Plagiarism Activity: The Assignment

1. According to Tim Wise in "The Mother of all Racial Preferences," whiles have privileges in areas such as housing, education, criminal justice, and banking, yet they like to think that they are self-made, independent achievers. It's easy not to notice the opportunity that makes their efforts more effective than equal efforts by Americans of other races. They can't imagine that any other life exists; white privilege is always there, like water is for fish.
2. Tim Wise compares white privilege to water. A fish live in and can't imagine the absence of water, so whites live in white privilege and can't see it's effect on their lives. Whites rarely see the advantages they have in such basic areas as housing, education, employment, and business. Wise says that in their ignorance of the system of privilege, whites see every opportunity and achievement as a result of individual effort.
3. We pretend to be independent and at the same time don't see the advantages we get in every area of life: where we live, work, go to school, our law inforcement and political structures, our banks and our businesses. We don't see how in many ways our own efforts have been augmented by opportunities that millions of others never get. We are like fish when it comes to water: we don't see it because it's everywhere and its absence is unimaginable. (Wise)
4. Tim Wise writes that while ignoring how our hard work has been met with access to an opportunity structure that millions don't have, white Americans strike a pose of being self- sufficient. In housing, education, employment, criminal justice, politics and business, white people have advantages that, like water to a fish, are invisible and essential to them.