After reading White
Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, I feel like
I have a better grasp on looking at the controversy of racial fairness from an
entirely different perspective. Reading an article written by a white woman, I
can understand better because I can relate to where she’s coming from. She
lists twenty six things that she can do on a daily basis without having to
worry about, simply because she is white. Every point that I read made me acknowledge
things that I do every day that I’ve never had to think twice about or think
that there are people who don’t have the same advantage. I feel like most white
people don’t consider themselves racist, but we are aware that there is a
disadvantage. McIntosh states, “I did not see myself as a racist because I was
taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my
group, never in the invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on
my group from birth.” As a whole, white people still aren’t willing to let go
of the power that we’ve been born in to, in order to make for a truly equal
society. We accept the power that we’re given, not earned, with no questions
asked because we are the people with the power and we aren’t negatively
affected by it. She says in her piece, “I began to count the ways in which I
enjoyed unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about
its existence.” The keyword here is unearned. We’re born into an automatic
privilege, just because of the color of our skin. However, we claim that we
live in a democracy where all people are considered to be treated equal. It
seems that white privilege is something that gets overlooked by some white
people because they don’t want to give up having this sort of power. This video
is a debate between Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly, over the subject of “white
privilege”.
Megyn Kelly says, “The black population feels forgotten,
that’s why they are resentful. They don’t believe the justice system is going
to give them a fair shake.”
It’s not acceptable that one part of the population are the
people in power; People aren’t given a fair shot because they aren’t white.
This system of people having an advantage or a disadvantage over their race
needs to change.
I had the same reaction when reading the article and it made me realize how many little things we look over without realizing that race plays a large factor in it! I like your use of the quotes in the reflection too, and it made everything you were saying more powerful overall.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading this article. The 26 things you can do on a daily basis without thinking about your race was very insightful and I'm glad I am aware now. I agree with you when you say that white people aren't willing to let go of that power, I think it also has to do with ignorance, and whites getting defensive over the issue of white privilege, instead of educating themselves on the topic
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