“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance of my group”
October 29, 2009
“[W]hites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us”.” (McIntosh). Whoa. I am reluctant to even THINK about the aplicability of this concept to my own life; however, I know I would be remiss in dismissing it. How much philanthropy in the area of equal rights is geared toward making the minority power group more like the majority power group?
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I would think that we spend a lot of money and time in trying to make everyone equal, although are we really? If you think about it, we still are divided as a “united” nation. We break up into groups of race, gender, religion and so much more.
We spend thousands of dollars in funds directed at certain organizations mainly because if we didn’t, we would end up thinking that those giving us the money are racist. I can apply that to my day.
For example:
I brought some donuts for some of the kids that I tutored on the last day for that specific program last year. I had a few left over an I was thinking about having them for lunch since I had nothing to eat. Some guys come over and start pestering me because they want the donuts. I say “No” and they respond “Oh it’s because I’m black ain’t it? Dude this chick’s racist.”
Ok, maybe I’m overthinking this but every day there is a situation like this in my life. I don’t see this happening to others. Why me? Is it because I’m white? Is it because I’m blonde? Or is it because I’m a girl? Or is it the way I dressed?
It’s different for everyone. A lot of minority groups receive funding from the government and other philanthropists. Scholarships is a good example. I look on scholarships.com and fastweb for scholarships all the time and out of the 50 choices I have a good 20 of them are directed to African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, even Filipanos. I see a few for women but mainly for those ethnic groups.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not racist. I’m just stating a fact and my opinion.
Peggy McIntosh brings up “white privilege,” where white males are born with an advantage over others. These privilges, accordingly, has allowed for dominance by the majority group, in reference to the text.
Racism has existed for centuries, and would never ceast to exist unless we were all the same in terms of gender, race, skin color, and any other potential factors. Though mankind has taken a leap forward, there will never come and end to our discrminating society.
As for the topic of equal rights,minorities still have a ways to go to be more like the majority group. Sure, minorities are beginning to be recognized, but the majority group still holds advantages by being who they are. Changes have taken place gearing towards equality,but a majority group will always persist.
Even though our country has overcome the physical and legal boundaries of blatant discrimination, the underlying sub-conscious that helps human see still holds true. People will always have the ability to distinct others faces, color, and sex–its human nature and we can’t outlaw it, unless of course we make everyone look exactly the same. Ashley brings up a good point that there are groups specifically defined for certain minorities, but i see it almost as a compensation for the problems minorities had in the past. I’m not trying to advocate unfair advantages but it’s just how i perceive the issue–much like Peggy McIntosh addresses about white male supremacy and how people are unwilling to lower themselves to equal others.
Ashley,
You seem to be victimizing yourself by overlooking the plight that minorities have been fighting til this day. For you to suggest that you are on equal footing with us is idealistic. American society has not yet reached this utopia in which everyone is equal.
Minorities have not necessarily encountered overt racism but they do fight systematic racism, that include passing up job promotions and the housing market.
The majority of philanthropic endeavors cites affirmative action – which focuses on extending to the minority group opportunities and chances that are available to the majority
I believe that McIntosh’s ideas are relevant. It is an unspoken lesson that certain races are given more advantages at birth. McIntosh using the male advantage is a wonderful example and helped make her point. Even though males seem to be taught that they have an advantage over women as young children. Work is needed to make everyone feel equal. But it is doubtful that the work put in will do any good. It is a natural human reaction to see yourself as above someone else. But that would be easily changed. Like McIntosh wrote, “What will i do to lessen or end it?”
