The Socialization of Race

By Jaclynn Cross

When Tim Wise came to campus a year ago, for Fall Convocation, I witnessed plenty of disgruntled white students, angry about the way Wise made them feel. The Black students, on the other hand, mostly seemed happy that there was finally a white person saying all the things that they had been feeling and thinking about white privilege and the perpetuation of racist ideologies in the information age.

His aggressive approach and straightforward demeanor was his way of using the raw truth in order to make his audience realize how race affects their lives on a daily basis.

Does white privilege exist? It seems to me that Gettysburg College students are divided.

As I sat in an Africana Studies and an Introduction to Sociology class, I realized that although “white privilege” is multifaceted, a number of Gettysburg College students only acknowledge the socio-economic element of it. The consensus among some students in my Africana Studies course is that white privilege does not exist because there are still some poor white people who do not receive financial or socio-economic benefits from white privilege.

However, it is my personal opinion that regardless of a white person’s socio-economic status, that person is still socially privileged.

What we often fail to realize, is that race, as we know it, is a social construct, devised to maintain something of a social hierarchy.

Incidentally, because of America’s history of slavery and segregation, blacks and whites alike have been socialized to think of one race as superior and the other as inferior, even subhuman. Because many whites and blacks have not had a large amount of contact with members of the opposite race, the portrayal of race in the media, via television shows, music, etc., is what lies in the forefront of their perception of the entire race.

Race in America is such an interesting, yet uncomfortable conversation to have. When people are willing to fully express their opinions, in a respectful manner, it opens them up to learn and grow as an individual.

With the upcoming election and two—yes, two—Black Americans vying for President of the United States (Representative Cynthia McKinney for the Green Party and Senator Barack Obama for the Democrats), it seems the playing field is leveling and hopefully, one day soon we will have a black president.

Until then, we, both whites and blacks, should be able to have more open discourse about race, white privilege, and the ways in which we are socialized to think and respond to race.

Jaclynn Cross is President of the Gettysburg College NAACP.