White Privilege

I have always known some people are more privileged than others, but I usually thought about it in terms of gender then the ideology of race. For example, I originally thought I was going to have a hard time getting college scholarships because I am a women and I am labeled as white. The reason I thought this is because society always told me if I was part of a minority I would have an easier time paying for college, which made sense to me because there as been a big push for minorities to go to college. However, then I realized that being white alone was the reason I would have an easier time going to college because this is what was expect of me from my race. Below is a chart from the journal The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2010 what the racial representation among college students was. 

Racial Representation Among College Students

As you can clearly see white make up 61% of students who are in college. This does not mean that other races are lazy or whatever else people would like to say there are. This just means I was born into a privilege where I get the opportunity to (more than others) to attend college.
Then if you look at financial aid given to college students it shows a similar story. According to The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race written by Mark Kantrowitz and posted on finaid.org more than one million white students were scholarship recipients; as you can see below in the chart. Although, the average amount of scholarship money received is the highest for Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; which receives 4,900 dollars compared to the 2,368 dollars whites receive which is the second lowest; whites are still being given more scholarship opportunities.  
 

Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race

After looking at both of these charts I realized I have been born into and been given a privilege where if I go to my class I can identity with my "race" and I would not feel as though I was in the minority. I have noticed it a lot at Washington State University being able to see a lot of "white" people. I am originally from Connecticut where there are also a lot of "white" people, but I spent most of my life in New Mexico where I felt as though I was the minority in my high school. Yet, even though I felt like I was the minority back home there were still more "white" children who graduated then anyone else. This is where I have seen a lot of my "white" privileged come into play.

I was really struck by Peggy McIntosh article and her list of privileges she realized she had. I know most of these apply to me and people still portray my race in the same ways in which she expressed. One of the privileges she spoke I have had witness first hand which is why it stood out to me. The one where it says "I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed." I work at Burlington Coat Factory in New Mexico one summer and I cannot tell you the amount of times I was told to keep on eye on certain customers because of their racial identity. What made the situation worse was not only were the "white" managers telling me to do this, but also the "Latino" managers as well, but they never told me to watch "white" people, but they told me to watch every other race. I would not change any part of her list, but rather I would add onto it.

For example, if you expand her list to not only include race, but sexual orientation you could add:
I can comfortably kiss my significant other in public and not be judged.
I can get married in all 50 states in the United States.
I do not have to be afraid of losing my job because of my choice in sexual partners.
I can be pretty sure I will not be bullied because of my choice of sexual partners.
I can have a child with my partner without the help of science or adoption. (When I though of this one, I shocked myself, this sounds so harsh that I did not want to force myself to think more about the privileges based on sexual orientation).

The lists could go on and on. This just proves we are born into privileges and how we choose to use those privileges to help ourselves and others will determine how this world will turn out.