I find it almost despairing that we has a humankind have been brought up on men should be better then women. Women fought for their rights, such as Rosie the Riveter, but has time really changed? Women still get comments such as “Yeah, thats good, for a girl”. As McIntosh stated that white men have more opportunities and higher ranks because of their race and gender, does it mean that everyone should feel the need to be a white man? How i feel about the situation is that society has named the white man as top rank, so no matter what he hasn’t worked to where he is. But take an African American women, whose President and CEO of a company that she started from scratch. She worked her tail off to get where she is at, working from the very bottom to the highest top she could reach. Taking criticism of being a woman, yet alone a black women but she kept pressing forward. But “i guess that’s good for a woman”
Peggy McIntosh has lots of great ideas in her writing. I like how she used the racist idea of the white males being able to dominate, because I, being African-American and dark skin colored, can realte 100 percent. This idea enhanced her writing and one thing I can say that is true of this piece is that whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privileges. I know that this is true because I have lots of white friends in Colorado that could do homework half way and get a B or an A. I would do the same work and get a C, and I ahd better handwriting. Also, court cases. If you have an old white judge, colored folks would start to worry and pray that God softens the heart of the old white male. Even though the judge could have ahd a family that housed blacks during the slavery days. We stereotype too much and judge way too much. Racism is not the only word to describe what is going on. It is also stereotyping, judgeing, hating, jealousy, envy, covetness, etc. It is not just in the south or just in Alabama and what not. It is everywhere. IT IS AT SHELDON HIGH SCHOOL. Every single lunch ever since I’ve attended, I have sat by myself and ate lunch because people rejected me. I have seen people who have come as new students to Sheldon and have freinds and people to hang out with on their 1st or 2nd days at school. One thing though, they are attractive, white, rich, or appear that way. Character is more important than image. Someshould take the time to think about that. This kind of stuff we should be able to read in books and say to our kids, aren’t you glad you didn’t have to experience that, it’s all gone son; and live without someone always using you or not associating themselves with you because you attain a certain talent, amount of money, or skin color. This just needs to end and fast. Try to change a little more everyday and dare to do something that the average person wouldn’t do and be kind to the less fortunate ones, ‘bigger boned’ people [I refuse to say fat], the loners and the stoners. Try kindness, I dare you to try it for a while and see how you feel in you heart, in your good human half after that. The sooner the better. These are my views.
*No offense is intended throughout any of this writing. Sorry if I offend, just speaking my truth. Feel free to speak yours too.
Evolution has inscribed into human beings a yearning to feel superior over their fellow humans; it is due to this trait that most of the philanthropy in the area of equal rights does not truly occur from the wish to equalize minority and majority groups’ privileges. The most support towards raising a minority group’s privileges spawn from the members of that minority group themselves and therefore, possesses very little impact; as for those members who support such cause but do not belong to the minority, their reason is that such an action is simply the right thing to do. However, such a reason only shows the insincerity of their support; these supporters do not support the cause simply because they truly wish to give equality to the minority, lessening their superiority in the process, but because they wish to feel as if they have attempted to fix the problem, making themselves more righteous than others, more superior than their contemporaries in the majority group. Ultimately, the philanthropy offered by the majority group towards equalizing the minority stems from their natural wish to feel superior to their peers; they are already superior to the minority group and through such actions, can present themselves as also superior to the majority group.
I have to admit, at one point in my life i longed to be a white male. I also thought my life would be better off being that way. And in reading mcIntosh’s it reassured my past wants. Even today a part of me still wishes i was a guy. My weird habits as a girl wouldn’t be interpreted as gross or disgusting. My ability to burp on cue will be perceived as a gift rather than an oddity. My video gaming will be praised instead of shot down or “good, for a girl”. My life, i know, will be easier if i was simply a white male. But I’m not. I’m an asian girl. I have to live with the stereotypes of a woman in addition to the stereotypes as an asian. We are lucky to live in California where we are as diverse as we are. Nationally, only 4 percent of the population is asian. 4 PERCENT! It isn’t clear at Sheldon because we are a nice mixture of cultures but go to a school in Wisconsin and there won’t be any asians within a 100 mile radius. I think given out time and place, several of us find it hard to believe that racism is alive and well, but we are special. We live in a wonderfully diverse society. And I honestly feel bad for those who are limited to just one culture. It doesn’t have to be white people. Just any society in general where they are subject to a single culture, a single society, a single way of life. Everyone should experience diversity. Yeah. I LOST THE GAME BY THE WAY!
I also wanted to address affirmative action. It’s something in California (i think, correct me if i’m wrong) where a minority group’s application is chosen over the majority’s group even if the qualifications are similar. Does that help us be the more powerful group, as a minority? Does it really make us feel better because places are suppose to choose our apps over a white person’s just because of our skin color or gender? Is it not because our application is better and that we are overall a better choice? I feel as if affirmative action contributes to racism a lot because it is obligatory to hand us the job we want or the college we wish to attend because of our race and or gender, not because of our skills.
