...In McIntosh’s profound essay’ “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, she states “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege” (78). McIntosh characterizes the many allowances whites are allowed to enjoy without any questionable justification of consequence. Individually, being a person of color, it is easy for me to identify with these statements; growing up as and African American I was constantly justifying the way I live my own life in the strict confinements of having an exponentially higher melanin content. However, for Caucasians they are never questioned or confronted regarding “certain stereotypes”. How many times have you ever heard a white person have to defend “why do all white people shoot up schools or do crack?” but you can’t go five minutes on CNN without hearing people of color having to defend against why “all African Americans live in huts, why all black people do drugs and live in the hood, why all black people don’t go to school and sag their pants”. This also goes for achievements and positive recognition; their accomplishments never are undermined to correlation of race. White people are allowed to excel and even fail miserably; there is no limitation in the ability to express oneself, they are free to have erratic or even rude inappropriate behavior and moreover their expressibility is never accursed to race....
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...There are many people in the world that are being judged based on race. People are being discriminated based a on their skin color. This means parents would have to talk to their children about their skin color. Also on how they're not gonna be treated the same because of racism. It gives parents a hard time because they don't know exactly how to tell them or the reaction their children will have. People get beat up and insulted because of their skin tone. For example, they would called them the “n” word just because they weren't considered americans since they were not white. The article “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” talks about societies different privileges. It mostly talks about white privileges and male privileges. On how they...
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...find it difficult to notice modern racism, either because they believe it is an obsolete issue or because they take for granted what advantages their skin color awards them as a given for all when it is not. These advantages drawn from a white skin tone is generally addressed as white privilege which most whites would deny having or are oblivious to. Since white privilege serves as an invisible shield of protection and favor, white society is likely to have more advantages over non-whites, especially...
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...This article examines different ways that people experience the world based on privileges gained at birth such as race, gender identity, class, citizenship, and ability. The author shows that these factors can lead to inequality or privileges. The author examines Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 piece, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” in which she claims that being born white in America provides individuals with privileges that other races are denied. The author claims that although there are privileges associated with being born white, his skin color did not prevent his suffering from poverty. This author claims that race is just one factor that could lend to privileges at birth. Intersectionality is the concept that “recognizes...
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...In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh describes the conditions that her white privilege provides for her on a daily basis. McIntosh explains white privilege as a transparent backpack of sorts, full of objects that would make life somewhat easier, such as maps, passports, and blank checks. She lists fifty items that she could often find true in her own life, but not true for African Americans she knew in the 1980s. These fifty things are powerful and most whites, such as myself, never even sat down and thought about how many advantages their skin color gets them, let alone wrote them down on paper. McIntosh notes that on multiple occasions she forgot the points on her list until she began to write them all down. The advantages of white people are oblivious to white people, and that is what shocked me the most. Knowing that this paper was written in relation to McIntosh and...
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...Minority groups in America have experienced discrimination and limited opportunities for decades and even to this day, but to a lesser extent. The tragic situations that minorities experience is seen by white people, but what white people do not see is how they are less likely to experience the same inequalities. When the idea of white privilege is brought up to white people, they often come off as defensive and contend that “you people” are the ones bringing it upon yourselves. The system is set up to empower white people since they are the majority and the ones holding most of the power. Peggy McIntosh’s article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, exposes the problematic issue of white privilege, the daily struggles minority groups face, and how the United States must fix the system to truly bring equality for all....
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...White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack “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, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair,” is the twelfth item on a list written by Peggy McIntosh who is caucasian. She wrote this list to show some of the daily effects of white privilege in her life. This example that was used in her list can still be seen in today's society with how people act. Even though it is very wrong and racist, some people can do it unknowingly by appropriating culture. There are some racist people in this world that to this day still take from other cultures to try to make it their...
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...After reading “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, I experienced pangs of shame about the underserved benefits that I have received my whole life just for being white. Although I consider myself to be a culturally aware student and am extremely aware of active racism, I have not only failed to recognize passive racism but have adamantly denied that it is the norm in American society. This article effectively conveyed to me how blind I have been to the biased societal system that affects every individual’s daily life. The white as normative concept especially hit home because I realize how often I act as if white people are the rule and all others are the exceptions which is a divisive and harmful way of thinking....
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...The identity of a person must be developed within oneself while acknowledging the external pressures that attempt to force the definition of individual character and purpose. Whiteness has been taught to be the norm, a standard of American lifestyle, while being invisible to those who possess the privileges and benefits of meeting its requirements. Communication must be done with a level sense of purpose and reason; conversely, the mindset of Blacks and Whites is not necessarily “Black and White”. a) In Peggy McIntosh’s work “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, she emphasizes the effort Whites must take to simply comprehend and acknowledge that their lives, in general, are not the same as those of color. (McIntosh, YEAR???) The article continues to express White privilege as a force of supremacy and dominance that is underlined by a large array of benefits and favors packaged together in an “invisible knapsack”. Much like male privilege, rather than release some of the power of being White, the actions taken are often to raise the glass ceiling of non-Whites to a higher level. What this does, consequently, is maintain the White superiority and...
