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Essay The Educational Benefits of White Male Privilege

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The Educational Benefits of White Male Privilege

What is learned in school, be it public or private, determines, for the most part, what position an individual will find themselves in - in the future. In “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” Peggy McIntosh, an author known for doing something that is rarely done in the white community--speaking of her race--makes references to education, to her privileged education, to support her argument on white and male privilege. Sometimes I wonder what society would look like without education; would there be any norms, or rules? Education is so deeply instituted into most Americans' lives that those questions will probably never be answered. One thing is certain; some people are able to get …show more content…

Going to school in the Bronx was more of learning how to protect myself from bullies, than going to school for the purpose it was made for-getting educated. Escaping violence was my main priority in school, since many people of color saw me as white. I am not white by skin color, but was seen as such because of the way I spoke, because my verbal skills were at another level that seemed unattainable to the majority of the school population. I had some of that privilege in high school that she refers to. I was one of the few students taking classes that other white privileged students were taking at other high schools. My getaway from this violence was getting involved in the community more often and working in white privileged environments, like the Rockwell Group- an Architectural firm.

For years, I struggled in an education system that only served to teach students of crime, where day by day, I would roam my high school hallways in search of peace, which I could only find in a few of my class rooms. I visited many schools during high school through a variety of programs that I was part of and through this I got to interact with students of more privileged high schools in New York City, where the Caucasian population was

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