Spring Break
White privilege shaping our society
Sara Gwin
Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: Forum
Last Friday, I attended the Oregon Women in Higher Education conference and heard two lectures, which addressed the impact of race on education. Since then, I have been thinking about privilege and the kind of impact being white has had on the opportunities in my life.
I feel I have been blessed to have grown up in very diverse areas because I was able to see racism as it really is and to experience being around minority groups outside of society's stereotypes. Before the age of 8, I lived in Denver, Colo., and San Antonio, Texas; then my family moved to Oregon, where we eventually settled in Salem.
I remember that when I first started to learn about racism as a young child, I was very confused on why whites were the ones in power.
To me, Blacks were the ones who had the beautiful skin, so I couldn't understand why they were the ones discriminated against. But as I became more educated, I began to see that racism was not just about color, but about the stereotypes that were attached to them in this country. In the United States, white has become the norm - it is the race with the power and status everyone else is weighed against.
Coming out of McKay High School (a school with a minority majority), I saw discrimination in a variety of forms. In sports, I saw overt racism from referees and other teams in and out of league play.
I always knew I could get away with playing more aggressively than my teammates who were minorities because the way I played would never be considered "savage." In school, I knew it was more difficult for minority students to get into Honors or AP classes, whereas I had no difficulty. Even in my worst subject, I was never questioned as to whether the class was the right place for me.
And when I won awards, it was never assumed I had won because of my race; but when a member of a minority won something, there was always the question of whether it was deserved.
I came from a high school where a person is considered a success if they can make it out without getting knocked up or end up in jail. This past week, I heard about three more classmates who are now in jail and others who have ended up in desperate situations to make money.
I feel I have been blessed to have grown up in very diverse areas because I was able to see racism as it really is and to experience being around minority groups outside of society's stereotypes. Before the age of 8, I lived in Denver, Colo., and San Antonio, Texas; then my family moved to Oregon, where we eventually settled in Salem.
I remember that when I first started to learn about racism as a young child, I was very confused on why whites were the ones in power.
To me, Blacks were the ones who had the beautiful skin, so I couldn't understand why they were the ones discriminated against. But as I became more educated, I began to see that racism was not just about color, but about the stereotypes that were attached to them in this country. In the United States, white has become the norm - it is the race with the power and status everyone else is weighed against.
Coming out of McKay High School (a school with a minority majority), I saw discrimination in a variety of forms. In sports, I saw overt racism from referees and other teams in and out of league play.
I always knew I could get away with playing more aggressively than my teammates who were minorities because the way I played would never be considered "savage." In school, I knew it was more difficult for minority students to get into Honors or AP classes, whereas I had no difficulty. Even in my worst subject, I was never questioned as to whether the class was the right place for me.
And when I won awards, it was never assumed I had won because of my race; but when a member of a minority won something, there was always the question of whether it was deserved.
I came from a high school where a person is considered a success if they can make it out without getting knocked up or end up in jail. This past week, I heard about three more classmates who are now in jail and others who have ended up in desperate situations to make money.
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