The genesis of White Privilege

[Monello]

I don't recall hearing the term white privilege while I was growing up in the 1970s. It seems the term was first used in 1988. It's usage has exploded this century. It's some sort of invisible advantage. The argument could be made that Obama's daughters have an advantage over say a white kid of the same age that is growing up in a poor household. Is this advantage unfair?

Doing some reading it seems that the powers to be noticed that by switching the narrative from disadvantage to privilege, the disadvantaged would try harder to achieve. I'm not sure how they measure the success of these terms. Positive consequences could be as narrow as feeling colder in 50 degree weather than compared to 51 degree weather.

I guess it comes down to a sort of carrot or stick discipline approach. I also feel that the term is now being used in a way that it wasn't originally intended.

[FONT=&quot]Brian Lowery and Daryl Wout (2010) investigated how framing inequality in terms of White advantage versus minority disadvantage plays out in the academic [/FONT]domain[FONT=&quot]. It turns out that framing inequality in terms of White advantage has more positive consequences for minority students’ academic engagement than when framing inequality in terms of minority disadvantage.

Why might this be?

These researchers found that when reading about academic inequality in terms of White advantage, African Americans and Latinos reported that their sense of self was more connected to their academic performance. Feeling disadvantaged leads minorities to discount academic outcomes more strongly given that the outcomes feel biased [/FONT]against [FONT=&quot]them. If outcomes are biased against me and my group, why would I invest myself in academic achievement? However, [/FONT]White advantage[FONT=&quot] implies that minorities are at the starting line, so to speak, while Whites are ahead of the line. Such a frame implies that even if Whites experience favoritism in the academic [/FONT]domain[FONT=&quot], minorities’ outcomes are still meaningful.[/FONT]

Anyway if you like delving into this topic, here's the referenced article.

 

[GURPS]

Yes ......


If YOU or YOUR Racial Group FAILS, it is because someone else had an UNFAIR advantage .... not that you are not suited for a particular line of work or education