other so that we can learn what it means to have racial privilege, and also learn to understand different forms of white supremacy, you may not even know you are engaging in it, there are different ways to address prejudice. You can start with the Harvard project implicit, it allows you to take a series of tests to see where your unconscious bias lies looking at race, gender, age, weight, disability, and sexuality.