Effects of White Privilege

I find Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” to be extremely insightful. Her ideas make me think about every day, ordinary life, and actually contemplate the privileges seemingly handed to people with white skin. I definitely agree with McIntosh that growing up white, you learn that racism disadvantages people, but you don’t see it from the other perspective of white skin being an advantage. I think that her analogy between white privilege and an invisible knapsack filled with supplies is brilliant. When reading her list of daily effects of white privilege, I realize that my world, as a white person, is in stark contrast with that of a person of color.
I believe that one of the strongest concepts McIntosh brought up was the idea of an individual’s actions reflecting their race. She speaks of a white person with poor manners, sloppy appearance, and disrespect for others, but this does not hurt the reputation of white people. In the exact same scenario but instead with a person of color, his actions will give his race a bad name. An uncleanly, white person does not have his appearance attributed to his race, but if he were for instance a Black or Indian person who had body odor, it would be associated with his race. The same association occurs in innumerable instances. These false assumptions are repeated over and over again. It is not right by any means, but because most people do acknowledge race as one of the first visual things they see, this skin color is immediately associated with the individual’s behavior.
Whiteness is the theory of white being viewed as not a color in the racial world. Because white is not seen as being a color, the actions of white people do not lead to generalizations of their race. A white person’s every move is not analyzed and interpreted, and his actions do not need to be justified. Just because he is white his actions will not be critically judged and the explanation for them will not be attributed to his race. This does not hold true for people of color; it is the opposite. From a white perspective, people of color are seen differently. A white person does not think, oh I am white and these specific actions are reflecting poorly on my race. The thought does not even occur to him, because he himself does not even see white as a color. It is the absence of color.
The idea of the convenience of being white crosses my mind. McIntosh states, “I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.” The band aid example really makes me think about how crazy it is that I have never, in all of my 18 years, ever seen a brown or black or any other shade band aid besides those that are light tan. Besides the fact that band aids seem to basically come in one skin tone color, unless they have designs or bright colors, I couldn’t believe that the color itself was called “flesh.” This makes me think of the example in class about the “flesh” colored crayon and its dispute since it was only representing white people, and people of many colors all have differing shades of flesh. Because I am a girl, I use what McIntosh calls “blemish cover” including foundation, cover up, and powder. When I go to Target to buy my makeup, there is a wide variety of companies that sell makeup, but each company only has a very limited selection of actual skin tones to choose from. Because of this, I find it extremely difficult to even find a shade that matches my light to medium skin tone, that of a white person. Makeup shades do go to bronze and dark and such, but when I look at the bottle or container I realize that wow, this color really isn’t that dark at all, and I wonder how girls of dark skin can find a shade sufficient enough to match their skin. It is so easy for me to walk into a convenience store and pick out band aids and makeup that match my skin, but people of color don’t have it quite the same.
White people are represented frequently in the media, on television, and in magazines. I get a Cosmopolitan magazine in the mail, and I can flip through it and almost every single woman is white. Because I am white, and don’t see white as a color, I think nothing of this. But if I were to pick up Essence magazine, it would take one glance to know that this magazine is marketed towards black woman. It is clear to me, because all of the women are not of my color. Whenever I see a Dove commercial or advertisement, I see them incorporate different races and body shapes, because Dove believes that all women are beautiful. Dove appeals to many races, because they acknowledge women who are white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and more. It features the beauty of all colors. Even with the Dove example, I can flip through a magazine that does a feature article on beauty tips for girls. Let’s say the article focuses on 8 different beauty tips. As a general statement, I can say that probably 5 of these 8 girls will be white and 3 will be girls of color. When I come across something like this, I feel as though the article is not catering to the interests of all girls, but rather simply including the girls of color as to not appear to be discriminating against those of color. It boggles my mind to think that being white has given me this advantage of something as simple as having beauty tips in a magazine pertain to me rather than to girls of color.
These minor aspects of everyday life are diverse among differing skin tones. A person’s color alone has enough of an impact to make a difference in how general happenings throughout his day are perceived. Until reading McIntosh’s article and analyzing her ideas, I had never thought about how the daily life of a white person contrasts with that of a person of color. Yes, I knew that discrimination is always present, but I never viewed the flip-side of things, that quite possibly, white people have certain advantages that people of color do not possess. Although this is not right or fair, the advantages are present.