I don’t think we’ve done very much to give minority groups more power. I think we’ve just taken a tiny step with our eyes shut. Slavery was outlawed in 1865, but African Americans weren’t granted the right to vote until 1870. Further, women weren’t given suffrage rights until 1920. This illustrates how reluctant majority groups are to give minority groups more power: people in power want to stay in power. But if today’s attitude is that all men and women are “equal,” how does one explain the “white privileges” McIntosh discusses in her article? White males have more opportunities for college and work while minorities work harder for those same opportunities; however, minorities do get some special opportunities like scholarships and other funding. But as Raymond said, they’re more like compensation for how minorities were treated in the past. Minorities still have to work twice as hard as white males to obtain success in life. Therefore, we really have not done much to give minority groups more power. We may have escaped the violence and segregation of the past, but majority groups will always have more power than the minorities. The only way that will change is if everybody looked exactly the same.
I agree with the point McIntosh is making, especially about the obliviousness of male advantage. Male advantage, just like racial discrimination, occurs every day but because it is so common and so ingrained into society, it is hardly noticed. But this unfair male advantage is felt by woman and by people of other races; every person who is not a white male has to work twice as hard to get to the same place as a white man. Every person in the world is discriminated against in some fashion-for their gender, their race, their religion, or any other number of things. So although we have made strides in legally reducing racism and discrimination in the America, discrimination is still alive and strong within our society. We know there is discrimination in the U.S. but many more years will be need to further eliminate the prejudice in our lives, especially since the subject is taboo.
Enough philanthropy is given. No longer do we see de facto segregation in the form of Jim Crow and quite frankly, that’s enough. However, the social aspect of equality has not received enough attention to warrant a new societal outlook. I remember watching a psychology special on TV once where an experiment pitted two couples (one White couple and one Black couple) in a staged performance of abuse in a public park with bystanders watching to provide data. If I remember correctly, bystanders were more likely to interject if the abuser was a man and/or Black. In fact when the White woman kayfabe abused her male partner, no bystander interjected. In the case of the Black man kayfabe abusing his partner, a dozen bystanders acted almost immediately. Obviously, we are light years away from attaining true social equality. But the steps we have taken so far are fortunately in the right direction. One such improvement (that affects me because I am a student) is the desegregation of schools. And heck, as an American citizen, the most recent improvement was the inauguration of a non-White president. As far as making a minority group more like the majority group: I’d like to believe that minority groups do not desire to become more like the majority group. Why? Because what makes these groups so special and unique is that they are minorities and as such possess certain features that a majority won’t.
McIntosh identifies the white privilege and the male privilege in her piece, but she regrets to write about privileges other races or groups. McIntosh seems to write in a pessimistic view about herself and other groups, but honestly, are things truly that bad? Sure, prejudice is prevalent still and it is quite sickening, but does the role of prejudice play that huge of a roll in our day to day lives? Maybe it is just me, living in Elk Grove as a “privileged white”, but I honestly do not see enough people complaining about prejudice outside of class discussions or really ANY effort to do something about it. McIntosh points out these two large “privilege” groups, but every single minority or majority group has some sort of privilege with it, whether noticed by other groups or not. Why do people cower behind their skin colors from petty prejudice comments received throughout a busy day when they can simply be in the minority or majority they are and proud?
Racism is still very prevelant today especially for those who are minorities. Ever since 9/11 people have been on edge and think their is going to be another terrorist attack everyday. People are becoming ignorant and think that every brown person is muslim and a terrorist and even if that person is Muslim that doesn’t mean they’re a terrorist. My religion is Sikhism and in Sikhism people are required to wear turbans and have beards. Now if someone sees somebody else with a turban on they think “oh he’s a terrorist” my 13 year old brother has been called a terrorist. I have been judged just because of the color of my skin. I know that the unknown scares people, but maybe that’s the reason they should learn about what they don’t understand and then try to make sense of it instead of just judging on site and making assumptions about people that are totally off the mark and untrue.
I can see that there is definitely male prone prejudice in our society. It happens daily. It has been a solid part of our society. We have shaped our society to accommodate the omnipresence of prejudice. Often, it is the easily spotted, surface prejudice that is seen, however the teaching of society breeds a more inner prejudice. I understand that men are pushed towards careers, while women are pushed towards house life. It is a natural part of society. Don’t get me wrong here, I am no fan of the prejudice of our society, but I am willing to accept that it is there. And this is where I disagree with Nick. Nick assumes that someday, way off in the future, we can have a prejudice free society. Where everyone is equal and there is social equality among women, men, blacks, whites, rich, poor, Catholics and Buddhists. My point is that there can never be such a society. Life is competitive, its just nature. You must compete to succeed, and if you don’t compete, you die. That is nature. So, there will always be competition between differing groups, and with that competition comes prejudice and some forms of inequality.
