This week in FNED 346 we had the chance to read and blog about an article called "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh. What was interesting about this post is that she compared white privilege to male privilege, in that most of the time whites and males are unaware of the power that they hold just by having the sex or skin color they were born with.
One quote that stuck out to me while reading was on the first page, where McIntosh states, "whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow “them“ to be more like “us." I agree wholeheartedly with her statement. Most white people in our society would never consider themselves to be racist, yet we may subconsciously classify cultural customs that are non-european with degrading words, for example, "ghetto" or "ratchet", instead of acknowledging the differences among cultural groups.
Next, McIntosh goes on to list daily activities that she, as a white person, does not think about having privilege for. For example, "I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed." Going out in public without the feeling that you are not trusted is a privilege that whites have that many of us do not think about. Another privilege that whites have over other racial groups is that history that is taught in school favors whites. McIntosh states on page 2, "When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my
color made it what it is." The US Education system widely overlooks the history and achievements of any other country outside of Europe or the post colonial US, which inhibits a white standard of education for every student in the crayon box of ethnicities in the US.
This article made me ask myself, "in what ways am I privileged as a white person that I am not aware of?" I found some examples of privilege on whiteprivilegeconference.com, which states not only examples of white privilege, but male and heterosexual privilege as well. http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/white_privilege.html.
Also, I found a funny and informative comic strip on the issue of white privilege and education and crime:
(I did not make this comment, credit to Jamietheignorantamerican.tumblr.com)
I absolutely loved what you had to say, and your comic strip! I am white too, and i never once considered myself racist, i never even took into consideration i had more privileges than colored people, but yet I am using terms such as ghetto. Its not fair for people actually living in "ghetto" places to have bad occurrences in life expressed using such terms. I blogged about this article too, and everything you had to say I totally agree on!
ReplyDeleteI loved the comic strip I think it connects to the reading really well.
ReplyDelete