Latin American Privilege and United States Privilege
“White Privilege in the Americas” by Dedrick Muhammad focuses on Latin America’s history of white supremacy and privilege. He first mentions that it started from politics, saying that the United States effect of Jim Crow in the Panama Canal and Dominican dictatorship “...erased African presence from its history and its culture, the massacre of hundreds of thousands indigenous Mayans in Guatemala, and blancismento (whitetification) in Argentina (South America) in which governments actively recruited Europeans to emigrate to their nations in order to “whiten” the society of its heavily indigenous and African populations.” Also, the white supremacy was in the Latin american language. Muhammad then explains how the phrases “pelo malo” and “pelo bueno” (bad hair vs. good hair) which was used to insult someone. “Negrita” was also an insult, which was used for Latinos who had “darker skin”. He finishes the article talking about how in Latin America, not only does money buy you privilege, it buys you your whitness. Many citizens paid to change their race on their identification cards even.
“Understanding Privilege in America Today” by The Progressive Cynic.com is an article about U.S privilege but has more statistics than the Latin American article. It starts off by stating real life American privileges like not having to carry their official documents with them to prove they’re a citizen of their own country and not having to fight against the assumption that they were given their achievements through “reverse racism” or “affirmative action”. It is widely said that racial privilege is given to Caucasians and this article says that studies have shown that people with traditionally white names are 50% more likely to get a job versus people with traditionally non-white names even when they have the exact same resume. It then does into different types of privilege.
What I noticed in these two articles is that Caucasian people still have more privilege even in different countries. In the U.S it affects almost every area but even in a country that is not native to Caucasians it is still an overpowering issue.
“Understanding Privilege in America Today” by The Progressive Cynic.com is an article about U.S privilege but has more statistics than the Latin American article. It starts off by stating real life American privileges like not having to carry their official documents with them to prove they’re a citizen of their own country and not having to fight against the assumption that they were given their achievements through “reverse racism” or “affirmative action”. It is widely said that racial privilege is given to Caucasians and this article says that studies have shown that people with traditionally white names are 50% more likely to get a job versus people with traditionally non-white names even when they have the exact same resume. It then does into different types of privilege.
What I noticed in these two articles is that Caucasian people still have more privilege even in different countries. In the U.S it affects almost every area but even in a country that is not native to Caucasians it is still an overpowering issue.