Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege And Male Privilege Essay Words | 4 Pages Privileges are things that a person receives that gives them an advantage over most people (Merriam-Webster). These are benefits that only certain people receive for being in a certain group or discourse Power & Privilege Essay Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack The United States of America has always been considered the home of the brave and the land of the free. It is known all over the world as · This page of the essay has words. Download the full version above. What is “white privilege”? Critically assess this concept as a tool for addressing unjust racial discrimination. For this essay it is my intention to analyse the concept of white privilege to decide whether it really exists as a tool for highlighting racial blogger.comted Reading Time: 12 mins
What is “white privilege”? | Human rights essays | blogger.com Free Essay Examples for Students
This page of the essay has words. Download the full version above. For this essay it is my intention to analyse the concept of white privilege privilege essay decide whether it really exists as a tool for highlighting racial discrimination. But, at the extreme this can include one person of a racial minority being required to speak for their whole race as a result of their insufficient representation McIntosh, au, I believe that this question is a significant one because people are often ignorant to the existence of white privilege in the privilege essay world and its possible power to create racial discrimination.
By answering this question, perhaps others will reconsider how white privilege has benefitted them at the expense of others and this could lead to reformations and decreased inequality between racial groups within unequal societies, privilege essay. In short, ending white privilege would lead to a more justified and happy society, privilege essay.
I will answer this question by first outlining the exact dimensions of white privilege. I will examine how and if white privilege acts as a tool for highlighting racial discrimination by way of being a property and then an ideology or power.
Finally, I shall support the hypothesis that white privilege does indeed work as a tool to address unjust racial discrimination. The origins privilege essay white privilege come from the transatlantic slave trade as even after its abolition former slaves were never given equal opportunity and over time this privilege essay between black people and white people has only widened.
White privilege is also linked to white ignorance which is a similar concept whereby the perspectives and viewpoints of non-white peoples are disregarded and the historical achievements of people of colour are ignored Sullivan and Tuana, According to the volitional account, white privilege is resultant from subtle and institutional racial discrimination contrary to the common idea of racism coming in the form of overt, specific acts.
Opponents of the concept have argued that white privilege as a form of institutional racial discrimination is an unearned advantage for the few which should be rectified as unearned entitlement for all. For example, where it does not disadvantage them, privilege essay, there are very few men today who are truly concerned enough about an unearned male advantage and dominance whether socially constructed or not to decide to personally commit to making a change for the better of society.
Despite sexism being the given example here, race and sex are not the only advantaging social systems of the present day: age, physical ability, religion and so forth are too. But, privilege essay, the disapproval and challenging of these systems will not lead privilege essay their termination nor individual acts even though they may lead to greater awareness. A concise list of examples of how white privilege has indeed created unjust racial discrimination follows Equalityhumanrights, privilege essay.
com, :. However, there are some concerns with white privilege that should be highlighted. Firstly, there is an empirical concern, privilege essay. Considering that McIntosh in particular wrote about white privilege in a specific context, namely the USA inthis may have biased the content written.
Discrimination against people of colour was much more rife and therefore privilege essay privilege may have been more prevalent and significant than it is today Wilsonquarterly. com, However, privilege essay, I would personally respond to this by highlighting that as the concept is defined as the unearned privilege for some which should be instead the unearned entitlement for all, it is implied that this privilege comes in the form of what should be universal rights.
Once again, privilege essay, the concept is thought to be over-simplistic but due to the fact that not all white people enjoy such privileges and not all non-white people lack such privileges along with the fact that not all non-white people are disadvantaged solely by racism.
However, turning privilege essay the idea of intersectionality the idea that different forms of privilege and oppression can interact with each other in complex ways YW Boston, privilege essay, we may admit that yes it is hard to find a certain distinct factor which has caused an inequality but that the concept is privilege essay not over-simplistic and is not flawed in being the opposite as there are evidently still factors privilege essay work together to create racial inequality, privilege essay.
Whilst all of these concerns are important to highlight, they should not diminish the value of the concept: white privilege can still be seen as a tool to highlight racial discrimination. Whilst it may have some flaws in itself, this does not necessarily affect the gravity of the inequality which it creates, privilege essay.
Privilege essay, white privilege is a tool for addressing unjust racial discrimination by way of being a property. Charles Mills linked the concept of whiteness to white ignorance which can be understood here as an absence of beliefs or a set of false beliefs. Therefore, having whiteness which is causally connected to both white ignorance and white privilege by association is a property that one has rather than a power or category that inherently exists: a social phenomenon as opposed to a natural one.
Having the property of white ignorance, is privilege essay just a collection of individual mistaken white beliefs but an entire world-view or interpretation just as white privilege is a form of holistic, institutionalised racial discrimination rather than being defined in individual acts, privilege essay.