It is not fair that people do not have the same advantages as others. But nobody ever said life was fair. Again, I am not saying I enjoy the extra advantages I get from being a male, because the idea of freedom and equality has been taught to me since before I can remember. I just think that people are setting their standards too high thinking that there can ever be a society free from some sort of inequality or prejudice. We can decrease the prejudice, like a black president, but we can never eliminate it completely. Prejudice is just a natural part of any society, and we must make the best of what we have.
We are all aware that this idea of prejudice occurs on a daily basis. Everyone has experienced it, some more than others, but we all can relate. But we need to stop whining about it. It’s not helping the situation. Yah it’s super lame, but idling around complaining isn’t going to improve the situation. If you desire change, do something about it. If you’re tired of being judged, don’t judge others. If you’re tired of racist premonitions, stop your own. None of us can control what others do. Only YOU have control over what you do and the choices you make. Stop blaming “the world” for these evils. Only when you can honestly say “I haven’t been a prejudice jerk today,” will the problem actually improve. So make the first step and become pure yourself. Become a positive, not a negative. Stick it to the man.
I htink that Peggy McIntosh is aimply stating that there is this minority status for white males and the white race in general. Peggy says that this privelage status of the white race is evident and obvious but it is not always adressed directly in society. The provelage is there but we as a society do not think about how we use it and how it is not part of our concious thinking. Nobosy reflects on what privelages really are and how we use them. The idea of the male and white provelages could very well have somethinf to do with history and how society looked at males and whites in the 1930′s through the 1970′s as opposed to how we look at it in todays’ society. McIntosh also points out how women should have some conciousness of what it means to be discriminated against. I mean it was only recently that women gained thier complete right whan you think about it. In reality women have been the target of discrimination in the work feild and through gender roles, other than the uneducated which is a group who I see to bee the most dicriminated upon regardless of skin color. When McIntosh describes the knapsack she makes me think about the very few times where I ahve actually analyzed and been able to conciously look at my privelages as a white female. Peggy says that the knapsack carries tools for us to look what we all cary with us and how we act day after day regaurding our privelages.
In regards to the question about pilanthropy, I think that philanthropy is almost entirely geared twoard lifitng minorities up in social status. Allocating federal funds to be used exclusively in minority schools, is designed to bring resources to those minorities. The expectation is that they wll be lifted up by tosing tax money and funds at the problem. And lifted up in this case means that they will achieve education, status and social standing of white society. When none of theat happens, who or what is to blame?
How much philanthropy in the area of equal rights is geared toward making the minority power group more like the majority power group?
When I consider the fact that minority power groups are trying to be similar to majority power groups, I can’t help but take into the consideration the issue of college admissions. During the times of deep racial segregation, not many black Americans received a college education whereas many white Americans did. Now, standards and rules have been created in order to increase diversity and allow a higher enrollment of those associated with minority groups. It’s just interesting to me the fact that attending a college, which has so long been dominated by the white majority, have grown to become more diverse with minority groups (even if it’s a positive thing). In the desire to give students an equal opportunity or right to become accepted into a college of their desire, affirmative action regulations have been made. Isn’t it then that these regulations are made for the desire to benefit students through a standard that says a certain number of minorities are accepted into a college despite the those of the white majority who are more than qualified to be a student at that college? This then makes me think of the court case of Regents of University of California v. Bakke, where Bakke, a white man, is rejected by a college (even though his test scores that greatly surpassed a large majority of the applicants) because he is a white man and not a part of the minority. He claims that this act of rejection is reversed discrimination. The minority groups have reversed the rolls of major power groups in regards to college since the years of racial segregation. It’s somewhat ironic to me how much the minority groups have become more like the majority group (who seem to gain more privileges in regards to college acceptance) and the majority group more like the minority group, who during those times, had a much more difficulty being accepted.
