1. Coming to terms with Peggy McIntosh's paper,
White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies, it really makes me step back and take a look at who I am and where I come from. I wouldn't consider myself white, yet in McIntosh's essay, I receive all the benefits one would under "white privilege". She really describes and paints you a picture of really all that white privilege entails from not getting followed in the store to not having to worry that I won't get a job because of my skin color. Now, it makes me really sad and I find it eye opening to think that although racism may seem to be gone, it's really just covered up and less prevalent in our society. This raises the point that really in our culture and being white, we are raised up to be blissfully ignorant of important issues going on around us. With her talking about white privilege and brining up key concepts I really look at myself and see the completely unnoticed benefits that I am able to have that are due to my skin tone, and until really reading this essay and reflecting on my own life, I was completely unaware. Peggy McIntosh also goes into detail about men's privilege and really I believe that in order to look and criticize men's privilege and to minimize sexism, we need to largely look at ourselves and make an effort to reduce the racism that white privilege brings. No one should be judged on the color of their skin and it's really disappointing that after the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's I'm able to say racism still exists and is an every day part of our society. I think that it's important to take a look at our own lives and really reflect and think critically about what McIntosh is saying here and try to make a point to be aware and educate others.
2. Questions:
In order to really try and minimize the "white privilege" that is so prevalent still in our society in this day and age, what can we do besides educate others and raise awareness?
I'm concerned that people with white privilege or even men won't be prepared to listen and reflect at their lives, what can we do to help them see our point of view while not being offensive and instead offering insight to the views of some of the minority groups? (i.e. Women and minority races in this case)
McIntosh brings up 46 points that she really sees white privilege in her daily life, what could be some steps to allowing everyone to feel the same "privileges" that white people or men do?
A) The thesis is that the Ethnic studies classes work and they were unjustly banned because the politicians fear the students learning about their heritage’s culture.
ReplyDeleteB) Natalia does a great job of introducing new topics. For example she introduces the possibility that the government is hiding something and that in hiding it they are crippling public education. She also has some great quotes that really back up her ideas in this essay. Her idea that the Ethnic Studies classes work and were taken away unjustly is made clear throughout the whole essay and she backs that up with facts.
C) One thing that I think would greatly improve this essay is finding some other sources to back up your thesis. There was a lot about Adichie’s TED talk and I feel that with more sources it would make you claim a lot stronger.
D) The way she introduces new ideas that really put things in perspective for the reader. She also did a great job of staying with her thesis throughout the entire essay while also providing new ideas for the reader to think about. The new ideas are working in her essay because they caused me to stop and think about them. I literally stopped reading a couple of times and thought about the new idea she had brought up.
E) I feel that there were a couple dropped quotes throughout the essay. I feel that if she connected her thoughts to the quotes and explained how they connect and why they are important it would greatly improve the essay.
F) The essay’s topic is very interesting and good. One way the essay could go is to delve a little deeper into why the politicians banned theses classes. By that I mean research some countries that have actually done things like these in order to have the same effect. I feel that that would add a new idea and really connect the reader and show the reader that it is possible that a politician would do things of this nature for such a reason.
G) Some questions I am left with would be what is la raza? There wasn't a whole lot explained about this in the essay and I don't know what it is so I would like to here a little bit more about that in the essay. Is it having pride in their nationality? Another question I have is why is the Pedagogy of the Oppressed so important and what is it about?
H) This is a great topic and I enjoyed reading your essay. I hope all this information helps!
-Nate