Monday, June 2, 2008

"Data show racial bias persists in America" by Muwakkil and McIntosh "White Privilege"

McIntosh's main idea in "White Privilege" is that racism does still exist in America even though many white people feel that it has ceased. She feels this is true because white people still have more advantages over minorities even though many whites do not realize it. This exists in everything in everyday life such as getting a job, going shopping, being able to say different things without having people judge you by color, living in areas where you want to and so many more. These things are certaintly true, even though it is a touchy subject. After reading this article I realized that I overlook the privileges that I have just because I am a white American. McIntosh states within her text 26 "skin-color privelages" that she has noticed in her daily life. Reading through these, I related to them immediately. I definetly agree that her examples are accurate, however taken for granted amongst white people today. McIntosh also states that she "had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilegem which puts me at an advantage."I had never actually thought of this subject in the manner that McIntosh suggested, but after digesting it I came to realize the truth of it. Growing up I was taught about racism not unlike McIntosh had, but also had never realized that others' injustices were my advantages. It surprised me how I had always seemed to overlook and take this point for granted. McIntosh also made a relation to this topic in a way that I really liked and made sense to me. She described white privilege as an "invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day . . . white privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisisons, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks." I feel that this was an interesting, along with accurate, way of thinking of skin-color privileges. White people do not neccessarily realize they're wearing this knapsack 24 hours a day, but they are., and within it is everything they need to succeed. White people are at a constant advantage by wearing it because the provisions included in it are something that minorities start off without having and they are difficult, in many cases, to earn. I believe that McIntosh is stating that the only way for minorities to succeed and for racism to truly be abolished is for white people to recognize the privileges and the codes of power that they have and use that to help others.

"Data show racial bias persists in America" by Salim Muwakkil is basically along the same lines at McIntosh's text. Muwakkil states that in a recent poll the question "do you feel that racial minorities in this country have equal job opportunities as whites, or not. Fifety five percent of whites polled yes." I believe that by adding this in his article Muwakkil meant to show that white people are sometimes oblivious to the injustices that minorities go through. He was also talking about how a field experiment was run where 4 job applications were distributed. 2 of the names were very white sounding names and the other 2 were very black sounding names. The results were that the 2 white sounding names got more likely to be called about the job than the 2 black sounding names. Again, this shows that racism is still predominant within America, even though it is not seen as much as it was years ago.

1 comment:

Dr. Lesley Bogad said...

Great description of McIntosh and a perfect way to use Muwakkil as evidence for McIntosh's claim. Nicely done.