Essay Example on White Privilege in America

Introduction

White privilege has remained a major problem in American society. It includes horrifying realities of African enslavement in the early 1700s, violation of human rights, and unfair practices including literacy tests before being accepted to the housing and voting in the early 1950s. Rapid movement to contemporary society coupled with the advancement that blacks have instigated in the US is apparent through the adoption of affirmative action programs and legislation such as Civil Rights and Voting Rights. Nonetheless, despite the development, the consequences of such mistreatments of black people by their fellow whites are still rampant in contemporary America. Principally, the issue of internalized racism emerges from the pressure of most white societies and economy demanding that black people to become a model minority while indeed the institution of a majority white society continues to deny the ongoing challenges that feel the blacks to feel that they should be left alone. Therefore, despite the introduction of affirmative action, the white privilege is still rampant in America.

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Affirmative Action

Affirmative action entails policies, laws, administrative practices, and guidelines aimed at eradicating and correcting the impacts of a particular form of discrimination that entails government sanctioned, government mandated, and voluntary private programs. The affirmative action programs tend to look into access to employment and education, allowing special consideration to historically discriminated persona, particularly women and racial minorities. Affirmative action seeks to deal with challenge linked with historical inequalities. Another aim is to ensure that every public institution across America including hospitals, universities, as well as, police forces have equal representation of people from various races and ethnic affiliations.

In the US, affirmative action tends to stress on specific quotas, as well as, targeted goals to deal with historical discrimination in a given organization or institution or even in a larger community through good faith initiatives in order to recognize, chose, and train potentially qualified women and minority group of individuals 3. For instance, numerous tertiary colleges and universities have willingly implemented policies that try to improve recruitment of racial minorities. Intuitively, targeted recruitment, outreach campaigns, employee, and management development, as well as, employee support programs are some of the leading affirmative action that relates to employment.

In the United States, policies and programs linked to affirmative action were designed to deal with the past cases of discrimination that women and minority group experienced that scholars indicate produced corresponding unbiased white privilege. Affirmative action first emerged from the deliberations regarding nondiscrimination policies in the early 1940s, as well as, during the period of the civil rights movement. Principally, these deliberations resulted in the federal executive orders demanding implementation of nondiscrimination employment policies in certain government institutions, as well as contractors during early 1940s and periods that followed. Further, these discussions also led to the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that eradicated inequalities in different organizations and institutions. Principally, the first federal policy that relates to race awareness affirmative action was adopted in the year 1969 that required some government contractors to clearly design timetables and goals for diversifying and integrating their workforce. It is also critical to note that similar legislation came up through a combination of voluntary practices and state and federal legislation in education and employment. As a practice, the affirmative action was partly supported by the Supreme Court in the case of Grutter vs Bollinger in the year 2003 while the use of gender or racial quotas for admission in higher learning institution was concomitantly ruled illegal by the same court in the case of Grat vs. Bollinger in the year 2003.

History of Affirmative Action

The debates on affirmative action started with Franklin Roosevelt who advocated for legislation such as the Unemployment Relief Act of 1933 that stated that nobody should be discriminated on the basis of his or her color, or race 3. When civil rights movements emerged, affirmative action encompassed equal treatment of people in terms of employment and education regardless of their financial background to avoid past inequalities such as discrimination and exclusion that a good number of whites and conservative associates viewed as reverse discrimination and biased 3. Principally, this argument is further reinforced by contemporary conservatives who try to agitate for meritocracy to replace affirmative action program. Nonetheless, during the time when learning institutions were segregated, special treatment was critical since it business continued carried on with the process of hiring the most qualified personnel for a given job, it would almost be white candidates 2.

Due to these political differences, a good number of citizens have requested courts to help them understand whether policies of affirmative action are legal. For instance, in the year 1978, the Supreme Court found in the case of University of California and Bakke that diversity in races as an essential state interest. These ruling compelled schools to treat race as one of the factors to consider when enrolling students through stringent scrutiny standards. During this period, it was believed that affirmative action complied with stringent scrutiny in situations where the race was narrowly directed to attain the interest set out by the court.

