Three months ago, when I first identified myself as a critical thinker, it was one of the first times I have consciously considered my privileges and oppressions as they pertained to my identity as an able bodied, straight, middle class, light skinned, cisgendered, Mexican American woman. I briefly mentioned that although I am often mistaken as all white, I am actually also Mexican, and it was not until college that I became more interested to learn about this disclosed side of my family and their culture. My dad was also my mom’s step¬¬¬brother, and although he passed away over three years ago, his side of the family is still very much connected with my mom’s side because my grandma, and his father, remain married to this day. Because of this, …show more content…
However, the effects of social racism have largely contributed to all the intersecting dynamics in my life. Cherríe Moraga shares a similar conflicting identity crisis, in which she is labeled, “la guera,” meaning light skinned Latina. She discusses in her essay, “La Guera” how her home environment and other social spectrums treated her white, where she gained the idea that “white was right” because it, “attempted to bleach me of what color I did have” (Morago, 2015). She too describes her experiences of passing as it pertained to her race and the privileges it entailed, in which she refers to as being “anglicized.” Today, as a junior at Washington State University in Pullman, my white appearance deems me part of the majority, therefore excluding me from any racist harassment other students have experienced in just this past year alone. I can attribute my enrollment at WSU as benefitting from affirmative action, which deemed me a minority simply after seeing my Spanish name on the application. I have even been awarded certain ethnic scholarships, simply because I marked a box, along with the assumptions my last name conveyed, proving just how much and how loud words or names can tell without actually saying a word. Passing allows me to conveniently …show more content…
This seven letter name secures my oppressed fate within the legal system, the university setting, and the job market. Because there is an attempt to quantify and biologically define race, this precedes the oppressive and injustice factors I may face by systematic racism. I have often been turned down for jobs despite my qualifications, most likely due to the negative connotations attached to the Spanish name given to me. Hypothetical and symbolic titles are inaccurately assumed to predict one’s capability and worth. This is especially true with the negative implications attached to the brown community, such as laziness, untrustworthiness, ignorance, and lack of education. Minorities often become self-oppressive when those who work, live, fight, and die among the white have yet to gain “equality, economic security, or freedom.” Andree Canaan, author of the essay “Browness,” writes “brown is not The Oppressor but the victim. But part of our victimization is self-oppression.” However, it is nearly impossible to cease this alliance since white man’s power is inevitable as they control they entire system, along with its vital resources needed to survive (Canaan, 2015). Also similar to my identity crisis but a disadvantage for Moraga, is her inability to portray her queerness through appearance, much like the resistance those of color to physically hide or
In society people have gathered and formed opinions and beliefs on what oppression is. “Governor Wallace of Alabama blocking the schoolhouse door; we think of water hoses, lynchings, racial epithets, and “whites only” signs” (108) are things, explained by michelle, are things that formed the incorrect idea of what oppression actually is. While this form of oppression is during the original Jim Crow era is face forward and very obvious, it has altered and skewed our views on oppression and racism as a whole. Mass incarceration has formed this idea of a bird cage, with the idea that If “one thinks about racism by examining only one wire of the cage, or one form of disadvantage, it is difficult to understand how and why the bird is trapped” (108). The system that traps and oppressed African Americans during the modern era is a much more structural intricate system.
In society and religion you can either unite individuals for agreeable achievements or continue to focus on the mistreatment and enduring of other individuals. In this essay I will be providing a rhetorical analysis of an essay called “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” By Peggy McIntosh. Also providing a secondary source by Tommie Shelby “Social, Identity and Group Solidarity, We Who Are Dark” explaining some of the similarities and differences of the two readings ,and the proper principles as to why I chose these two for my term paper. All throughout the beginning of my essay I will be identifying the particular strategies that the author McIntosh provides to appeal to her audience. The main purpose of her essay is to
The book launch has many connections to the class since it focuses on Dr. Hayes-Bautista research about the Latino population in America. The book central focus is in redefining the negative stereotypes implicated on Latinos. Dr. Hayes-Bautista provides outstanding data that proves that Latinos are “true” Americans. Unfortunately, we live in a society where many minority groups have to prove that they fit to the “American ideal” identity or are oppressed for being different and socially unacceptable. Likewise, an interesting question floated around the room about how do we not lose hope and continue to change the negative narrative inflicted on the Latinos.
In the reading “To Live In Spanish: An Immigrant Commentary” by Trinidad Villegas, the subject of inequities in language is discussed. She explains her own account of dealing with intersecting identities. When immigrating to the U.S. she spoke only Spanish. This became a problem.
