Privilege

White people in America, and even within the entire western hemisphere, are allowed broad access and mobility within society that is not granted to people of color. This extends to the highly regarded concept of "innocent until proven guilty." When white people commit crimes, the media does not jump to conclusions and demonize them. Instead, the media demonizes people of color when they are the suspects of crime. As Zak Cheney Rice explains in his Mic article, white people are portrayed differently in media than people of color. An example of this is the Aurora theater shooting in 2012. James Holmes walked into a movie theater wearing tactical gear, threw tear gas grenades, and proceeded to fire multiple firearms into the audience, killing 12 people and injuring 70 more. Instead of covering this event as terrorism, the media white washed the terrorism and focused on the human side of Ethan Holmes. One headline in particular shows the extent of which the media humanizes white suspects. The Boston Globe released an article a day after the incident titled, "Accused shooter was quiet intellectual" and presented the article with Holmes' high school graduation picture where he is smiling. He is portrayed as a smart, young boy instead of the mass murderer that he truly is. White people are granted the luxury of innocent until proven guilty, and furthermore are defended by the media instead of being interrogated and indicted. White privilege is a Trump card.

In a similar vein, male privilege provides access and mobility within society for no reason other than that a person has certain genitalia. In leadership positions, men are seen as strong and confident, while women get called "bitchy." We, as a society, consider leadership, confidence, independence, and power as masculine traits. Therefore, women who exhibit these traits are torn down because they do not fit the male mold that society expects. The most prevalent example is the treatment of Hilary Clinton by the media and by Trump during the 2016 election. "Nasty woman" was a common phrase from Trump to depict Clinton. Despite all of her achievement and credentials, Trump dismissed all of that and reduced her to a nasty woman because it shows his own bias and the bias o society for latching onto the term. Clinton was demonized, in part, because of her gender. She attempted to break the largest glass ceiling in America and she faced lots of backlash because of it. Male privilege is being able to function in daily life without being ridiculed for what you're wearing or being praised for being a single father. Whereas women are expected to dress a certain way at nearly all times and being a single mother is not widely accepted as a good thing. Men, because of their genitalia and the structure of society, have more access and mobility within society than women.