"Recently in deep reflection I learned something
about myself. I noticed that when I would watch the news, and see a different
race other than my own, I would group that person into their specific race
group. I would associate the traits of that individual to the whole race. At
the moment I thought about how when I see a white person convicted of a
horrible crime I think, “that guy is sick” not “white people are sick”. After
realizing this I was disgusted and started to question myself."
That is a recent quote for a paper that I had written for school. At that time I had just come to the realization that I perceive many people unjustly. My own white privilege was blinding me. Since then I have analyzed the statement and noticed something very interesting. Note that I said, "I was disgusted and started to question myself". I think that to question ones self is a wonderful process that helps breed deeper thought, but I did not take into account the systems that led me to have this biased view. I was taking this global issue and turning it into my own personal problem. The truth is that this is happening everywhere and all of the time. We all bring experiences and perspectives into our daily interactions but how do they affect us? The video below addresses this.
Our Own Lens- Tim Wise
Tim Wise is an expert in his field and his work on white privilege has helped me immensely gain key perspectives in relation to white privilege. When he says, "...if you're not interrogating your lens and how you see the world or how you see your community or how you see your college environment it's very easy to end up perpetuating the marginalization of other people even when you have all the best intentions". If we do not deconstruct why we have our current perspectives (or lenses) we are going to indefinitely keep this racial bias alive even if we do not intend to. "It has absolutely nothing to do in the modern era with your intent...good people can perpetuate bad systems and we do it every day".
How can we prevent this? A majority of the time people are not intending to cause harm or do not realize that what they are saying or doing is wrong. If we can not notice the problem how can we fix it? Take a look at another clip from Tim Wise below.
Train Yourself
We are raised in a culture that makes us unaware of social injustices, oppression, and even the concept that systems do affect our views. We are led to believe that everything should be the way it is, based upon normalcy. That we, the dominant group, are not to blame. We need to take the social structures we have and closely examine and question them. If we fail to recognize our problems, we will ultimately fail to start making strides to correct them. Our ignorance tends to be a large contributor to our blindness. People who tell themselves that racism and white privilege are diminishing are the same folks who do not examine the systems that put the oppression there in the first place. They are simply accepting the systems that put white privilege in place and looking the other way.
Occasionally I will hear white people make ignorant comments about slavery and black people in general. I have heard on multiple occasions that, "slavery happened a long time ago, it does not affect people today" which is absolutely incorrect. Also I tend to hear a lot of people follow a racist comment with an exclamation of, "I have black friends...I am not racist". The video below talks about each of these comments and demonstrates just how ignorant they are.
I am Not Racist...
"Even if we have people of color in our lives, that would be like a straight man saying that he can't be sexist because he has a wife...just because you have people who are close to you in a marginalized group, doesn't mean that you don't carry any prejudice in the larger society."
Throughout this post systems are talked about and the videos mentioned a few of them, but what systems do you think play the most vital roles? Why is that? Did you disagree with any of the points that Tim Wise was making (if so explain your perspective)? Did you look at the issue of white privilege any differently after reading/watching this?
Caleb, You continue to construct paths of thinking that are both important and extended by the way you bring in other voices! An example of social interaction (constructivism) all by itself (notice the way you first engage in conversation with yourself around a statement you wrote in another paper, for another social setting and audience, then you analyzed it in relation to our social contexts (330 class & blogs), then you did some interweaving of Tim Wise's points to support and deepen your own argument, then you reached to others by asking questions they might consider thereby issuing an invitation for them to keep the discursive process going in a potentially indefinite dialogue). Wow! The levels of language and embededness are truly striking!
ReplyDeleteDo you notice more than I have said here about your engagement (the nature of your social thinking processes)?
You are actively involved now in our class and I know outside of class in a thrilling intellectual inquiry -- just go for it!
One thing about your questions at the end -- do they sound a little "teachery" to you? Make these questions those things that emanate from your own thinking about the topic; so, for example, you might answer the first question you pose about systems for yourself: "I think social and political systems play huge roles in people's lives and the construction of individual perception, however, I'm not sure yet about family systems and formal learning systems (K-12, college, etc.) and how they function.
Caleb,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to start my response with the following image:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nG-3u4DNZCo/UA7luyXvbaI/AAAAAAAAAJo/2xy3aoGagAc/s1600/pic.jpg
This image says a lot to me. I start asking myself a lot of questions right away. Is there really a white privilege?? That is something I will never know because I am not white and no matter how much research or how many questions I ask I will never find out. You mention in your blog that you felt " disgusted and started question yourself" but I would like to know what questions were you really asking your self? I think that in today's society being white could be a privilege, but is it really one? For example, since we have stuck in our heads that white people are dominant over others then our society starts focusing on minorities. Scholarships for only African Americans, or for only Latinos. When you apply for a job they say you cannot discriminate against other races, so people really start looking into other candidates that are not white so they don't say you discriminate. They say that if a white person and a black person apply for a job then the white person will most likely get it because of their skin color, but how do we know that? How do we know the white candidate was in reality more qualified over the non white one?? We don't! We just assume that is what happens because of all the stereotypes that have made us ignorant. One time I had a group discussion and we went off subject, this African American guy was telling us how broke he was and that he needed a job, he said that he recently applied at this job but he did not get it because he went against a white person. I wanted to ask him why did he think that way? How does he know he was more qualified then the white candidate? But I didn't. I have also heard when white people say, oh yeah I got the job because I'm white. How do you know that? I then feel that white people take a lot of credibility away from themselves just because they start to believe they get everything just because of their skin color. I am not sure if I was clear on what I am trying to explain about "white privilege" and I'm not sure if being white is an advantage. The image that I showed is an example of an advantage but then the examples about white peoples credibility being taken away just because they are white is a disadvantage. I think that is all stereotypes and our society being ignorant. I think that we are all humans and it shouldn't matter if we are white, black, or brown. If we do something right or something wrong we should be held accountable for it.