White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy Mcintosh illustrates an image of white superiority over other colored people. Peggy knapsack is lecturer and associate director at the Wellesley College Center where she does her research. Specifically focusing on women, gender equality and multi culture. Her legitimacy derives out of being some of the firsts scholars to examine whites to be measured in racial categories. Beginning with one of her first arguments, the author states that much like men having hierarchy over women, white colored people have immunities that people of colored skin do not. Just as she said “Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women’s studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men…
The black population in America has always been oppressed and abused in some sort of way, but the depth of the abuse that black females have had to deal with never really seems to take the spotlight. Black Female Executions in Historical Context by David V. Baker and Drug Offenses, Gender, Ethnicity, and Nationality Women in Prison in England and Wales by Janice Joseph both look in depth into the amount of unfairness and inequality that black females have faced in the past and present.…
In “White Like Me,” Thomas Wise discusses the many ways White privilege influences other race’s, from a White male’s perspective. Three of the most interesting point relate to the of “white supremacy” and how the common white citizens unknowingly uses their powers. He expresses the belief that Whites should “guard their white privilege” because the United States, as a capitalist society, honors the majority. Another point he makes is that Whites are able to escape the blame for their unjust actions, whereas people of color would be slaughtered in the media for such things. An impactful example he uses is terrorism. In Oklahoma there were two white terrorists who bombed a government building, killing many. This horrific action was headlined…
In “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy,” Andrea Smith proposes that organizing efforts for women of color have been ineffective, as they fail to recognize the heteropatriarchy framework undermining their platform. This political and social framework creates a divisive environment of “oppressive Olympics,” where groups are vying for the title of most beleaguered (66). In addition, numerous efforts to organize have been plagued by the sentiment that all minorities have experienced the same subjugations and consequently, share similar objectives for liberation (67). However, as Ms. Smith, demonstrates “racism and white supremacy…is (not) enacted in a singular fashion; rather, white supremacy is constituted by separate and distinct, but interrelated logics” (67). This premise serves as the backdrop for the three pillars of white supremacy; Slavery/Capitalism, Genocide/Colonialism and Orientalism/War, which all address how women of color are victimized in diverse ways. The first pillar of slavery/capitalism is based on the historic value of blacks as slaves, which implies they were not part of humanity but rather a commodity, “nothing more than property” (67). Unfortunately, even though slavery was abolished, this logic remains imbedded in the patriarchal system and is most evident in the “prison industrial complex” (67). The second pillar of genocide/colonialism states that for colonialism to exist, it must procure the resources of…
The first scene of the movie, in which Tariq and Sparks are together in the car, demonstrates that Hollywood movies portrays African-Americans men as criminals. In this scene, while driving by, Sparks smokes weed, even though he doesn’t know what kind of drug it is, and Tariq advises him the best drugs he could get. “… I call that Alice in Wonderland. You’d be lost like Alicia out this bitch” (Tariq). Next, they start talking about “horny women” and how easy they can get any women they want. After few miles the car stops in an abandoned warehouse, then, they get out of the car and Sparks puts a black mask on, Tariq thinks he is exaggerating on using a mask. Then, they open the truck, and there is a black man tie up and gagged. The man begs…
White like me is a documentary tracking Tim Wise detailing the history of racism in America and how it still affects us in the present. Tim Wise attended a school where the teachers and students were mostly black, and he said he had learned to respect the “black authority figures” from a young age. During college Tim realized he was privileged as a white person: by having the choice to speak out against racism from a distance and not doing anything about locally. The white privilege included having favorable opportunities in jobs, housing access, and education. Other inequalities between races were the incarceration rate where mostly poor black people were arrested for nonviolent drug related offenses. At the same time where middle class white people were doing and distributing drugs at relatively the same rate and were not arrested. Other inequalities that were hidden racially motivated actions included the G.I. Bill and demanding tax cuts. All actions that primarily affects the black community.…
In America, privileged is something we see every day whether it is gender, sexuality, age, socioeconomics, or religion. Tim Wise documentary on White Privilege discuss inequality of race between blacks and whites. In this paper I will discuss other privilege beside raced that are enjoyed by a preferred category. People of a particular category are in denial of privilege, such as rich people feel people of poverty put themselves in that predicament. Rich people feel there should be no government assistance that includes: public housing, food stamps, federal grants, and Medicare. In America women are paid 79 percent of what men make. I notice that women are chosen more for teaching and secretarial jobs while men get chosen for manual labor jobs.…
Bruce A. Arrigo (2008) discussed the idea that black people were more likely to incarcerated than their white counterpart, he later stated that “Ramirez (1983) found that Black convicts received a disproportionate number of conduct reports compared to their White counterparts in a medium-security federal correctional institute” (Arrigo, 2008, p, 633). Arrigo discussed how a black person was treated differently in the same situation is like how two black men in this episode loss their social standing and their jobs while only one white woman had a type of loss. Furthermore, this shows the how the society in the episode is based solely on social standing and that people of color are more likely to be of low standing and if they get high they have a greater chance of falling too low social standing than their white…
