Week 4 Question 2: White Men Privilege

When reading the segment of Hierarchies of Power, I learned about the “white men of privilege” concept. “Clearly, the overriding assumption of social, economic, and political power in this country has long resided with upper-class and upper-middle-class white European males of wealth and privilege.” (Harris/Sherblom 96) As this concept is not a news flash for me, I do agree with this concept. For several centuries now, white men are assumed to have power and wealth in this country. In many cases, white men will be picked over a person of color or a woman, just because of this concept. Although this country is supposedly straying away from racism and inequality, this concept has been embedded in our minds since we were younger. I do not think it will ever be any different.

As far as social power, when we turn on our televisions white men dominate the shows. If we find television shows with primarily people of color, they are on special channels such as BET. In the “family commercials” we already expect to see a white family with the father in a successful position. In the economic power, all we have to do is think of the highest paying jobs and look at the statistics for what ethnic and genders obtain these jobs. I guarantee at least 8 out of 10 of these are white men. As for the political power, it has been clear throughout our history that white men have dominated in this category (although we now have our first African-American president)