In this Tim Wise discusses how the so called white privilege came about in the United States and how it was a big joke. He talks about how especially back during the Civil War that the world was off balance. White people were clearly more privileged and they may not have realized it until slavery came about. He mentions that the middle class people were fooled by those of the Elite class. The Elite class made them feel as though they were more important than there servants, which were normally African Americans, even though, the Elite did not care what everyone thought, they just wanted to stay on top. They felt that to stay on top they must create a class system. Elite was better than the Middle and Lower class, the Middle class was better than the Lower class, and if you were in the lower class you were nothing. Whites tended to be in both the Elite class and the Middle class while the African Americans fell in the Lower class, thus creating privilege.…
Peggy McIntosh and Tim Wise talks about white privilege; Peggy McIntosh explains how she enjoyed the white privilege through her life experience. She mentions how she always feels comfortable in public places when she uses credit card and checks or even browses in stores. She will never notice any shadowed or suspicious looks from security guards. Not only that, Peggy talks about how white privilege makes her life easier as a parent. In the Same way Tim Wise shows in his lecture that white men will be less likely to be stopped by authorities to search his car, unlike Latino and black African. In other hand, Peggy McIntosh explains how white person action doesn’t reflect on his race. Tim Wise agreed with her when he talks about white people…
I agree with Peggy, and many people deny the existence of white privilege. Do I have a knapsack of tools? Perhaps I do and I was handed it unearned. She lists…
These White Privilege readings engage popular culture by defining white privilege through concrete evidence. Texts such as “White Privilege: Unpacking the Knapsack” ask the reader is to view a list of items that define white privilege. The reader is then asked to confirm whether or not the privileges are applicable to how he or she lives. As most white people realize just how applicable white privileges are to them, they can see that the problem is not just skin deep. The privileges white people have today are because of the white privileges available throughout history. In “The History of White People” the author unveils that most of what we study is a white man’s version of history, and therefore discredits other race’s contribution to history.…
She uses her observation of men’s attitude toward their privileges, and their unwillingness to accept that they are over privileged, as an analogy to introduce her claim that white privileges are alike to male privileges. By transferring the importance and the seriousness of the women’s rights movement to her topic of white privilege, she combines ethos and pathos to persuade the readers that this is an important issue in our…
In the classroom we have to deal with my cultural difference that will play out within the confines of this learning space with students. Sometimes those factors can affect whether a child is doing well in school. In the documentary A Class Divided and the article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack, a clear picture is painted of what prejudice and privilege really are.…
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.…
As I was reading her article, it remains me of a quote: “ fish don't know they are in water.” It makes me think of the white people as a fish and the white privilege as the water. Ones lose the sense to identify a certain element in their daily life. The white people overlooked the community's selective advantage for them and take it for granted. In the beginning of the passage, McIntosh talks about how men are unwilling to admit to their superior advantage to the women's.…
It would most likely be harder for my parents to find a home and jobs. At school, I may not be helped as much due to discrimination. When looking for a job I may be sent somewhere else and it may be harder to get hired. When a crime or violation occurs around me I may be more likely to be questioned than my fellow white counterparts for no apparent reason besides the color of my skin. In general people may be less likely to assist me, denied or not offered things that people in other groups are given, and my personal opinions and feelings are more likely to be overlooked or poorly represented. Peggy McIntosh compares privileges to an invisible knapsack and states, “privileges are like an invisible knapsack full of provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks”(McIntosh). In this analogy I have a large invisible knapsack with lots of helpful things inside. She calls it invisible because we are not meant to even recognize these privileges because we are so used to having them and because they have been with us our entire lives. Our social structure and society is set up to place wealthy white men at the top and everyone else…
History has never been one of my favorite subjects; however this class has sparked a new interest in me in regards to my culture and how that culture came to be. This Cultural Diversity course has made me pay more attention to the people around me. I think this awareness has helped me relate to and also understand people in a way that I never have before. The one thing that totally surprised me was finding out that white privilege was something real. I thought that this was an ill feeling and belief that mostly Black people had in regards to the White race. White people, in my mind, had it all; they had certain advantages simply because they were White. The White Privilege section in Chapter 13 of Racial Ethnic Groups states a few of those advantages. I knew that being considered financially reliable, having the ability of articulation, and seeing people of the same race being represented in popular media were common advantages of the White race. Consequently, I thought they saw themselves as privileged and were proud about it. The information from this course that will be the most memorable is that, in general, the people from the White race do not see themselves as have any ethnicity. They feel as though they have been separated from their European roots; they are simply Caucasian. They are also victims of reverse discrimination; I almost laughed the first time I read this in the text. Now, I know that this is a laughing matter. I have seen evidence of this in my life. I asked 50 of my neighbors a yes or no question. This question was: “Do you believe that most Black people would label a random White person they see on the street as a racist?” Out of the 50 people, of evenly varied ethnicities, 41 of them replied with a yes. These results are a relevant example of how much diversity affects the person, currently and throughout history.…
The concept that all men are created equal and have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, is true if you were born a white, upper class male. If you were born of another gender or of a different skin color, or both, you face an uphill battle to thrive, let alone survive. Women face an uphill battle for equal rights, control over their own body, equal pay, respect, and a voice. If you were born a woman of color, the battle you face is also racism and prejudice, which even in today’s time and history, is a huge struggle every day. However, if you entered this world as a white man, especially into the privileged upper class, you have all the rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…
This has been the case in America with White Privilege. It started when whites first immigrated to other countries besides Europe and began taking land and enslaving people. They enslaved many people among these people were Africans. People were not able to defend against these foreigners for they were better equipped and had the only guns. When the White immigrants came to America they conducted mass genocide to the natives and conquered the land there for when they decided it was time to write history then they wrote it to make them seem a favorable is possible and also established laws only benefiting the White man and white women alike although at the time women were still subordinates to White men.…
In Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible backpack” we see detailed examples of how white people are extremely privileged in ways that people of other races may never understand. Even though sometimes we do not realize this is happening it has been seen to be true in many things throughout history and in the world today.…
In Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" one of the first appeals to text I see is logos. We see such techniques in the first few paragraphs were she goes on to use logic to explain that because male privilege obviously exists and because men, while admitting women do have a disadvantage in society, can't see their advantage in being male, then, because of interlocking hierarchies in our society, the same must go for whites when it comes to white privilege. Meanwhile for ethos, she clearly states multiple times that she is indeed white and is able to use her race as a source of credibility for the article. McIntosh uses her experience as a white citizen to list down some of the advantages she has had, or will…
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…