I am sad to report that as a society we have done very little if anything to give the minority group power. Yes, we may have granted African Americans the right to vote, and yes, we may have set in place scholarship programs for those minorities who want to get ahead in life, but we have not left behind the ‘I’m better than you’ mindset. As humans we long for a constant. A specific. An orderly way about doing things and having them presented. This ultimately ties back to the little progress we have made towards giving the minority group power. The majority group, in this case white males, obtain the most power in United States, and they still do because we have a society become so comfortable with it that changing up the routine is too much of a hastle. Constant is what we are comfortable with, and when that is changed all hell breaks loose. For exampple, all of the previous presidents in office have been White Males and elections have been intense, but none as historical, or monumental, or even as divided as the election of 2008 in which a female and african american man ran for office. It was all of these things and more because the mold was broken. Our constant was no more. Our lack of efforts in the shifting of power from white males to other minority groups comes from the fear of it being a new thing. Racism, and minority segregating is what we learn, what we see, and ultimately what we do, whether it be intedded of subconcious. It is routine, a habit, and for us as a species, breaking that habit is not an option.
the time is wrong again..its 10:19 on Oct. 29, 2009.
So, after reading a few of my classmates’ comments, I noticed a lot of them are agreeing with McIntosh in that her idea of the typical white male is the most superior and advantaged. I agree with this point also, but to an extent. Girls talk about their expectations of growing up to be the “mother” of the family while their husbands will just sit back and relax after a hard day’s work. I think that men are pressured in a different, not necessarily “easier”, way because we expect them to be athletic and in charge and fearless. Don’t children always want their FATHERS to be the one saving them from danger? But what if he can’t be superman and save them?
But then again, I usually hear “boys have it easier than girls because they don’t have to worry about periods or care about their looks.” I don’t know I can kind of go both ways with this.
McIntosh states that white male or just males alone unconsciously have more privilege than others, well in my opinion it does not matter what skin color or gender you are; it is where you reside. My opinion might not connect to all of yours, but I am thinking out of the box at this. It is true that past actions of society have given male (regardless of color) different status, but nonetheless it was higher than women because it was traditional at that time. But time has change and people are closer to equality than ever before, so what McIntosh says does not stand out so much now. Well, take for instance take a white male working in a black community, most likely that person is not going get as much privilege as the black residents. So it also ties in with population and where you reside. If there are more women working than men then they can have the power to get more privileges just like how males can take actions to build upon on their privileges. I thought it was a good idea that McIntosh argues how white male and male privileges are consciously higher than minorities, but it is not so much true to me. Don’t get me wrong it is just my opinion.
The author brings up some intriguing points about the perception of racism. As she mentioned she grew thinking that being discriminated against was a disadvantage to people, but she did not acknoweldge all the privileges she recieved because of her skin. She acknowledges that prejudice still exists but also that we must remove the taboo that society has the issue of prejudice. We as a country have not progressed in the area of equal rights, as far as our mentality goes. There is the fourteenth amendment, the thirteeth, the fifteeth which all promote equality but do we really accept the idea? The mentality seems to be the same, people have just toned down the violence, and kept their commentary about different races to themselves.
But that raises another point, can we help but to make judgements? I know when I see a person I make an instant judgement, I don’t mean to, I just do. Even though I don’t voice my opinion of them, I still came up with some judgement before I even met them. The whole idea is sad, but I don’t know if i can stop making those judgements in my head, no matter how hard I try. Unfortunately, I don’t think this problem can go away,it can just dim down.
the time is off
its 10:43
Our society has found ways to overcome the situation of discrimination. Yet underneath we still view the world through the same lens. The same eyes of our past. Legally things have improved but all the same minor things remain. We usually interpret beliefs about people at first based on the visual images we distinctly see. We see the feature of each person and what separates them from everyone else, whether it be because of race, sex, a distinct feature or color. Each of these distinctions leading to a sub-conscious thought and grouped based on those distinctions.
I agree with the point that McIntosh makes about male advantages. This form of discrimination based on sex is in the same way affecting lives as racial discrimination. This occurs on a daily basis of women having to prove themselves, to work that much harder in order to just reach an equal position held by a man. Yes our society has changed and over come some parts of discrimination. However it still lurks in all parts of life whether it is stated out right or hidden because discrimination in itself is a taboo.
I would just like to address the portion about philanthropy. Do the efforts of the “priviledged group” usually intend to make the minority group more like the majority group? To a certain extent, they do. Many working women have to work full time jobs and take care of children, clean the house, etc. Instead of redistributing the work to both partners, in many household’s a woman takes on all of the man’s traditional role and her traditional role. Because men were not willing to give up their “priviledge” and start doing housework. Still, some of these efforts come from the notion that white males particularly are “priviledged”, so, in order to try to make other groups “equal” they try to enhance what they consider priviledge. The problem is, that now in America, the idea of priviledge has gotten so intwined in the role of white men, the line between allowing others priviledge and assimilating them has blurred.