In addition films from Two-Gun Man from Harlem, Blazing Saddle, Lightning Jack and Buffalo Soldier helped clear up myths and untruths that black people did exist back then and they also could have been lawmen and cowboys. Many films just like Buffalo Soldier and Blazing Saddle and unbury America History. Walter Moses Burton was a former slaved turn farmer and then elected first black sheriff of American. Burton was the first elected sheriff in American in 1868. Also, Bass Reeves was one of the first black Deputy U.S. Marshals. Bass Reeves also arrested 3,000 people and even killed fourteen outlaws in his time as a…
Often when racial inequality and discrimination is being discussed, we get to think of terms such as “white privilege” and American history with the Civil Rights Act in 1964. But we think of it, mainly as history. And that, according to Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist and American writer, is the biggest self-deception of the modern American world. Throughout an article posted on his own webpage, concerning school shootings, Tim Wise discusses the general American attitude towards this relatively new phenomenon in American society. With the use of especially pathos Wise argues that the most concerning thing about these events is how society is handling them afterwards. The problem is, according to Wise, that white people tell themselves ‘white lies’, and therefore never think that such actions could be taking place in their communities. He claims that there’s a reason why this happens in the outwardly ordinary societies. It’s because the people, trying to maintain at certain surface of innocence, refuse to see the signs of trouble, even when it’s going on before their very eyes.…
In White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh provides vivid examples on how "white privilege" is considered to be unapparent for many white individuals and negatively affects people of color. White privilege is an “unearned advantage” given to Caucasian individuals, as it “confers dominance” by establishing that the is white race is superior (McIntosh, 1990). With white privilege, white individuals are protected from the “hostility, distress, and violence,” which is often associated with individuals of color (McIntosh, p. 332). White privilege gives these individuals the opportunity to receive vital educational, political, and social resources that may possibly be inaccessible for people of color. By providing awareness on how white privilege works and how it can be detrimental in the attempt to gain racial equity for individuals of color, this concept can work to improve racial equity by establishing educational programs that inform individuals on white privilege and ending political policies that serve as a measure to oppress individuals of color.…
What does it mean to be a “man?” Unfortunately, in American culture this is all too important of a question. According to sociologist, Michael Kimmel, being a (white) man entails having much anger, violence, and entitlement, which he describes further in his book: Angry White Men. These actions are also displayed in the 2007 film, The Departed, which follows the story of two white men on their journey to take on the Irish Mob along with the Massachusetts State Police Department. But, where do these actions come from? In this paper, I will be arguing that men in today’s society act out while trying to fulfill the ideal masculine role that is shaped by American society’s social expectations and social institutions including the family,…
Susan Ruddick highlights this in, “Constructing Differences In Public Spaces”. This article highlights that race, class and gender are interlocking systems in public spaces. Ruddick depicts the aftermath Just Desserts robbery in 1994, with other racialized crimes as prime examples of race and gender attributing towards the negative implications black people endure on a daily basis. A microaggression that can be seen here are marginalized groups being easily stereotyped from criminal incidents because of national headlines and the victims being mostly white women. In the middle of the article, Ruddick’s note of the Central Park Five case brings out the point that in the media, there is an immediate favor towards the victims, who are predominantly white women. In discussing marginalized groups, it brings the fact that black men are perceived to be a “menace to society, (Ruddick, 9)”. Towards the end of the article, Ruddick analyzes and comes up with the conclusion that in terms of public spaces, the media creates a medium that brings out local and national images of racial ethnicities which can be “constructed and contested,” (Ruddick, 10). This final point highlights that from these criminal incidents, the national media has portrayed a negative image towards minority groups, especially men of color. This article serves as one of the main components of how minority groups are marginalized and how…
This paper covers white privilege as well as the systematic racism leading to the death of two people. It also connects an online article by Warren J. Blumenfeld to the book written by Rebecca Skloot. Both have a central theme of white privilege and racism, but Blumenfeld appears to believe that racism and white privilege feed off of each other while Skloot simply reports examples of past instances of racism that still have an impact today.…
The beginning of this article discusses how men exhibit privilege in society over women, and either fail to admit to the privilege, or fail to actually do anything about it. The reason being is that men would have to disadvantage themselves, in a sense. McIntosh discusses both topics of male privilege and white privilege, stating that white people have been trained to be blind to see white privilege, but wholly benefit from the phenomenon known as white privilege. McIntosh then outlines 26 different ways in which she benefits from white privilege each day. McIntosh calls white privilege an “invisible knapsack” because most people are taught recognize it and do not…