History of Privilege

Privilege is such a weighty topic to talk about, partly because, well, no one ever really talks about it! One of the big ideas that stuck out to me this week was the important role fear plays in privilege—it occurred to me after watching “A Brief History of the USA” and noticing how many times the words “afraid” or “scared” were used (for example: “They got scared all over again, so they killed them all”) to describe the motivation behind seemingly crazy things white people did. This made me think about myself and my own privileges and I realized that, if it really came down to it, I would probably be scared if one day my privileges (being white, being educated) were threatened or one day didn’t make a difference anymore. This is a mindset I’m hoping to improve.

Roppolo’s essay about the treatment of American Indians was incredibly eye opening because while this is a minority I never hear much about, if you asked me to say what I think of when I hear the words “American Indian” I’m ashamed to say that (previously) I would have probably said “alcohol” and “casinos.” The worst part is, I couldn’t even tell you why or where that idea comes from! I have absolutely no basis for thinking that, except for maybe what I’ve seen on TV or read in a book. I guess that’s the power of socialization rearing its ugly head again. Furthermore, I was intrigued by the idea of “dyconscious racism.” I think that this is something that plagues our society and it made me wonder what I do that’s dyconscious. The most powerful idea from this piece (to me, at least) was the idea that when people continuously hear that they’re no good or worthless, they start to believe they’re worthless and internalize the stereotypes. I think this is applicable to just about everyone in society, and I really wish people would think before they make judgments about people—the damage it does is so powerful.

Reading about the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement and Hurricane Katrina made me try to remember the things I thought about when the hurricane hit and New Orleans was left in economic and physical devastation. I was pretty young, but I remember thinking America can’t. After reading this article, I realized I should have been thinking American won’t. Never would I ever have thought that the racial makeup of a city would have influenced the amount of assistance they received from the government! This article also made me think about the things we never heard on the news about New Orleans and Katrina, such as the false reports of rape, theft, and assault. What does this say about our media? The piece ended with the line, “The moment we stop reminding ourselves that black lives matter, black lives will not matter.” This is a theme I’m seeing in all of our readings and something I feel passionately about—silence is agreeing. I do not want to be silent anymore. In my life, this means sharing these stories with friends who tend to think pretty narrow mindedly about social justice issues.

Peggy McIntosh’s piece on white privilege and her list of all of the ways she is privileged made me really think about the ways my privilege impacts my daily life. She also claims, “Disapproving of the systems won’t be enough to change them.” There it is again!! The importance of speaking out! Talk about convicting. I’ve always thought just agreeing something is wrong was “good enough.” Nope!

Finally, I learned an important lesson about history from the Zinn reading—perspective is important. When in history did we learn about the brutality of Columbus’ genocides or the fact that a law had to be passed to keep blacks and whites from mingling? Then, reading about Bill Clinton’s presidency and how he cut programs for the poor instead of taxing the wealthy made me think about Park Avenue all over again. It’s a bigger problem than I thought and will take a lot to overcome it, but it’s encouraging to see that this is something people are not afraid to write about and educate people about! Hopefully we as social work students can do the same!!

Sources:

Adams, M., Blumfeld, W., Castañeda, C., Hackman, H., Peters, M., Zúñiga, X. 

(2013). Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. New York, NY: 

Routledge.

MacIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. 

Peace and Freedom.

Moore, M. (2011, May 29). A Brief History of the USA- Bowling for Columbine- Michael Moore (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=194&v=lGYFRzf2Xww

Zinn, H. (1980). A People's History of the United States. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.