Chapter 8 Summery Seeing White: an Introduction to White Privilege and Race

1. SEEING WHITE
an introduction to
white privilege and
race
Chapter 8:The Race of Public Policy

2. Some Areas Where Privilege Exists for White
America in Public Policies
▪ Pathways to citizenship: birthright V. naturalization
▪ Immigration
▪ Social Programs (“Welfare” and Social Security)
▪ The Controversy of Affirmative Action
▪ The Living Wage
▪ Tax Policies Benefiting the Rich

3. Pathways to citizenship:
birthright V. naturalization
Legal policy has historically favored “whites” in terms of citizenship
status.
• Birthright Citizenship – citizenship gained if one is born in the country
or born to citizens of the country;
• Naturalization – citizenship granted after fulling “certain criteria
established by law” (Halley, Eshleman, and MahadevanVijaya 2011: 168)

4. The fight for Birthright
• A dark spot in U.S. History, Dred Scott
sues for his freedom and the Supreme
Court rules that as a black man (slave), he
was not a citizen and he had no standing
to sue for his freedom.
• The ratification of the 14th Amendment
would grant birthright citizenship to the
children of slaves in 1868.
(Library of Congress 2006)

5. A look at Naturalization…
The subjective definition of the Naturalization Act of 1790 left interpretation
open to the courts.
Let’s look at two cases as an example…
**The Natural Act of 1790 “limited naturalization to ‘free white persons’ who
were of ‘good moral character’ and who had resided in the United States at least
two years” (169). **

6. Ozawa v US (1922)
Argued his “white” skin and good
moral character made him “white”
and eligible for citizenship .
U.S. Supreme Court Ruled His “good moral character
being as it may…using
“scientific” classification,
Japanese people were
considered Mongoloid, and
“not Caucasian therefore, not
white” (169).

7. US v Bhagat SinghThind (1923)
With the Ozawa ruling not long before,
Singh Thind seemed to have a strong case.
According to Blumenbach racial
classification, Asian Indians were
Caucasians. In the Ozawa ruling,
Caucasian was indicative of whiteness.
U.S. Supreme Court Ruled
The scientist had made an
error and Asian Indians were
not what was commonly
accepted as known to be
“white.”

8. Both were denied the rights to
citizenship…
What would the U.S. look like if these
policies had not have been so
restrictive?
Neither were accepted as white and
therefore,

9. Immigration…
Would the U.S. allow northern
border states to search people based
on reasonable suspicion that they
may not be citizens?
As the authors’ point out, apart from the
darker skin color of the Hispanic
immigrants, what would classify as
reasonable suspicion that would allow
law enforcement to verify the citizenship
status of “white” Canadians.
(Mcfeatters 2006)
(The Immigrants 2010)

10. The lingering effect of policies past…
Oh, you may want
to sell your home
soon…I hear there is
a colored moving in.

11. How Past Discriminatory Policies are
Still Hurting Us…
(DTAHelmetofsalvation 2014)

12. Economic Mobility and the Lazy Minorities
The Myth of the “Welfare Queen”
Common fallacies in the U.S.
• Economic mobility is
easy they just aren’t
working hard enough.
• People of color are
“welfare Queens,” having
lots of children to avoid
work
• People on welfare can
buy things other, hard-
working, families can’t
afford because they are
on welfare.
(Anderson 2015)

13. Perceived life of luxury and the lengths “hero” politicians will
go to protect the American taxpayers from the travesty….
(NewsmaxTV 2015)

14. Social Security Administration…
What FDR didn’t specially discuss when
he introduced “old age” benefits was the
reasoning behind his exclusions of
agricultural and domestic workers.
Black workers dominated these fields
and allowing them to collect Social
Security would have not only given them
an economic boost but whites would
have lost a cheap labor source when their
“employee” retired (174).
(DonkeyHotey 2011)

15. Affirmative Action
How it was introduced…
(Lee 2012)

16. How it is perceived by many, especially
white males…
(sayanythingblog.com 2003)

17. • AffirmativeAction has been highly contested
• It’s affects seem to be exaggerated
• “economistWilliam Bowen and law professor Derek
Bok found that dismantling of race-based
admission criterion in all universities changed the
probability of a white student being admitted into a
selective college by very little – only from 25 to 26.2
percent.”
• Alumni children still have an advantage in the
application process, and generations of previous
matriculation just so happen to have been more
likely to be white
(176-77)

18. What AA really is…
Its intention was to end hiring discrimination and ensure there
was a wider representation of people in fields that had once
been discriminated against (within learning institutions that
received federal funding as well).
The individuals had to be both qualified and have the requisite
skills (178).That would just leave cultural fit, which is where
Affirmative Action comes in for some individuals as employers
tend to relate to others that are more like themselves.
• White women were the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative
Action (178).