Throughout history, white rule was accepted and people of colour have been inferiorised although today white ignorance would seem to be in the form of genuinely accepting non-whites alongside having particular conceptions of other races, privilege essay. Therefore, it would seem by causal connection to white ignorance that white privilege highlights racial discrimination. Not only has this further disadvantaged black people but also denied them the truth and prevented the possibility of a path to change.
This occurrence of racial erasure is similar to the refusal to accept the acts of the Nazis post world war two as people were embarrassed that racism had been the norm yet today people would be disgusted by those barbaric acts just as in the future people may be disgusted by the acts of white people.
Here, white privilege as a property is almost like an allowed acceptance to act in any way one wishes whether it creates racial discrimination or not. Whiteness as a property is like an immunity to distress, violence and so forth which on the receiving end has the power to create racial discrimination. As having the property of being privileged here does not mean being favoured but being dominant, racial discrimination through white privilege is unconscious by virtue of white people being in majority and having this characteristic.
Racial erasure is of particular privilege essay here: as a social factor the dominance of white people leads to the implicit oppression of black people. White privilege is a tool for addressing unjust racial discrimination by being a power, privilege essay. Racial exploitation and barbarity are effectively denied by downplaying the extent of the violence and forced subordination of this power Sullivan and Tuana, This inherent power can be seen within political ideology and it would seem that the past few hundred years has been inundated with white racist ideology and domination thus the world should need reformation.
European empires have controlled most of the world and white ignorance has privilege essay through general scepticism about non-white acceptance. The histories and inequalities that our society has inherited from previous ones should be righted through some kind of policy such as reparations. Therefore, privilege essay, it would seem that privilege essay privilege highlights racial discrimination as through viewing it as a power, privilege essay, injustices can be seen.
Here, privilege essay, racial discrimination can be eliminated more actively than the indistinct solution of white privilege as a property. However, racism as an ideology is usually denied with some arguing that white racism is not ideational but a system of white domination. As an unintentional consequence privilege essay this white privilege essay, white privilege was created and whiteness given inherent power, privilege essay.
An example of white privilege as a power in privilege essay ideational sense is post-colonial forgetting which is similar to racial erasure, for example: Belgian schoolchildren do not learn that around the turn of the 19th century, Privilege essay Leopold II was responsible for ten million deaths in the Belgian Congo, privilege essay. Potentially, white privilege can be resolved if we work to spread the positive advantages and eradicate the disadvantages of our racial differences.
We should redesign social systems because obliviousness to white advantage, particularly in the US, enables the myth that privilege essay is availably to all to continue. As a social system or power, white privilege creates racial discrimination through the power of the dominant group, privilege essay, usually through being oblivious or certain political decisions.
After assessing what white privilege is along with how it acts as a tool for racial discrimination both by way of being a property and a power, I have come to the conclusion that white privilege works as a tool for addressing unjust racial discrimination in both of these manners. I found privilege essay problem that white privilege is privilege essay actual fact a composite indicator particularly with regards to the concept privilege essay intersectionality a considerable objection even to its definition but ultimately I have found that there are an overwhelming number of convincing arguments particularly within white privilege as a power for the hypothesis which I have supported.
McIntosh, P. White privilege and male privilege. Wellesley, privilege essay, MA: Wellesley College, Center for Research on Women. Know your rights: Racial discrimination and vilification Australian Human Rights Commission. Sullivan, S. and Tuana, N.
Race and epistemologies of ignorance. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp, privilege essay. Widespread inequality risks increasing race tensions, warns Commission Equality and Human Rights Commission. NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. The Wilson Quarterly. YW Boston. What is intersectionality, and what does it have to do with me?
download the rest of the essay above. These Human rights essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies, privilege essay. Home About Terms of use Content policy Essay removal request Privacy Info and guides Repository Contact Search, privilege essay. Search for an essay or resource:, privilege essay. Critically assess this concept as a tool for addressing unjust racial discrimination. com, : Within literature, white privilege essay are never described as such because it is privilege essay the norm In the UK, 6.
Bibliography: McIntosh, P. Haslanger, S. Resisting reality. New Privilege essay Oxford University Press. com at an earlier date.
White Privilege
, time: 4:10Understanding Race and Privilege
Race And Privilege Essay. Words4 Pages. In this day and age there are a plethora of problems in our society. A lot of the problems in America are constantly geared towards race and privilege. Privilege is a specified advantage towards something that is given to certain people or groups. A lot of the hype in today’s society is because of how heaps of people have privilege, more privilege, or lack of privilege In her essay, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh gives some interesting examples of the treatment that people with white skin can expect and take for granted, due to the privilege that they are granted by those that identify them as white. She states, ‘As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege And Male Privilege Essay Words | 4 Pages Privileges are things that a person receives that gives them an advantage over most people (Merriam-Webster). These are benefits that only certain people receive for being in a certain group or discourse
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