Peggy McIntosh sees discrimination through the eyes of a beneficiary. Instead of viewing racism as a lack of rights for minorities, she sees racism as an abundance of rights for majorities. This, above all else, characterizes her altruistic personality, and utter humility.
I agree with McIntosh’s view on discrimination. It not the minority that chooses to be oppressed. It the dominating group that chooses to be exalted. Thus, the only way for this status of inequality to cease is for the higher group to lower themselves onto the plane of the lower.
I want to address the quote at the beginning of the reading: “I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”. We form definitions for loaded words like ‘privilege’, ‘racism’, and ‘oppression’ through the perspectives we, as young children growing up, see our parents hold. Or at least we have a tendency to sensor every aspect of life with a mask that notices racism and privileges in a certain way. Based on this, we are bound to feel oppressed at certain times and even feel liberated when we feel that we have reached a standard set by a “white” person.
“How much philanthropy in the area of equal rights is geared toward making the minority power group more like the majority power group?”
I read Mimi’s response above, and to some extent i agree with her, but to some extent i disagree. True, if you look at the colleges nowadays, the majority of the students are Asian, and the majority gender are female. It would seem as if the minority group has become more like the majority group, but this would seem to only apply to colleges, (and probably just California colleges where much of the population is Asian)but what happens when these students graduate and start finding jobs? The whites, the males, are still going to have a better chance than the african american, the asian, or the female. Its like taking one step forward and two steps back. Even with affirmative action, ethnic incentives, and etc.. how close does that really put us to true equality?
Discrimination is common throughout the United States. Now, McIntosh states that males in general have more power in society, and this is true. We are granted certain advantages, but at the same time to simply ask for equality will not work. I do not believe that society will change, and for one group to demand equality, that equality will never have been truly earned. The reasoning behind this is that one group is reluctantly forced to hand over power, and in this case it is the male. Now, I am not saying that males should have the advantage, but if people truly wish for equality, then they must change the minds of others. People must see the error of their ways, they must actually wish for change, and the change must be universal. To simply state that certain groups are the victims of prejudice or that they enjoy more advantages is not enough. If people want change, start working to show others the errors of their ways. Everyone seems willing to complain about these problems, and yet no one is offering solutions. All everyone wants is instant gratification. They want equality right now, and that simply is not going to happen. Why? Because, not enough people believe in it. So what do we need to do? We need to affect change, and not through petty complaints, but by sharing experiences in which prejudice has limited us as individuals, by showing how prejudice has affected our growth as human beings, and by showing that nobody can escape prejudice. Prejudice will not disappear with a new amendment, it will simply find new ways to flourish. If we want to end or at the very least lessen prejudice, then we need to show others how it affects us and we need to show them that they too must join up in an effort to stop prejudice.
Some important points were made here. It was said that males alone unconsciously have more privilege than others, well I agree, as of women. Women (my beleifs) have more power than they think, and to be even more direct, they have more power than men. Perhaps not physically, but for thousands of years women were seen as minorities. But they have as much will power as men. McIntosh would not agree, but is right, we have granted men more privelidges. Many would agree that this is not what God intended.
While our society has come so far from the raging riots of the Civil Rights Movement era, prejudices still continue; they are just more discreet and hidden. McIntosh writes about the white male’s dominant role in society and the work force. Woman and racial minorities have much more of a responsibility in the public place than even 50 years ago. However, nothing is perfect yet and probably won’t be for many, many years, if ever.
White males are often seen as the most powerful and most intelligent of the population. Often times they are given privileges they have not earned, they have just come across based on their gender and skin tone. Even white women, face several advantages many others do not get the opportunity to benefit from. Those of other ethnicities or backgrounds must work so much harder to reach the status that a white person may be handed with much less work. While this is unfair, this is still so far forward from where the U.S. used to be. Before, a person of a minor ethnicity would have very slim chances of receiving any advantages when compared to a white male. Now, while the issues are sometimes unavoidable because people are unaware of the fact that they are giving an advantage to a certain group, more people know that minorities can have just as much skill and dominance as a white male, or even female.