Nonetheless, the ruling by Hopwood in the year 1996 concerning considering skin color to enroll learners in higher institutions of learning was banned. For instance, the Supreme found in the case of Gratz v. Bollinger that degree program that the University of Michigan was offering was not narrowly tailored to use skin color to enroll students. However, the Supreme Court found in the case of Grutter v. Bollinger that the University of Michigan was offering another degree program that used skin color and met scrutiny standards. In another criminal case that involved Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin, the court referred the matter to lower court as means of avoiding ruling on the case until such a time when all necessary data about admission programs of the university shall have been gathered. To respond to the conflicting rulings, colleges and universities, as well as, state legislators have adjusted admission processes and procedures to avoid unnecessary litigation.

Following the decision of Hopwood in the year 1996 that stated that it was illegal to use skin color to enroll learners to the University of Texas, the legislators of the state formulated Top 10% initiative that assured that all students ranked in top 10% get enrolled in state institutions they liked. It also ensured that such learners get greater financial support. The plan also detailed appropriate concerns that must be considered for students who do not get automatic admission to state universities. Some of these factors entailed parent's level of education, family income, academic and financial record of the learner's school district 3.

Effects of Affirmative Action on White Privilege

Studies have revealed that adoption of affirmative action caused different forms of racial progress in the US such as desegregating southern establishments, to eradicating anti-discrimination litigations to creating new opportunities for black and middle-class Americans. However, this celebratory history mood di not last for long. In fact, the affirmative action programs that were intended to eradicate racism also spurred racist progress. Reportedly, racial disparities persisted even after the programs were implemented since discriminative policies continued under the lens of colorblindness. Intuitively, the US is still suffering from the white privilege as there is racism in health disparities, police brutalities, as well as, environmental catastrophes. Noted that the unemployment rates of the blacks have been twice that of the whites for almost six decades and that segregation is increasing at an unprecedented rate in public learning institutions across the country. Moreover, an unprecedented number of brown and black bodies have been mass sentenced due to the war on drugs

White Privilege and Health

One of the major reasons for the implementation of affirmative action in America was to reduce white privilege in terms of healthcare access. It was believed that implementing affirmative action programs would ensure equal access to quality and affordable healthcare irrespective of race or skin color. However, despite widespread adoption of such programs, there are still significant gender and racial disparities healthcare funding and access, as well as, benefits that results from medical research. A good number of the described inequalities pose great challenges to the American healthcare system because the US administration has been unable to implement essential non-discrimination legislation of the federal civil rights laws that people believe should be its sole responsibility.

Accessing cheap and quality health care without any discrimination is a major concern in the US. For a long time, a significant number of US citizens have tried to get quality and cheap healthcare but they have been unable since such services are offered according to skin color and gender. Further, inadequate cultural competency of physicians, social and economic inequalities, unequal effect on racially neutral policies and practice as well as, lack of understandings of civil rights legislation and global discrimination have played a major role in the differences in funding, access, and conditions of health care services, as well as, participation in medical research.

Conclusion

Scholars have claimed that current inequalities in health care access are due to the cumulative results of the previous white privilege culture in the US. For instance, due to white privilege in learning institutions, blacks continue to receive little education and reduced educational opportunities. Besides, given that access to health insurance in the US is almost connected with employment, the growing level of white privilege has compelled the blacks to concentrate on low wage jobs and in most cases lack insurance benefits. A recent survey of various states of the US has revealed that regions high black population often gets insufficient health care services 6. The survey revealed that very few white health care providers often work in regions occupied by blacks. Further, black physicians prefer working in communities where their black people stay, making it essential to improve the training and education of black Americans. However, because of white privilege in colleges and universities, racial discrimination in testing and quality of life that influence school performance, there are relatively few black professionals in the health sector 7. Moreover, the shortage of black professionals hinders access to health care and power, as well as, resources to arrange the health care system making the whites to continue controlling it. The immediate consequence is a system that only benefits white Americans instead of everyone regardless of their color or race.

White privilege in the US has been manifested by the growing levels of inequalities of how different races are treated. Reportedly, inequalities in health status depict a significant level of discrimination in both preventive and treatment care.