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...Nobody really likes to talk about racism, oppression, and privilege. The article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, introduced the concept of privilege. Most white people don’t consciously intend to behave in ways that can be experienced by their students or colleagues of color as racist; they simply go along with a system that is already biased in their favor, thus they do not notice the privileges built into their daily lives. For example, in “The Promise” video, when the woman gives an advice to her black waitress, only to realize the waitress cannot relate because the advice is subject to whites. She did not understand the pain that the black lady was going through at first with her son having to grow...
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...Privilege is like having some built-in advantages just because of who you are, like your race, gender, or how much money you've got. It's not about anything you've earned, but more about the way society's set up to give some folks a leg up while holding others back. In everyday life and especially in healthcare, privilege can really mess with how we treat people. Peggy McIntosh's idea of white privilege in her article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" shows how privilege works, often without people even realizing it, shaping how we see and deal with others. Say you're a doctor or nurse who's got it pretty good because of your race or money. You might not even know it, but that could affect how you treat patients. You might...
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...In the excerpt, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, the author commences the paper with her current work on women’s studies. McIntosh enlightens us on her findings on how men are over privileged and are reluctant to admit so. They are aware of their current advantage over women, but rather than acknowledging they are privileged, men simply indicate their support towards fighting for a better-quality status for women. Yet, they will never support the reduction of their standing. This incident approached McIntosh’s awareness to a similar occurrence with the idea of white privilege. She began to realize that just as men acknowledge their advantage over women, whites acknowledge their benefits over people of...
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...a collective group, more often than not, leads other groups to be labeled different, or outsiders. Stereotypes and discrimination, driven by the concept of identity, can cause untold amounts of pain for their victims. However, throughout all stages of life, a defined sense of identity also can be a reassuring coping mechanism. This personal resource we call identity has a tremendous effect on an individual’s psychological state. In uncomfortable or new situations, a healthy and defined sense of self can help individuals navigate society. When the characteristics that define person are those targeted by discrimination identities are questioned. One can either embrace who they are with pride and rise above the ignorance, or they can be invisible. The works “Battle Royal” and “This Morning”, present both sides of the balance between embracing and abandoning one’s identity, together they demonstrate the importance of a clear sense of self in the face of discrimination. In uncomfortable surroundings, such as a new situation, sometimes people find it easier to distance from their identity to better fit in. Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal” is a great example of an identity dissolving amidst discrimination. In this story the narrator, similar to his grandfather, distances himself from his ethnic identity in order to fit in and gain praise from white community. Ellison conveys this distancing from identity by leaving the narrator nameless. In...
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...Invisible Man Essay The narrator says he is invisible from society because society refuses to see him. He receives a scholarship to college, but is expelled for what happened at the Golden Day. He goes to NY and tries to find a Job, works short while at Liberty Paints. Becomes a speaker for the Brotherhood, but has opposing views that result in conflict. Harlem goes into a riot and the narrator disappears by living underground in order to be true to himself without the pressure of society. A symbol is something that can stand for one thing, but mean another. In the Invisible Man we see plenty of symbols. Everything is a symbol, but some are more important than others. Some symbols carry all throughout the book. A contextual symbol can be a setting, character, action, object, name, or anything else in a work that maintains its literal significance while suggesting other meanings and a cultural symbol is different symbols that may have quite different meanings in different cultures. The statue is a very important symbol in the novel. "I see the bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding...Why is a bird-soiled statue more...
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...Jose Mota Dr. Bowens AFAS 200 25 September 2014 The Invisible Man “The Invisible Man”, written by Ralph Ellison is a literature book that was first published in early 1950’s and was immediately a masterpiece. The book is about the life of an African American narrator through his trials and suffering in a small Southern town and as a man that was never visible. The book is titled “The Invisible Man” because the Ellison wants the readers to be aware he was not invisible by a supernatural cause or and an experiment, but he’s invisible due to the fact of others unwilling to notice his existence because of the color of his skin. The narrator didn’t let his invisibility stop him because he viewed it as a constant aggravation; this suffering pain led his ways to make others recognize him. This literature by Ralph Ellison, “The Invisible Man,” shows an image to its readers what life is like for a black person during that time, they lived life but yet were noticed, they were invisible. The narrator secretly lived for free in a shut-off section of a basement of the Monopolized Light and Power Company, where he was stealing electricity from them in order to have light. What got the narrator through the times was that enjoyed listening to jazz music mainly Louis Armstrong’s music, in his secretive underground basement, this helped calm the narrator’s soul and block out struggles throughout the book. He often went into a fantasy world and escape with the music; he would imagine a scene in...
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