I have to agree with what Carol pointed out about a minority’s application being chosen over a majority’s. Many companies seek out applicants of minority races just to give an image to the public that the company is not racist. This type of thinking creates the illusion that we are a diverse and equal society. I believe this does more harm than good. Like Carol said, I think that this type of thinking creates subtle racism and animosity between different groups. Being handed a job because of one’s race or gender does nothing for a person’s confidence, they would think of themselves almost as a charity case. Affirmative action creates a false appearance of diversity yet also shows that a company cares only for physical appearances rather than a person’s skills.
And to address the question in the blog, I think that the United States had made a great step towards creating an equal society. Minorities have been given numerous opportunities that were not available before. Yet despite the big step towards equality the United States has taken I doubt we will every truly be free from racism. As long as there is diversity there will be hatred. I think that it is a human trait we all posses, a fear of the unknown and those that are different. Humans are creatures of habit and when that normality is disrupted many act in negative ways.
As a Hispanic male, I can’t express the frustration I feel when I am used as a counter-statistic. My peers are well aware of the education gap; whites and Asians vastly outperform Hispanic and African-American students academically. While my own school records impress admissions counselors, the additional praise I get for belonging to a demographic that is not known for scholarly achievement irks me. Doesn’t this method of trying to counter the cultural imbalance of high-performers only contribute to racial prejudice by reminding us of our lower status quo? The so-called philanthropy of such programs as affirmative action, for all of the money and effort put into them, perhaps do more harm than good. They create bitterness in the majority class as a result of reverse discrimination while minority groups are made to feel they need a handicap to reach success.
At the same time, we can’t deny that white males have dominated high-profile positions for over two centuries (only recently has our Asian population assumed the academic stereotype). To simply suggest to minority populations (and certainly women, who earn three-fourths of what males earn for similar jobs) to take on the challenge of meeting the highest socio-economic expectations overnight would be folly. Perhaps as a temporary remedy to empower historically disadvantaged groups, the charity of affirmative action can be tolerated. Ideally, however, all groups would take on equal opportunity in schooling and beyond, with none placed at a purposeful advantage or disadvantage.
McIntosh states that whites at birth are given a greater privilege because they are the “ideal” race in contrast to other races such as blacks and asians. Therefore when whites try to assimilate different ethnic groups, they intend to make “them” or the minority similar to the supposedly perfect majority. McIntosh is correct in that whites have a higher status in our society because of their skin color; prejudice lives in all form of our lives such as school, for example the common belief that all asians are smart. A lot is put into making minorities assimilate into majority groups, such as when American colonists attempted to assimilate Native Americans; this contrasts the equal rights statement because one greater group gains control of and asserts domination over a smaller group. Prejudice thrives in our lives since the beginning of colonial time but we’ve made great leaps in order to create equal rights.
McIntosh concludes that in our society there is both a male privelage and a white privelage. I agree that many people do believe this but I do not think that it is true. I know personally, for college, I am having a hard time finding scholarships because I am only white. Many scholarships today are directed those with ethnic backgrounds. Therefore I do believe that philanthropy in the area of equal rights is designed to make the minority power group become equivalent to the majority power group. In society today people still believe that the minorities are still discriminated against constantly, but what they fail to realize is that the majority, often times, faces similar discrimination. In order to make the minority feel more equal, the majority has to be lowered. This is unfair because the grouping should not be determined by race and gender but by ability. Lowering talented people deserving of privilage and raising undeserving based soley on race and gender, is what creates the unfairness in our society. Privilage should be based on ability, talent, and drive not judgemental factors such as race and gender.
McIntosh describes this “male privilege” as “unacknowleded”, she believes it to be a phenomenon. i disagree with her statement. i believe many white males do not even realize they have a “privilege”, until someone mentions or does something to to make that male see it first hand. if society is telling white male all his life its okay, then it is okay, but if society all of a sudden speaks something different, then whos right? you just get stuck into a big mess that you didnt even know there was a problem in the first plaace. its not ones fault for being born white, black, pink, or purple. its not a white mans fault if he truely doesnt know the “male priviledge”.
“Many perhaps most, of our white students in the US think that racism doesnt affect them beacuse they are not people of color, they do not see “whiteness” as a racial identity”…..
i believe that is FALSE! its called affirmitive action. I see more people now being prejudice against white people then i have ever before. ive expericence it all the time, just because im so called “white”…what is white? minority is the majority now. no matter what there always will be “racism”, you cant get rid of the way people feel towards one another.
im a lot of things; portaguese, yugoslavian, spanish,welsh,scot-irish, german, an much more…
why I’m i defined as white then?
