MTV’s New Show “White People” Explains The Meaning of Whiteness


July 23, 2015 9:49 pm

MTV premiered a new series last night called “White People” that examines the meaning of whiteness. In the first episode, we see millennials distraught over racism and reverse racism in the U.S. and they discuss the issue of “white privilege.”

Let me start by saying this: privilege is real, but your skin color does not inherently make you privileged. As my high school psychology teacher would say, “correlation does not equal causation.” In other words, just because we tend to see more white people in privileged situations, that does not mean that they are more privileged because they are white.

The show is not what I’d call enlightening, but I do think it portrays racism in a very biased manner. Racism is not limited to coming from one ethic group. I abhor racism in its entirety, but what a lot of people don’t think about is that it is used by all ethnic groups, not just white people.

Watch the full MTV episode below:

It should be noted that the director of this documentary, Jose Antonio Vargas, is an illegal immigrant who has lived in the U.S. since he was 12-years-old.