Introduction
Privilege, should it depend upon race, class or gender, is not familiar to those granted it by nature. But those who are oppressed because of being different from others can feel it sharply in every single life sphere of human society. Those whose skin is white are granted the so-called white privilege, even though it may vary concerning their class, gender, visual appearance, sexual orientation, etc. It has nothing to do with the level of education or personal qualities, and all that matters is a person’s race. So: White privilege is an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted to those of us who, by race, resemble the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions. One of the primary privileges is that of having greater access to power and resources than people of color do; in other words, purely on the basis of our skin color doors are open to us that are not open to other people. (Kendall, 2012, p. 62)
Historical Background of White Privilege
Historically, the concept of white privilege is referred to the United States and African Americans, and it has a historical background. First of all, one can mention legal acts securing the fact that the black people could be held as slaves, separated from their families and taken away the ability to study so that they were completely illiterate. Second, there were laws not granting the black people the right to vote or possess property. Third, strict immigration laws were prohibiting black people to migrate and speaking their native language. That all has led to ingraining the prejudice that white people are better than people of other races referred to as the white privilege.
The first to lift the issue of white privilege was William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, who referred to this phenomenon as the aftermath of colonial policy carried out by the whites (Zeus, 2002). Years later, writers Theodore Allen and Noel Ignatiev decided to study it not from the perspective of damaging the blacks’ lives but through a prism of benefits to the whites (Burnett, 2014, Para. 13). But the real breakthrough in defining the phenomenon of white privilege was made by Peggy McIntosh who believed that it is no more than a psychological set used by the whites to subconsciously underestimate the blacks and justify discrimination based on race. What is more, white people do not consider themselves to be racists so that they do not see that there is such a phenomenon in their society (McIntosh, 1988, para. 3).
White privilege is not peculiar solely to politics or economics though in these areas of life it is felt more sharply; it can be seen in every single sphere of life of the society and media is not an exception. Media represents ideas about the world and shows what the world is like. It touches every topic of human life including race, so it forms a perception of race and what people of other races are like (Wise, 2011). The people of color were rarely involved in the ‘white’ media and mostly ignored. The black people, for example, were rarely represented in popular culture up to the early 20th century. Even when they were portrayed, they were shown through a prism of stereotypes as stupid, untrustworthy, bad-mannered, rough, often as slaves or entertainers of the white people (Hall, 2010).
It should be mentioned that the African Americans had their theater founded in the early 19th century by William Alexander Brown who gained popularity among white people. Because of the stereotypes ingrained in the society’s consciousness, he first had to build segregated seats for the white audience and then, three years later, Brown was forced to close it. What is significant about this theater is that it became famous for producing Shakespeare plays and the first play written by the African American (Boyd, 2008). Since then on, black artists and playwrights started to be heard of trying to persuade the white people that they deserved freedom and equal rights and protection, though in a comic way. Their shows became known as minstrels and were staged till the end of the 19th century.
In the early 19th century and during the period between World War I and World War II, the black actors could cooperate with the white ones in musicals on Broadway. This period became known as Harlem Renaissance and was characterized by the shift in stereotypes about the African Americans – their lives from then on were portrayed in different ways, not only in comic (Verney, 2003). From that time, black actors started gaining popularity, and white people started recognizing their talents, but it did not mean that the white privilege in theater and drama began to dissolve.
White Privilege in Media
The starting point of shooting black people in cinema was the Birth of Nation (1915) directed by D. W. Griffith. In this movie, he showed the black people’s lives in slavery. Nevertheless, the movie was criticized for racism, and it launched “an independent Black film movement … that began with people such as Emmett J. Scott, Oscar Micheaux, and George and Nobel P. Johnson and continued up to … Spike Lee” (Boyd, 2008, p. viii). Since then, the African-American producers and directors are not oppressed in their desire to shoot movies and are free to raise any topic they wish; the black actors are free to play any role they want and represent them as they wish. What is even more important they are not oppressed because of their desire to be a part of the film industry, and there are loved not only by other black people but also by people of other races.
So, looking back at history, one can confidently say that white privilege has always been accompanying African American artists on their way to success and acknowledgment. Only in the case of really brilliant talents, they could be granted sponsorship of the white men but the latter was always more willing to help the white. Throughout history this trend towards white privilege has started to dissolve, nevertheless, in the news media, for example, the people of color are more often portrayed as criminals and untrustworthy citizens, while the white are shown as people with a higher level of education, upbringing, and honor. In everyday life, there can also be a lot of examples of white privilege should it be education, employment, social protection, healthcare, etc. But in all spheres of the entertainment industry, there are a lot of successful and famous people of color, sometimes even more popular than white people.
Speaking about the entertainment industry, a lot was done to open the doors to those who have been historically excluded. Such shift in the consciousness of the society has to do with the fact that with every next generation, the borderline between the races is erasing and those who were thought about as slaves or the people of inferiority today are referred to as the equals. If a person is creative, talented and thinks outside the box, he or she will for sure become successful and gain acknowledgment.
Nevertheless, speaking about the film industry, one can note some kind of white privilege and racial bias when it comes to winning Academy Awards – the most prestigious award in the industry – starting from 1939 only thirteen African-American actors have won Oscars (Watson, 2014, para. 10). So, it looks like even though one and a half-century have passed since slavery abolition, the blacks are not seen as equals. They are free to express themselves, their talents may be acknowledged, and they may have millions of fans, but the awards are left to the white.
Conclusion
So, white privilege is a complex societal and psychological phenomenon having to do with the historical background of African Americans. Though it is said that people of any other race can suffer from it, the slave past of the black people aggravates the impact of white privilege on their lives. Nevertheless, significant progress has been achieved in different spheres of life of society, stereotypes caused by white privilege as such are not yet exterminated from the white people’s consciousness, and they do not refer to the backs as to their equals and keep discriminating them.
References
Boyd, T. (2008). African Americans and Popular Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Burnett, Z. (2014). A Brief History of White Privilege. Web.
Hall, S. (2010). The White of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media. In G. Dines & J. M. Humez (Eds.), Gender, Race, and Class in the Media: A Critical Reader (pp. 81-81). New York, NY: SAGE Publications.
Kendall, F. (2012). Understanding White Privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race. London, UK: Routledge.
McIntosh, P. (1988). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Web.
Verney, K. (2003). African Americans and US Popular Culture. London, UK: Routledge.
Watson, E. D. (2014). The Complex History of African Americans and the Academy Awards. Web.
Wise, T. (2011). White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press.
Zeus, L. (2002). The Souls of White Folk: Critical Pedagogy, Whiteness Studies, and Globalization Discourse. Race Ethnicity and Education, 5(1), 29-50.