Rise to Mutiple Culture "Privileges"

After reading Buck's "Constructing Race, Creating White Privilege," I tried to compare society's set of the "white privilege system" in the time after Bacon's Rebellion to today's possible "white privileged. " From my understanding, people of the 1700s developed a "white privilege system" mainly to distinct themselves as a race of white purity and also as a social class that can be found anywhere above the last social rank, which was placed as enslaved Blacks. Holding the power of authority and ownerships of material objects, like land, gave lower class whites the feeling that despite their economical hardships, they can't go lower that slaves. This idea was especially applied to lower ranked farmers.


Obviously, our society today has come along way and is governed differently. We are now more liberal and supportive of the idea of creating, as close to possible, equal opportunities. Even today, it is generally assumed that white people still hold white privileges on political, economic and financial aspects of society. However, from my perspective there is growing opportunity and "privileges" for any American of any ethnicity. If there is "white privileges" for whites then I would think those privileges are not based as much on race as they use to but rather on their social class and financial status. Are far as who can be placed in the upper class, middle class or lower classes of our society, anyone and of any race can take position in any of the social and financial classes. Comparing the make up of our lower class and our upper class, shows that there is a general mix of people of different races in both class rankings in society. This was made possible to the growing of a diverse cultured America and the spread of opportunities. These opportunities became the privileges of all races. As mentioned before in class, ethnic groups are defined by the grouping of people with common traits and have a sense of being territorial. With everyone offered some opportunities today, people distribute and set privileges for themselves and people of similar ethic backgrounds. This shows that there is privileges of some sort despite a person may not be white or be considered upper class.

- Gabriel Muñoz