What do you think white privilege is? Do you think of someone being able to wear a hoodie without being labeled as a thug? or how a Caucasian person will more likely get hired than a person who is black, Asian, or Hispanic/Latino?

However you interpret the phrase, it’s real and it’s an issue to our melting pot of races and ethnicities in the United States.

White privilege is not saying white people do not have any problems. It just means that white people do not have the exact same problems as other races and ethnicities.

Some white people are blind to the fact that their skin color does project privilege. But, the privilege is real. People who are white are privileged because of their skin color regardless of other factors. Again, I’m not saying white people lead a perfect life.

One of the most well-known examples of white privilege in everyday life is the treatment of white individuals in stores. A white person can walk into a store and they won’t get a second look from employees. A person of color walks into a store and chances are they will get watched or followed.

On a public platform, white privilege was seen at this year’s Super Bowl.The Confederate flag was waved with pride but there was little backlash from the media.

Meanwhile, Beyoncé’s performance about black pride got a ridiculous amount of hate because she was seen as a “police hater” and a “racist.”

It is evident that white people get treated differently in the media and in the entertainment industry.

For example, many award shows, like the Oscars, nominate predominately white people and ignore the success of many amazing people of color.

Last summer when MTV had nominated more white artists than artists of color for the MTV awards, Nicki Minaj tweeted about this but somehow Taylor Swift got in her feelings and thought Minaj was attacking her.

This was odd because Minaj did not mention anything about Swift and Swift received more sympathy while Minaj received disrespect. That right there is white privilege because Nicki Minaj called out MTV for not giving people of color  recognition and Swift made it about herself and the media gave her the sympathy.

White privilege is also prevalent in historical and tragic events. The holocaust receives more sympathy than the era slavery and segregation. African-Americans are often told to let by-gones be by-gones whenever slavery or segregation is mentioned. But, the holocaust reigns as the superior tragedy.

As defined by Websters dictionary “Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture.” When white people appropriate people of color’s culture they get more recognition than people of color.

Afro hair is a cultural appropriation problem. Recently, on Twitter there was a post of white people creating ways to get Afro hair. This is offensive because black people have been bullied and forced to straightened their hair for certain jobs or schools because their natural hair is considered as unprofessional. The afro is becoming a trend through the appropriation of black culture by white people.

Hispanics and Latino in today’s society are better known as “immigrants.” We live in a society where the word immigrant has become synonymous to being Hispanic or Latinos.

People often forget that white people’s ancestors migrated here and killed off most of the Native Americans then called this their land. White privilege is saying illegal immigration is a crime when that’s how this country was started by white men.

Police brutality cases have yet to receive justice. Families who have sought out to get justice for their deceased member, not only have to mourn their own loss, but the loss of others in similar cases.

The shooter–the white man–is getting by with little to no punishment while the families are left with little to no compensation and definitely left with no justice.

White privilege is killing an unarmed individual and getting away with it. Just imagine if the race of the police and the victims were switched.

People would feel more sympathy towards the victim because it “wasn’t their fault,” “they were not asking for it,” and “they were not a thug.” But, in the real world the white shooter gets the sympathy and support because of their skin color.

White privilege is Donald Trump making it far in the elections after all the racist, sexist, and islamophobic comments. If this was a person of color making anti-white comments they probably wouldn’t have made it passed the first debate.

There are other examples of white privilege but it will take several pages to name them. All or at least most people of color notice that there is white privilege. There are several things that a white person can do that minorities cannot. White privilege is real.