How do young, white privileged South Africans perceive white privilege and racism in our country and society today?
Explanation of Question:
Privilege, especially white privilege, continues to be a major discussion point in society as many people feel that only a select few in our world today receive and/or have the opportunities to excel and lead successful, wealthy lives. Many people have argued and criticised privileged people for being ignorant and nonchalant when it comes to the impoverished and the unfair, unequal society that we live in. Privileged people have been criticised for being major catalysts for racism and classism in our society as well due to the fact that the upper, privileged classes are frequently seen as the …show more content…
It provides accounts of racism, ethnic and white privilege scenarios in the 1900s, which in fact, relate to a number of scenarios that have occurred in recently in the 21st century as well. Her book was published in 2001. Since it was published at the beginning of the 21st century, it is slightly outdated. However, the information, statistics, research and case studies put into making this book cannot be disregarded. The only limitation of this book is that it is an outdated book. This book was approved by the United States of America’s Congress and has been added to the Congress library. It is valid and reliable because Linda Jacobs Altman used studies done by professors and she also interviewed a number of journalists and recounted a number of quotes and statistics made by various groups of researchers and universities on racism, ethnics and white privilege. All the information I have taken from the book is very useful for the final results of my research task. Linda Jacobs Altman, begins her non-fiction book with the history of racial classification and how “Carolus Linnaeus divided people into racial groups” as he believed that this was scientifically correct. However, as time went by, scientists realised that there were as many differences in the racial groups that Linnaeus created. In Linda’s view after collecting all the possible research around racism, racism is defined as the belief that “race shapes personality, character, intelligence and ability,” and it’s this reasoning, that led to the incorrect idea that Europeans are more superior than other racial groups and the Europeans used it to justify conquests, colonisation, slavery and mass slaughters. Racism grew in the 1800s and early 1900s because of the pseudo-sciences which convinced Europeans that they were more superior. The racists believed that “non-whites” are primitive and not intelligent. Finally, Linda spent time on