In the United States, race and racism exist as social systems that causes for those who are white to benefit, and those who appear to be of a race other than white to not benefit. The implementation of racism by Europeans, allowed for them to over time, be put in a position of dominance and benefit from the creation of whiteness that came as a result. The creation of whiteness brought with it certain privileges which can be defined as, “an institutional benefit, enjoyed by those who are empowered through structures of domination.”. These societal benefits that whites receive and people of color do not is called white privilege. White privilege in itself is a system of domination in the U.S that allows whites to have more of an advantage at …show more content…
This means that the contemporary racism comes in the general forms of laws and policies, housing practices, and prison. These practices directly attack minorities and attempt to lower their status by keeping them distant from ever receiving the resources and privilege to elevate their social status.
A specific example of a racist practice and system of domination that maintains the power of whites and undermines blacks is the Prison-Industrial Complex. This refers to the corrupt prison system of the U.S. that arrests and imprisons a great deal of minorities and hires them out to do work for companies, making them a valuable asset to the U.S. government while keeping them at a position of “slave” (prisoner) in society. A comparison of how the contemporary U.S prison system of today can compare to slavery can be found in in Slavery,
Civil Rights, and Abolitionist Perspectives Towards Prison by Andrea Davis . It reads, “Both institutions reduced their subjects dependance on others for the supply of basic human services such as food and shelter. Both isolated their subjects from the general population by confining them to a fixed habitat. And both frequently coerced their subjects to work, often for