Over the past decade the term white privilege has emerged in our American history. White privilege is the concept that one particular group is benefited which is typically identified as white people. Most of the victims experiencing harsh conditions are non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances of mistreatment. A conversation took place with a few people about white privilege whose race is identified as white. An interviewer started that “the belief that being white comes with unearned advantages and everyday perks”.
“Race Politics” Luis J. Rodriguez has written a poem called, “Race Politics”. This piece shows that the diversity between two parts of the town he grew up in and how it affected everyone. Rodriguez helps his readers learn that diversity isn’t an ‘old’ problem and that it didn’t end after the civil war, but that it still happens and it can affect people strongly. “Race Politics” can help prove that diversity is still going on and it’s still a major problem. When reading anything there is always connotation; which means that there is always a hidden meaning under the literal words and meaning.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack While reading this piece by Peggy McIntosh, I found myself as a white woman thinking, 'yes I can do these things,' and realized right there what white privilege looks like. Looking at the fifty points McIntosh discusses, it is clear that the predominance of white privilege affects her daily life. These daily effects McIntosh discusses range from who she wants to surround herself with, knowing and feeling financially secure and feeling welcomed in public life. While only choosing fifty instances where McIntosh feels her white privilege comes into contact, it is apparent that the instances are common when discussing primarily skin color compared to race, class, and religion. Without argument,
Published soon after President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Tim Wise’s book, Between Barack and a Hard Place, argues that contrary to the largely held white belief, the election of our nation’s first African American president is a long way away from the end of racism in the United States. Wise suggests that instead of signifying a victory over racism, the election of Barack Obama may even signal the emergence of an entirely new type of racism altogether. Between Barack and a Hard Place examines contemporary white denial and the reality of modern racism by investigating different forms racism present in income and jobs, housing, education, criminal justice and the law, and health care. In light of Obama’s victory, the book aims to expose the
Critical Summary Cindy Cruz’s “Toward an epistemology of a brown body” addresses the absence of educational research regarding the “brown body” and sexual orientation of Latinx. Cruz discusses her experience as a lesbiana and not knowing there was a possibility that anyone else in her family shared her orientation. She reflects on her grandmother’s funeral and how she became aware of the “generations of queers” that surrounded her (Cruz 2001, 658). Knowledge of the brown body, Cruz claims, comes from mothers and grandmothers and from the actions of past women of color. Stories about the brown body experiences are often dismissed due to the fact that they are performed rather than explained, and the theoretical aspect of these accounts exists outside of our present reality (Cruz 2001, 659).
People see whiteness because they experience its effects. A useful comparison can be drawn between the unrecognised privileges of males, and those of white people (McIntosh, 1988). It is not unusual for men to acknowledge that women are disadvantaged. With that said, McIntosh (1988) argues that white privilege is in the same manner without recognition and thus preserved. McIntosh (1988) views white privilege as an invisible collection of unearned assets that is of benefit to white people on a daily basis.
Richard Rodriguez's essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” claim that race as a basis for identifying Americans is not valid; it is the only culture that defines any individual’s identity. To illustrate, the essay classifies that Rodriguez lived in a Chinese city, in which grasp him to “that palette”(Rodriquez,91). For this reason, the significance of the word “palette” means to contain the colorful symbol of the Chinese culture that Rodriguez adapt to live in. To add on, Rodriguez acclimates to the colors of the Chinese city that he lived in that identifies himself as an individual. Rodriguez aforementioned that comparing individuals as “ blacks and Hispanic... is a fallacious equation” (Rodriquez,91).
Even approaching more recent times, the racial factor that denies us equality is still present. One report shows that, ‘’In 1995, average white households had $18,000 in financial wealth, while Black households possessed a total of only $200’’(‘’International Socialist Review’’) Just as we saw when talking about the gender inequality, people of certain, ‘’undesirable,’’ races can be subjected to unequal pay, due to racist, and bias bosses. Skin is only so deep, so we have to ask ourselves: Should color determine how others treat ? If so, we can then start to understand why America won’t ever be completely
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.
Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973). Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing
As the realities of race – who is white and who is not-shift over time and according-to class, language, location, and various other factors, it becomes increasingly clear that people should not be the object of attack. People raced as white are not the problem, the problem is white supremacy, white privilege, and white empire. People of all races contribute to these social, political, and legal ills, and people of all races can unite to destroy