inequality within our schools

Over the past few lectures Angela has talked about equality in education between social class and race. One topic that has caught my interest for this blog post is the issue of inequality with schools based on race. It surprises me to hear and read about how so many different families view education. It is also hard for me to hear about schools that have little resources or accommodations for the children that attend them. Perhaps it is because my mom is a teacher and I see that the school district she is employed at is barley skimming by with enough money for the school year, and in other parts of this state there are still some schools that are not in such a need to worry about money.

An idea that struck me as interesting was how many people in our class had a more privileged high school experience. For example, many of them had guidance counselors who helped prep them for college, or they had AP courses and their parents were able to relocate or send their children to schools that met their religious or cultural demands. On the other hand there were some people, like myself who were not as lucky to have counselors to help us with college, in fact, my school only had two counselors and out of my high school only four people went to UW-Madison. Also many of the schools similar to mine did not have as many AP courses and many of our school programs were cut due to the lack funding.

In the article, “Hitting Them The Hardest When They Are Young,” the article talks about schools in inner city New York (Harlem) that have no area for the children to go outside and play, and who barely have enough textbooks for half of their class. Also, many of the classroom sizes were up to thirty children, when they recommend that classroom sizes are between 20-24. However in the suburbs, like Scottsdale many of the schools have a lot of resources for their students, and they also have the space and a safe building for their students to attend.

It puzzles me that the state of New York wouldn't want to help out every school within their city? Do they not help these school in the inner city New York because they are schools of minorities and they have low expectations of them? Or is it because many of the children who go to those schools have been given low expectations from their parents or their environment around them. I believe that there are a lot of factors contributing to the education of children but the one I believe that sticks out the most to me is the family and their money. Many inner city schools are given textbooks that are outdated and they are often trying to make up for what they don't have. As a reader, I was shocked that there are schools that are so terrible, like the ones located in East St. Louis, where their school is falling apart and most of the children have health problems due to the pollution. The teachers and the students just go through the motions and at the end of the day they go back to their lives, and many go back to empty homes or to no homes at all.

A judge was puzzled by why there was such inequality with schools that were located in the same state. The judge questioned how it got to be this way? He also proposed and issued that schools be given equal funding. Several parents were outraged with the fact that they had to share money with schools who were less successful then the schools their children attended? I thought to myself, well sure these schools are less successful because the people demanding all the money are creating schools to become like that. Not every school really needs ten or plus classrooms just for one on one education. Like stated in the article, you can't even compare schools like Harvard to those who are barely skimming by. Its up-surd since the level of demand and amount of availability for one on one is far greater within in these schools.

Lastly, a comment that struck a nerve for me was, that some people suggested that you can not give a school money first, when what they really need is new values and morals. Instead of complaining about the mistakes the parents of low income have made, and have to live with for the rest of their lives, perhaps now should be the time to step in and help people out? If we are supposed to be a united nation then it should be a top priority to make sure that the it is not just ¼ of the future getting a correct and proper education, but that 100% of our future is getting it. One teacher wondered why the students kept coming back? She said that they knew what they were getting themselves into when they came, and even the teachers taught them to expect to fail. Perhaps they come back because they want something better, maybe they want to be that one person who made it big and can help make a difference for the future? All I know is is that we need to start reevaluating what is important to our country and whether or not we would like the future of our education to keep heading in the same direction it is for minorities, which is soon to be non-existent.

Lecture on the concept of merit

Unlike the video that we saw on today's lecture, me and my friends went to college precisely according to our SAT scores.

None of us were extraordinary (at least according to our school) like students shown in the video. We were not president of any sort, and we did not find any kind of school activities appealing. Yet however, some of us wrestled, debated, played chess, and even some warmed bench of JV football team in his senior year. At our lunch, we always grumbled about how unpleasant it is to have intimate physical competition with half naked men, how pathetic it is to act interested and passionate about issues and debate about it, when it would produce no actual result nor change, and we always made fun of Steve, the benchwarmer. Yet Steve never seemed to be disturbed because he didn't like football and wasn't fit for playing it anyways. All those unpleasant moments were endured just so that we would get into a better college.

