Power and Privilege

POWER is the ability to control or coerce another's behavior. In systems of oppression, power accrues to those who most closely approximate the mythical norm. Power also includes access to social, political, and economic resources. In social institutions (family, education, religion, media, government) reproduce hierarchy and ensure the maintenance of power in the hands of members of the dominant culture by normalizing the dominant culture so that hierarchical orderings based on gender, race and social class appear natural and inevitable. White nationalism is a political ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. It has been argued by Leonard Zeskind that white separatism and white supremacism may be considered subgroups within white nationalism.

PRIVILEGE is a way of framing issues surrounding social inequality, focusing as much on the advantages that one group accrues from society as on the disadvantages that another group experiences. While the concept of privilege was originally limited to issues of race and gender, the term's usage has expanded greatly over the years to include other forms of social inequality, including class and sexuality. Many advocates of privilege theory believe that the main reason why privilege must be pointed out is so that those in positions of power can realize that they are privileged and can use this privilege to combat inequality. A system of privilege a family, a workplace, a society is organized around three basic principles: dominance, identification, and centeredness. An example to explain a little bit more this could be the white people are generally assumed to be law-abiding until they show some sign that they are not, while people of color are routinely assumed to be criminals or potential criminals until they show they’re not.