During a conversation of how to discuss what White Privilege means, I reminded myself that the term may put the individual you are trying to discuss this with on the defensive. Especially, if they are white. Their first reaction to bringing up the conversation was usually, “Well I had to work hard for what I have. Nobody gave what I have achieved to me.” This defense is undoubtedly true in almost all cases. Their are very few, if any, persons that have not overcome some difficulty whether it has been emotionally, physical, financial or societal.

So in understanding the differences and create a conversation, one must think of life as a running track. Everyone begins with the same distance to run. Everyone has to wait for the gun to start. Yet, in some lanes there are hurdles and in some lanes there are, maybe not zero, but fewer. It is this concept that one can bring into the conversation the effort to remove hurdles burdening the lane runner that are placed there by the color of one’s skin or the visual proportions of their eyelids. These are always differences from the society majority no matter what nation but we can limit this conversation to those in the United States.

The privilege of running in the lane with less hurdles set up provides for a quicker finish for that runner. What is the finish? Well, anything like a good job, a good school district for your children, a happy retirement, better advancement career and even nicer neighborhoods for your children to play. All things found in the pursuit of happiness, that truly American ideal.

The effort of a just society should be to reduce those impediments that are not based on the opportunity itself. Lessen the obstacles placed there by ethnological protectionism within a diverse society. But moreover, there should be an unmitigated realization within a free people that such ethnological protectionism exists.