When we became Juniors, we all started to prepare for the SAT. Some of us went Kaplan or Princeton Review, some hired a tutor that cost $100 an hour, and some had more than just one tutor. There were five of us, and we all had at least 1100, and the score went up according to the money put in for the preparation. The highest was 1380, and he made into Berkeley, and he was the one that had two tutors flown from Los Angeles every weekend, each specialized in teaching Math and Verbal section preparation.

Just as mentioned before, we were all average students with GPAs slightly above the average. There was nothing that would differentiate us except for the SAT score and the essay in the college applications, and I can confidently say that the test is all about recognizing patterns within the problems.

All of the private SAT prep courses teach how to recognize patterns within the problems. Rather than explaining why B is the answer for the problem number 41, they focus on how B is most likely to be the answer, and the frustrating thing is that they are right about it. It is inevitable that someone would score higher when he/she is coached more. The problem with the SAT is that it does not test anything, yet it impacts whole lot when it comes to distinguishing relatively ordinary students like me and my friends. I used to believe essay part of college application is students' chance to show their character and potential, but now it seems that the SAT diminishes purpose of essays in college applications.

Race vs Genetics

The excerpt from “The Race Myth” really opened my eyes to what the biological definition of race actually is. Melanin, pigmentation, is why different skin colors exist. I had never thought in depth about the genetic difference between races. In reality, eye color differences are equivalent to skin color differences. People simply have different traits on their chromosomes that determine their appearance. It is amazing that these few genes that correlate to skin color create an entire racial hierarchy of who is better than who, who is worth more. This hierarchy, created by society, leads to “academic underachievement, the drug epidemic, health disparities, unequal justice, and the ongoing social and political division that still exists between the defined races.” I agree that in general, students of minorities may not be presented with the same educational opportunities as white students. This definitely takes a toll on the school system and the tools the teachers are able to provide the students with in order to teach them the necessary curriculum. Until society gets past the idea of a racial hierarchy, equality will not exist.

The social hierarchy of race is in place because society groups people with similar physical characteristics together. It generalizes an entire mass of people and describes them using a single name. Society does not take into consideration any differences among the people whatsoever because it is so stuck on physical attributes and characteristics that automatically classify a person into a particular group. True democracy and the American dream will not be fulfilled for all people unless there is equality for all. When equality exists, segregation is present. The invention of race creates segregation. People dislike others whose skin is a different color for no legitimate reason, the color of their skin is enough to base their dislike on. Race creates conflict and inequality. It makes life not fair.

When I read about the idea of a half-breed, and the confusion in determining what race someone is, it occurred to me that there are an endless number of races. Every person is a mutt. For example, if a person is part Native American, part Caucasian, and part African American, what racial group do they fall into? They don’t. There is no clear distinction of where the boundary lines are drawn between determining a person’s race. The genetics proves that race does not exist, that it is socially constructed within our society. Looking at a person’s DNA, it cannot be determined who is ethnically a certain defined race. I agree that, “Whenever an institution or society singles out individuals who are exceptional or outstanding in some way, racial differences will become more apparent.” African Americans are known for athletic ability, while Asian Americans are viewed as extremely intelligent in math and science, and so on. Once this generalization of a race has been created, people assume that all people that look Asian are good at math and science, and all people that look African must be good at sports. These assumptions lead to feelings of superiority and inadequacy between races.

I thought it was a really cool fact that genetically, “only 4.62 percent of our genetic makeup is responsible for all our individuality” and that “humans are 95.38 percent identical to each other.” We are all equal, one and the same. An African and an Asian could be more similar genetically than two Africans. I do believe that genetic distance and genetic variation play a slight role in this thing defined as race, but in reality the facts conclude that DNA doesn’t know the difference between race, and what better evidence could there be than that? Race really is a social construct. It is a title used to distinguish between people, creating racial groups that only correspond with physical attributes. These physical attributes result from many family lineages. I feel as though everything is just a huge mix, since people have different ethnicities. For example, when a Caucasian person is asked about their heritage, they don’t just say, “Oh, I’m white.” They say something along the lines of, “I’m 50 percent German, 25 percent Polish, and 25 percent Sicilian.” Mixing has already occurred between this defined race of Caucasian people, again confirming that there are way too many different personal attributes genetically and ethnically to create separate races. Everyone is different from each other, and social construct is what created groups in an attempt to cluster people that seem to be similar, but in reality, are not.

