Daniel Strausman
10/10/17
Arts Activism
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh
Main points:
- Men wont usually acknowledge how over privileged they are.
- Parallel phenomena of unacknowledged white privilege.
- Taught to not recognize privileged
- “Invisible package of unearned assets”
- “White privilege is like an invisible weightless backpack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks”
- School teaches whats to think morally neutral, average and ideal.
- Teach “them” to be like “us”
- Peggy McIntosh identifies her own privileges of being white:
- Being able to be represented in current pop culture.
- Being able to move more easily.
- Not being seen as suspicion because of race.
- Being well represented in schools and social gatherings.
- Being represented in schools and history books.
- Finding items/food of your culture.
- Easily protect children from others who don’t like them.
- Speak publicly and not condemned by race.
- Never asked to speak for your whole racial group.
- Go without feeling penalty to my culture.
- Not seen as isolated when belonging to a group.
- Not seen as being hired for affirmative action.
- Seek medical and legal advice mush easily.
- Not worried about racial overtones.
- Easier to buy makeup or skin products that fit my own complexation.
- Not worrying about culture being represented in supermarket, hair salon, or music shop.
- You have to give up myth of meritocracy.
- People are rewarded based on ability, or unrewarded by lack of ability.
- America is seen as “white turf”.
- Disapproving of the system won’t change it.
- We need to acknowledge this mistake of white and male privilege.
- America is not free because of this unseen privilege.
Citation:
McIntosh, Peggy. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. www.bing.com/cr?IG=65F82415F250481EBD307706DAA38A95&CID=18A0DB0F359466E32444D0173492671C&rd=1&h=yzxLTN0oj-RyK84PqxG9b6D1qtAKcEQ6JDfu3bRdC6A&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fwww.deanza.edu%2ffaculty%2flewisjulie%2fWhite%2520Priviledge%2520Unpacking%2520the%2520Invisible%2520Knapsack.pdf&p=DevEx,5066.1.
Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Main points:
- Mainstream sources lack multi perspectives on race.
- Schools
- Textbooks
- Media
- Dictionary definitions of racism only affect an individual racism.
- Making racist jokes
- Committing racist acts
- Racism is multidimensional and highly adaptive.
- America is an unequal system.
- Unequal distribution of resources and accommodations.
- Ideas causing “race-based stress”:
- Challenging white objectivity
- Challenging White taboos on talking about race
- Challenging white racial expectations/entitlement to racial comfort
- Challenging the expectation that people of color will serve us
- Challenging white solidarity
- Challenging white racial innocence
- Challenging individualism
- Challenging meritocracy
- Challenging white authority
- Challenging white centrality
- These can and do cause “white fragility"
- becoming defensive/uncomfortable with race and racism
- White fragility causes:
- Segregation
- The Good/Bad Binary
- Rasist “bad” / not racist “good”
- Individualism
- Entitlement to racial comfort
- White people should always be comfortable
- Racial Arrogance
- Feeling free to dismiss these challenges
- Racial Belonging
- Whites “belonging”
- Psychic freedom
- Whites not dealing with racism everyday
- Constant messages that we are more valuable
- How to change:
- Tolerating the discomfort of talking about racism
- Challenging our own racial reality by use of acknowledgment
- Understanding racism through meaningful interactions
- Trying to understand the racial realities
- Taking action through education and protest
Citation:
Project, The Good Men. “Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Apr. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/good-men-project/why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism_b_7183710.html.
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