Critical Whiteness Literature Review

The disregard for black women is an issue that is slowly becoming a topic of discussion. In addition to Malcolm X’s acknowledgement that “The most disrespected woman in America, is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the black woman”, Crunktastic writes in the Crunk Feminist Collections about her experience being a black woman and being disrespected. Both Boynton and Crunktastic write pieces that encourage men to put aside their feelings of entitlement and begin to respect black women.

Racialized critical rhetorical theorizing is the way the public and legal notions of race influence the decisions that are made for our society that changes outcomes or actions based on our society’s views. Throughout this essay there is a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of racial studies, and the contributions of legal race theorists that have studied to understand the arguments of racialized critical rhetorical theorizing. When we focus on this subject, there is also an emphasis placed on positive reconstruction and race consciousness. Article Discussion This essay discusses and explores a specific rhetoric theory in which the issue of race is analyzed.

The film, White Like Me is based on the works of Tim Wise, an American anti-racism activist and writer. The documentary explores racism in the United States through the concepts of white privileged and racial identity by Wise’s own experiences. He starts off by saying that the United States has overcome a lot of issues involving race from slavery to electing an African-American as president, but he disproves that theory by stating that racial inequality and racial bias still exists. Wise emphasizes that when the issues are ignored not only does injustice continues for the people of color but also damage is done to white people as well. Racism is seen to only impact the underprivileged and not the dominate group, but for every racist act against

The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.

“My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make”(Mcintosh 1). A quote from Peggy McIntosh’s essay shows how the way we are treated in our societies has a direct impact on the way we perform in that society. The essay caused me to think deeply about myself and how I truly am privileged to be white; although we may not notice it there are millions of privileges linked to our skin colour. Upon finishing the reading I was questioning not only white privilege but also things like racism and what I myself could do to help people of other ethnicity’s not feel underprivileged. To begin, Peggy McIntosh mentions in her essay the fact that men have privilege over women causing women disadvantages in the same way whites have power

From 1948-1994, apartheid raged across South Africa. The people of South Africa were split into four different social groups based on race. The top of the social hierarchy at the time were the white South Africans. They held control from the government and kept the other groups in a constant state of oppression. These other groups included Indian people, “colored” people, and black people.

In the McIntosh article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” my overview of this article for the reading assignment is that “white privilege,” as McIntosh states, is “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious.” This revelation came as she was writing an observation article on white male privilege in America. Her reviews in this area began in her discoveries of men’s unwillingness to recognize their over-advantage status, however they would concede the impediment condition of women. These denials protected male privilege from being acknowledged, diminished, or abridged. Her findings concerning unattended white privilege may be key to bigotry.

When someone hears the term “White Privilege”, immediately one would assume that it denotes a meaning that a specific race has ‘privilege’, or special treatment, that other races might not receive. However, the term “White Privilege” goes beyond what the eyes see, like Peggy McIntosh, an anti-racism activist, suggests, it is “an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious.” In other words, McIntosh is saying “White Privilege” is not entirely a status, special treatment, nor a certain standing in a social structure, but is instead, in its most inherent and intrinsic definition, a subtle but yet powerful phenomenon that subjugate us as social creatures to conform to its power of giving certain races advantages that are oblivious to our own knowledge.

White Privilege: Essay 1 White privilege is a systemic issue that has roots in our history as far back as the creators of our country. Searching back, we see our norms and values created into habits that have been woven into how we view and act around specific groups such as African Americans. This essay is going to explain how the average Caucasian individual experiences white privilege on a day to day basis and the solutions to insure that white privilege will stop and true equality can be handed out. This paper views the latter issues through symbolic interactionism, with supporting sub theories such as; labeling theory, looking glass self, and selective perception.

Intersectional analysis still matter because race still matters in this generation. Intersectional analysis is a theory of discrimination with an individual identity, race, sex, age, and other characteristics. I personally think that not only women face intersectionality but men do as well. In this essay, I will argue that bell hooks’ main argument is how white people do not know what people of colour are going through and how “whiteness” has more privileges then the blacks. hooks approach is intersectional because people of colour are being treated as slaves to the “white” just because of their race and at times their gender.

Critical Whiteness Studies responds to the invisible and normative nature of whiteness in predominantly white societies, criticizing racial and ethnic attribution of non-white subjects who have to grapple with their deviation from the set norm, and opening the discussion on white privilege that results from being the unmarked norm (Kerner: 278). As Conway and Steyn elaborate, Critical Whiteness Studies aims to “redirect[...] the scholarly gaze from the margins to the centre” (283) and, more specifically, to interrogat[e][...] the centre of power and privilege from which racialization emanates but which operates more or less invisibly as it constructs itself as both the norm and ideal of what it means to be human. (ibid.) Thus, Critical Whiteness

Fahad Albrahim Response 1: Review/Summary: “Whiteness as property” is an article written by Cheryl Harris, in which she addresses the subject of racial identity and property in the United States. Throughout the article, professor Harris attempts to explain how the concept of whiteness was initiated to become a form of racial identity, which evolved into a property widely protected in American law (page 1713). Harris tackles a number of facts that describe the roots of whiteness as property in American history at the expense of minorities such as Black and American natives (page 1709). Additionally, Harris describes how whiteness as property evolved to become seen as a racial privilege in which the whites gained more benefits, whether

In the modern world we are not only surrounded by the culture of our own people but also that of those who live amongst us be they from a different region of our own country or from a foreign shore. Culture surrounds us constantly and through its diversity makes life interesting. Cultural appropriation is where by one borrows something from another culture and places them into a different setting and by adding new elements to it gives it a new meaning. Many artists use cultural appropriation to convey messages in their work, an example of this is Kendell Geers. Kendell Geers uses cultural appropriation throughout his artworks relating to South African culture.

Kareen Harboyan English 1C Professor Supekar March 15, 2018 Word Count: Crenshaw’s Mapping the Margins: The Marginalization of Women of Color Analyzed Through Generalization and A Feminist Lens Crenshaw's Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color expands on the multifaceted struggles of women of color and the generalizations ingrained in society that limit women of color and keep them in a box. In this text, Crenshaw builds on the concept of intersectionality which proposes that social categorizations such as gender and race are intertwined and have great influence on one another.

Context: Legislation: In 1948, the all white National Party gained control of the South African government and immediately enacted a system of racial oppression called apartheid [1]. This system, building upon existing discriminatory laws, ensured economic, political, and social dominance for whites. It gained a foothold as laws such as the Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act worked to benefit whites while hurting people of color[1].