I’ve been called “white girl” since elememtary school, even back when I was a little kid I experienced it. When someone would address me as a white person, I would say “no I’m not, Im mexican”, I used to dislike beng white simple beacuse I was looked at as someone who was the bad guy.
well i love who i am, an accept who i am, and i wouldnt change a thing.
people are rude, you just have to learn to deal with people and their perspectives.
We do see massive philanthropy given to minorities so they can become more and more like majorities. The key example of this is affirmative action. The process enabled minorities to get in to colleges and jobs due to racial quotas, to enable other minorities to achieve the same level as the majorities in the country. Actions like this, reverse racism if it must be named, only enables further systematic devaluation of other races as systems like this pity and look down upon other races, as babies to be coddled so they can reach the adulthood and principles we hold dearly. Instead of trying to develop a culture of achievement in their own group, the philanthropy of equal rights only further establishes white male privilege and systemic devaluation of other races.
Honestly, I believe in today’s society a lot of philanthropy in the area of equal rights is geared toward making minority power groups more like majority power groups, for many reasons, but mainly because of a sense of guilt the majority power group feels toward the minority power groups. I feel that majority groups want to make up for past mistakes that they had no control over and could not stop even if they tried. I don’t think feeling sorry for a certain group of people can make up for all the hardships their past relatives had to face, i think it would just make them look weaker. Being guilty and trying to fix the past, doesn’t cause progress in American Society regarding the way certain groups of people are perceived. As Americans (of the United States of America) we ( as in EVERYONE) need to do more than just feel sorry and guilty for events that we weren’t responsible for.
Equality is what should matter in this country and by equality, I mean allowing everyone to be their own person and grow on their own and learn from their mistakes without having to have any burden of guilt or pity or remorse or shame toward anyone for any reason. We need to stride to end this perception of what others are like based on what is seen on TV and heard on the radio and look at the person behind his/her skin and see him/her for who he/she truly is.
OH, its 11:11, make a wish!
This entire issue is somewhat bothersome to me, as I am a white male – supposedly on top of this privilege hierarchy. I understand that I was taught not to see the unearned privilege that I collect, but I believe that everyone gains some sort of dispensation depending on their circumstances. I can be discriminated against as much as any other individual with a different ethnicity depending on where I am in the word, in the country, or in the city. I know it may be hard to believe, but I too have been discriminated against. Because of my skin color – because of my natural blonde hair and blue eyes. Did I ask for these physical traits? NO! Nazi they call me, when I have entered a society that may not have as much variety in culture as other towns do. Another civilization that is completely provincial, shut off from the enriching diversity that surrounds them, that stand feet away from the boundaries they keep so tightly barricaded – shut off from the world. Slave owner! Have I imprisoned any of my fellow African American brothers and sisters myself? NO AGAIN! Should I be blamed for the mistakes of my ancestors? Even when I am not labeled as a minority, or seen as a different race with a culture, with roots, I am still an outsider. I am seen as a white male, and nothing more. Not German, Italian, Scottish, or Irish. Just a white male. Just a Nazi. Just a slave owner. Nothing else.
Since the middle ages, dominant groups have always fought to force minorities into their culture. As McIntosh implies, it is the majority that sets the social ‘norm’ that all people must conform to. I agree with this much, at least. However, I do not believe this to be so bad. The only threatening implications this realization creates is to the whites, who must be aware of their inately dominant sub-consiounce. Besides that, there is nothing wrong with integrating minorities into the dominant culture. If immigrants and minorities move to America for a better life in the first place, their underlying intentions are to become like the dominant class anyways.
“It is a miracle that curiousity survives formal education,” -Einstein
To be passionately curious is what I admire most about Einstein. He believed in curiousity to the extent that it was all the persuaded him. Yet normally curiousity would be considered to be something so peculiarly childish. To be rapt in wonder, feels to be more considerate of a child’s emotion and the newness of life. Yet Einstein believed that curiousity should be relevant throughout one’s entire life. It is a constant push, unless thwarted by laziness, that would enhance society, if we all had a bit more curiousity within life, would we be a more productive world? But how does anyone teach curiousity, an emotion? Then again, people teach discriminational hate. Would curiousity be that much harder to teach? Yet, the systems of teaching don’t thoroughly encourage questioning and curiousity. It recognizes knowledge, but disregards the always questioning nature of students, with the tinge of shame, of not knowing beforehand. Teach us curiousity, teach us a fondness for knowledge at any risk, and we will learn.