White Privilege

This is a blog I've put together for my Sociology 216 course at the University of New Mexico. All posts on this blog that are my blog project entries have been tagged with #blogproject and can be easily accessed through the navigation bar.

[jonbutter]

[onceiwashere]

i love having the cilantro yummy gene

[sociologyproject2018]

Works Cited

Burnham, Bo and Christopher Storer, directors. Bo Burnham: Make Happy . Netflix, 2016.

Crosley-Corcoran, Gina. “Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, 

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”

[sociologyproject2018]

White privilege isn’t something to take lightly, but at the same time it isn’t a super serious matter. I feel that there are those white people who give the term a bad rap, that white privilege is all bad but it’s not. Just because someone in privileged doesn’t automatically make them bad, the way the use that privilege is what makes them bad, for lack of a better term. I think that if these privileged folks learned to use their privilege in the right way, then the term ‘white privilege’ wouldn’t have such a negative connotation. No one asks to be born with privilege, and therefore, no one should have to feel bad about their privilege. More of these privileged folks should learn how to use their orivilegein the right way.

[pro-diversity]

english teacher: why is there so much conflict throughout history?

me:

[ithelpstodream]

[sociologyproject2018]

lyrics for the song found at: https://genius.com/Bo-burnham-straight-white-male-annotated

Bo Burnham is a white, comedian, he is in fact very funny and still manages to make jokes about some of the more serious problems this world faces. He wrote this song titled, “Straight White Male” to poke fun at the white, privileged men of the world who feel that their “problems” get blown off or made fun of. The thing is, their problems, much like those problems that Bo sings about aren’t even problems, for example, “I state my problems, other people roll their eyes, three trips to the mall and zero khakis in my size.” Well jeez, I wonder why people would roll their eyes when there are other, more important problems in this world to worry about, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. This song was written as satire, however the amount of straight, white men who are really out there and really offended by this song is absolutely insane. 

This song mostly pertains to male, white privilege, which is different from female white privilege. For example, Bo uses his male, white privilege to write and perform this song. If a male from another race or even a white female had written and performed this song, the backlash would have been unbearable, but it was written by someone who recognizes his privilege and used it, in a sense, for good. Male, white privilege is not having to be on a constant look out when walking down the street alone. Male, white privilege is not having to worry about someone slipping something into your drink at a party. Male, white privilege is being called “Stanford Swimmer” after raping an unconscious girl at a party AND getting out of your jail time. Male, white privilege isn’t something to be taken lightly, there are so many factors that turn white privilege into male, so many privileges that not even white females get to experience. My advice to white men is next time they think of complaining about something as silly as having bought the newest iPhone with the older model’s case, or before you begin to “mansplain” something, or have the audacity to exclaim about “reverse racism,” don’t. Take a step back and rethink everything that you have and everything that has already gone well for you, that other people don’t get to experience.

[ithelpstodream]

[ithelpstodream]

How to be an ally.

[sociologyproject2018]

This video speaks measures to privilege that white people and white passing people have. Every time i see this video on tumblr, it never fails to blow my mind. It’s the tale of when her and her sister-in-law went to the grocery store, however her sister-in-law goes through the grocery line, writes her check and everything is okay. However, when the narrator writes her check, she’s also asked for two pieces of id, and has her drivers license number in the book of people who’ve written bad checks. The sister-in-law then used her white privilege and got the manager involved and called the checker out on what she was doing. Even though the narrator’s sister-in-law is half black and half white, she is white passing and she lives her life with white privilege and she is able to identify when she can use it to better a situation, such as this grocery store situation. The narrator adds that white privilege can and should be used to “educate and make right a situation that was wrong,” and I agree. More white people should be taki these steps and helping out when they see something going wrong like this.

[sociologyproject2018]

My List of Privileges and Why The List Doesn’t Appeal to The Majority

I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

 I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions.

 I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

 I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

 If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

 I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.

 If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

 I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally

 I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

 I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

 If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

 I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.

 I will feel welcomed and “normal” in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

Now these are all taken straight from Peggy McIntosh’s list of privileges in her “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” article, however these are only fourteen out of fifty privileges that directly apply to myself as a single, white female. A few of these privileges apply to white people of a higher class than I do, or even belong solely to the male white population – I cannot walk alone or go places alone without my head on a constant swivel for fear of something happening. This privilege is very much that of a straight white male, not a straight white women. I think that Peggy stating that white people all experience all of these privileges on a daily basis is a little insane. 14/50 is less than half, now I know this list was created in 1988, and times have definitely changed since then, but majority of these privileges are not applicable to the masses. I feel as though if i did not identify as a straight white woman, I would have even less of these privileges. 

In Gina’s article, “Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person,” she brings up how she didn’t really relate to majority of Peggy’s list of privileges due to most of her privileges being interchangeable with the word “class” instead of “race.” And She is absolutely correct. Most people aren’t going to have their work published and that is most definitely a privilege that Peggy has over most white people, but the article is solid, nonetheless. I feel as though Peggy’s list should be updated to fit the conditions of the world today. Perhaps to be more inclusive of white people who identify as part of the LGBTQ community -  going back to the example of being able to walk around alone. Even a male who is part of the LGBTQ community is going to feel just about as safe as woman walking around alone. 

[sociologyproject2018]

This Comic Perfectly Explains What White Privilege Is

This is a post from Buzzfeed, unfortunately, the orignal photos are no longer on tumblr. 

I feel that these little comics summarize white privilege fairly well. It’s a good idea to put something as serious as understanding white privilege into a comic because it’ll help people to understand. Memes, for example, are almost never serious but can deal with serious subject matter and they get shared around the internet so often that it in a  roundabout way raises awareness. That is exactly what this particularly comic set is out to do: Raise Awareness. I really enjoy that the artist who created these comics covers most aspects of privilege - beginning with education, imprisonment, employment, and homicide. The artist has included numbers and facts, as well as little jokes here and there to lighten up the comic.

[sociologyproject2018]

What is White Privilege?

White privilege are the privileges that white or white passing people use in their everyday lives. While they might not be completely aware of these privileges, these are still things that white or white passing people use in their daily lives and are lack of a better word, oblivious to it. White privilege isn’t something that a white or white passing person is necessarily taught to recognize, I mean it’s something that has been brought up a lot in media, especially recently, causing these people to check themselves more so than they’ve thought to before. Like many white people, I was one of the oblivious ones to the privilege, now that’s not to say that I didn’t know about it, I knew it was there but I wasn’t actively thinking about how these privileges affected my life.  

The article we read for class, “Explaining White Privilege to A Broke White Person,” written by Gina Crosely-Corcoran, is something that I feel I can somewhat relate too. Now, I didn’t grow up under the same conditions the author did, my parents always did their absolute best to make sure my sister and I had the best lives while growing up, and now in my early twenties, I’m able to see how hard it is to support yourself, let alone another person or two. Seeing as I am this struggling, broke college student, who works part time while attending school full time, and barely has enough money to buy groceries, I can sometime feel that the term white privilege doesn’t apply to me. That’s simply because I’ve had to work my butt off for everything I have in this life, however this article, as well as Peggy McIntosh's “Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack,” have helped me to view this privilege and realize that while yes, I have worked for everything and haven’t really had anything handed to me, that I am still privileged.