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“White Privilege: essay
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More handpicked essays just for you.
“White Privilege: essay
Gender stereotypes in society
Gender stereotypes in society
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Recommended: “White Privilege: essay
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack While reading this piece by Peggy McIntosh, I found myself as a white woman thinking, 'yes I can do these things,' and realized right there what white privilege looks like. Looking at the fifty points McIntosh discusses, it is clear that the predominance of white privilege affects her daily life. These daily effects McIntosh discusses range from who she wants to surround herself with, knowing and feeling financially secure and feeling welcomed in public life. While only choosing fifty instances where McIntosh feels her white privilege comes into contact, it is apparent that the instances are common when discussing primarily skin color compared to race, class, and religion. Without argument,
From the readings and the NPR podcast it gave me a lot to think about how I view race and specifically white privilege and how it affects the social constructs of our society. I believe that in order to understand white privilege you must know the role that race plays. Race is a social construct that was developed by people in order to distinguish between different groups based on physical characteristics but, also to maintain exclusiveness and social superiority (Conley, 2015, p. 344). In the second reading “Defining Racism” it acknowledges that even if someone is aware of their white privilege why would they want it give up because it plays in their favor. In Peggy McIntosh’s “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” she argues that white people
Such privileges range from obvious aspects like, “[turning] on the television or [opening] the front page of the paper and [seeing] people of my race widely represented.” to more conspicuous concepts like the ability to “ choose blemish cover or bandages in ‘flesh’ color and have them more or less match my skin.”. Throughout her 26 bullet points, McIntosh gives reasoning behind her initial claim that white privilege is overlooked by those who are a part of the group. Consequently, the audience is forced to, figuratively, unpack their privilege. With each bullet point, the reader is taken to another privilege that is not listed: McIntosh forces the reader to dig deeper, think further.
There is one particular example that I can think of in my personal life that goes along with this theme of ‘white privilege.’ I attended Northeast Guilford High School, which is a primarily African American high school. Therefore, I was the minority. Right before I transitioned from middle school to high school, the district lines in my county were ‘redrawn’ and many of the black students who used to attend Eastern Guilford that lived in the lower income housing were now being sent to Northeast. It was almost as if they wanted to pull as many of the African American students into one school because they didn’t want those students of color to be attending the same school as the rich, white students.
According to McIntosh, white privilege is like “an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks” (McIntosh, p2), also McIntosh believes that she had trouble facing that for she is white as well. Male privilege contains that men have done most of important things in life or in civilization so men must be put in the center, and male hegemony exist in “all the inner sanctum of our most powerful institutions” (McIntosh, p2). One thing necessary for implement meritocracy is to have education, and the education is not designed for certain color or gender. Like McIntosh mentioned, the school gave her “no training in seeing me as
In the McIntosh article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” my overview of this article for the reading assignment is that “white privilege,” as McIntosh states, is “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious.” This revelation came as she was writing an observation article on white male privilege in America. Her reviews in this area began in her discoveries of men’s unwillingness to recognize their over-advantage status, however they would concede the impediment condition of women. These denials protected male privilege from being acknowledged, diminished, or abridged. Her findings concerning unattended white privilege may be key to bigotry.
White privilege is a form of embedded racism wherein “white” people are granted greater power, or access to resources as opposed to other races (Robbins et al. 2014: 99). White privilege is demonstrated in the case of Jennifer Cramblett, a white lesbian woman who decided to undergo artificial insemination. This resulted in a problematic situation as the sperm bank sent the wrong specimen to her (Mystal 2014). This was discovered well into her pregnancy, but she went ahead and delivered the baby. Two years after the baby girl was born, Cramblett decided to sue the sperm bank even after they gave her a refund because she was forced to make changes to accommodate her black child (Mystal 2014).
Perhaps one way of defining and understanding the concept of white male privilege is to imagine that a white male walks through life with an invisible duffle bag full of unearned rights and privileges that a white male alone enjoys. These privileges are said to exist as these white males have something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, versus anything, in particular, they have either failed to do or have actually done. Because other groups do not walk through life with this invisible duffle bag full of unearned rights and privileges, Affirmative Action policies were initiated to provide those without an invisible duffle bag, a visible one; thus, allowing all to walk through life equally. In regards
Since the beginning of American culture, it has been tradition for rich white men to oppress and dominate in order to gain and maintain power and control. This oppression began with the conquering of the United States and continued on for centuries. In the modern world, these men, many generations ahead, seem to be similarly programmed, and are still hungry for the things that fuel their ego: A healthy appearance, powerful social status, superior educational background, and a high-powered profession. These things are key ingredients for modern social superiority, a kind of superiority that seems to be the key for success in American society. And a kind superiority is something that the most power-driven men would kill for.
The General Idea of White Privilege McIntosh (1988) defines white privilege
Colorado State Admissions Essay I envision my first year of college to be successful, meaningful, and educational. I will be explaining what I picture, what I plan to do, how I plan to do it and what the outcome should be when I accomplish everything I want to do. My first year of college will possibly be the most exciting year of my life. The new people, sporting events & parties are all so overwhelming.
We've all heard the saying "White Privilege" used loosely in society. Well folks, it exists as a factual privilege given at birth to those of the Anglo-Saxon race of people, not only in America, but worldwide. Believe me folks, it comes with its perks and self proclaimed righteousness that creates its own preconceived path to success. On the other end of the spectrum, Charlamagne Tha God introduces "Black Privilege" in the book. Yes, it is indeed a privilege to be Black, African American.
People see whiteness because they experience its effects. A useful comparison can be drawn between the unrecognised privileges of males, and those of white people (McIntosh, 1988). It is not unusual for men to acknowledge that women are disadvantaged. With that said, McIntosh (1988) argues that white privilege is in the same manner without recognition and thus preserved. McIntosh (1988) views white privilege as an invisible collection of unearned assets that is of benefit to white people on a daily basis.
The fact also arises that women not only suffer from lack of recognition for the work they do in households but also for their work in their jobs. Women work as much as men, if not more. When both paid and unpaid work such as household chores and caring for children are taken into consideration, women work longer hours than men—an average of 30 minutes a day longer in developed countries and 50 minutes in developing countries. This is known as second shift, where women not only work at their jobs but also come back home and complete their household chores. However their contribution remains minimum due to unequal wage pay and lack of consideration given to household chores.
Ladies and gentleman, today I’m going to talk about gender inequality. You must listen to me carefully, we are one of the members of our home - Earth. We need to make our home better! You all know there only exist two sexes. In Chinese, if you want to write both boys and girls together, you need to use word they with Chinese character of “he”.