In this quote from McIntosh's list of white privileges, she talks about how if someone who's not white does something extra ordinary, they become an example of how that race should act or what the potential they have. Huffington Post has their own "Black Voices" area for news. The goal of it is to shine light on issues in the black community. One of the first articles was about a black, gay, woman who is shaking up the business world. I thought it interesting that if the persona had been a white, straight, man they probably wouldn't have gotten a whole news article just for themselves, Even if it had been a white, straight, woman, they probably wouldn't have gotten an article.
"For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country..."
McIntosh is acknowledging in this quote that white privilege has given her things in life that other people might not have had access to. She says that privilege provides opportunities to people that didn't even do anything to warrant those opportunities. This relates back to her list mentioning the many things white people can do just for being white."...I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth."
McIntosh says in this quote that when we're young, we're taught racism is only explicit acts to oppress someone of a different race. She now realises that white privilege is a form of racism even though it acts as more of a shadow; performing its racist acts behind the scenes. This relates back to the discussion we had in class on 17/9/15 about individual and institutional oppression.
Privilege is a power that some of us are "lucky" enough to be born with. I do not agree with my privilege and if I could give it to someone who does not have it I would in a second. McIntosh hits the nail on the head from a white woman's perspective and experience of this privilege, it is something that is embedded into us when we are children that most of the time we don't even notice it.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up great points here. Privilege is something many people don't realize they have and when they say that other people just need to work harder, they don't realize that it's sometimes not that simple. Great quotes and well written! :)f
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