During the Tuesday's Lecture on inequality, It had occurred to me that inequality is not only the problem of the United States, but also the severe problem of South Korea, the country that I was born and raised.

Inequality is not so much of a popular issue in South Korea; they are often ignored, and I believe it is mainly because of people's belief and pride of Korea being a nation-state with one unified ethnicity. Koreans believe that every Korean people come from a same root, and they consider it as a national pride.

It is absurd, and simply illogical, but they are popular, just like Creationism is popular in the United States (what is worse, Creationism is also popular in South Korea).

First of all, it is impossible for Korean to be racially and ethnically different than Chinese or Japanese because they all had been traveling back and fourth before modern boundaries were set. Secondly, in terms of culture, Koreans were as influenced by China as Japan and other East Asian countries did. Korean textbooks say that Koreans are different and unique because Koreans have own languages and characters, and we are one unified ethnicity unlike China and Japan, but in that sense, what country aren't? I mean, every country has right to consider itself special, and there are always ways to which one can justify him/herself as unique and special. Still, emphasizing it more than necessary has dangers of misleading public.

Japanese had colonized Korea back in the early 20th century, and it was such a cruel and harsh time for Koreans because of Japanese Imperial Army's belief and agenda that says they are superior than any other. Their belief were somewhat like Nazi's, and their belief justified evil practices that were done during fifty years of Japanese colonial period in Korea. The troops had kidnapped many Korean young women as comfort women, and many Korean men were forced to fight for Japanese imperial army, or they were to be taken to military labs to be tested as a subjects of biochemical weapons. Japanese Imperial Army had committed inhumane war crime to people in China and Philippines as well; many Chinese and Korean are still hostile to Japan as European descendants of Nazi victims consider Nazi state of Germany in the past.

Anyhow, the reason why I bring up war crimes of Japanese Imperial Army is because I want to emphasize dangers of Korean people's pride in being the nation-state with one ethnicity.

The reason behind the pride roots back in the history. Korean peninsular is placed between China and Japan, and it was continuously invaded by neighboring Japan and China. As a result, Koreans have become hostile to anything that is foreign, and started to emphasize Korean ethnicity to strengthen their unity.

This reason behind this Korean pride may seem fair, but the problem is that too many politicians have abused this belief, transforming it into different shape as it originally was. Koreans considered their uniform ethnicity solely as an evidence of being unconquerable state, but in today's society it somehow had evolved to racial supremacy, very much the same belief that Japanese Imperial Army had back in the 20th century.

It cannot be more ironic considering the sufferings that Korean people had because of Japanese Imperial Army, but such phenomena is not so much of a surprise as it is also found in today's Russia as well. (Problem of Neo-Nazi skinheads in Russia).

Luckily, unlike in Russia, there has been no bloodshed, nor uprising in Korea.

However, inequality and discrimination exists.

There are roughly more than 400,000 immigrant workers in Korea, from China, Bangladesh, Mongolia, and many other. According to annual research, immigrant workers are paid 30% less, and record of abuses by Korean employers are increasing. Immigrant workers are often unpaid, physically abused, and threatened by their employers for their illegal status.

Even in today's society, offsprings of interracial marriage are mistreated for color of their skin. Celebrities announcing their interracial heritage is considered as a 'coming out' and it is reported in Newspapers.

Interracial marriage is higher than 10% in today's Korea. The rate has sky-rocketted within recent years due to interracial marriage trend in farming families in South Korea. The tendency of Korean women avoiding farming families had caused men to go overseas to look for their brides. Those brides come from Uzbekistan, Russia, Vietnam, Philippines, etc.

I believe in near future, South Korea will have to face extreme shock caused by its ignorance towards discrimination and inequality in today.