Читать книгу Understanding Racism - Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl - Страница 46

White privilege answers this question: If people of color are encountering racism, what are Whites experiencing? White privilege explains the “other side of racism,” the benefits and resources given to Whites and that are denied to people of color. White privilege is a “relational concept. It positions one person or group over another person or group. It is a concept of racial domination that enables us to see this relationship from the perspective of those who benefit from such domination.”² White privilege permits insight into who benefits from racism and how they do so; only by looking holistically at both the discriminatory and the beneficial nature of racism can the problem be fully addressed. Within this theory, race is defined as “a socially constructed category for the purpose of controlling, dominating, and exploiting some for the benefit of others,”³ and racism is defined as “subordination of people of color by white people.”⁴

Often, Whites think racism is defined by individual hateful actions that come from “bad people” and do not recognize racism’s operation on the systemic and structural levels. White privilege theory, however, explains that racism against people of color and its corollary, White privilege, operate on a systemic and structural level as well as the individual level. Thus, White privilege is given to all Whites, not just White, wealthy, heterosexual men as the stereotypical image of White privilege recipients. Whites of all different classes, sexes, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and other intersecting identities receive White privilege, albeit how and to what degree White privilege is experienced vary across these intersecting identities. Whites receive White privilege whether they desire it or not, and they benefit from it whether they acknowledge those benefits or not, as, unlike people of color, all Whites are “born to belonging.”⁵ These benefits cannot be given away, and good intentions don’t erase them, because White privilege is accorded not by an individual’s behavior or beliefs but because of the status of “White” in society, or what is often referred to as “Whiteness.”