19. The Big Distraction…
An example in Kroger ManagerV. the Paying
Customer
(TheYoungTurks 2012)

20. Put another way…
Yay! We need
Jobs!!!
That’s our
money! Let
them
work!!!
(Eyeonwilliamson.org 2015)

21. The Minimum Wage V. The Living Wage
(no, they are not the same)
Federal Minimum Wage Effective
July 2009 –
$7.25/hour
@40/week =$290 or around
$1160/month
Using MIT’s Living Wage
Calculator for a single
individual, they would need to
make $9.01/hour or $18,731
before taxes to make a living
wage in this area.
Expenses Amount per
month
Food $251.83
Medical $178.66
Housing $390.00
Transportation $391.42
Other $187.75
That’s a difference of over $3,300 a year…enough to cover the individual’s
entire food budget and then some. New perspective use of food stamps?
HoustonCounty,Texas
(Glameier and MIT 2015)

22. Is all of the Background Noise Meant to
Distract From…
(Parker 2012)

23. According to the Pew Research Center
Out of a survey of 2,508 adults conducted in 2012 that asked
respondents if they felt that the income gap between the rich and
poor was growing in America: 20% responded No and 7%
actually felt the gap was growing smaller (Parker 2012).
*for reference see pie chart on previous slide

24. Finally, there are the Tax Policies that
Overwhelmingly Support the Wealthy…
“The policy of lowering taxes on the rich
while working-class household have seen
declines in their living standards
exacerbates inequalities in two ways.
By…”
1. The concentration of wealth at the
top “promotes the historic cycle of
inheritances and rigid class structure”
2. There is less monies being collected
(in tax form) and available for social
programs (185).
(McCulloch 2012)

25. Conclusion…
The American ideals of individualism and the myth of the
“American Dream” have worked together to victimize the poor,
for being poor. It wasn’t the racially aggressive and agonistic
social structures and legal policies that worked together to
keep Americans from equal competition in society (at least in
the argument that only “free white men” could even be
Americans for a period).
This chapter was full of “examples of policies that have created
and continue to sustain a system of economic and social
privilege for a small (mostly white) minority” (185).

26. REFERENCES
Anderson, Brian. 2015. “California LooksTo EmpowerWelfare Queens.” Downtrend.com.Online
Image. February 26. (http://downtrend.com/71superb/california-looks-to-empower-welfare-
queens).
DonkeyHotey. 2011. “FDR Quote on Social Security.” Online Image.
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/5638995031).
DTAHelmentofsalvation. 2014. “Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly:White Privilege.”YouTube.com.
October 25. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYyh2QRYI9c).
Eyeonwilliamson.org. 2015. “Give it all to Business –The GOPTax Compromise.”Wcnews. May 13.
(http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?cat=7).
Glasmeier,Amy K., and Massachusetts’s Institute ofTechnology. 2015. “LivingWage Calculation for
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(http://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/48225).
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Lee, Hatty. 2012. “The Rhetorical (De)evolution of Affirmative Action [INFOGRAPHIC].”
Colorlines.com.Online Image. October 10. (http://www.colorlines.com/content/rhetorical-
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27. Library of Congress. 2006. “LandmarkCases: Dred ScottV. Sanford (1857).”Online Image.
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(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_dred.html).
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McFeatters, Dale. 2006. “Just Dessert: A Historic Monument in the Making.” Sit News. Online
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NewsmaxTV. 2015. “America’s Forum: Rep. Rick Brattin Discusses Legislation on Food Stamps.”
YouTube.com. October 7, 2015. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksPew8D0ElQ).
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(http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/08/27/yes-the-rich-are-different/#rich-richer)
Sayanythingblog.com. 2003. “Affirmative Action is a Joke.” Online Image.
(https://sayanythingblog.com/entry/affirmative_action_is_a_joke/).
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