Sunday, February 21, 2010
An introduction to privilege
In this blog, our group hopes to discuss issues of privilege as they relate to different cultures. McIntosh (1998) discussed White privilege and male privilege in her article White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies. Our text discusses the idea that “whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ (cited in McIntosh, 2000, p. 32).” The idea of privilege is one that intrigued us. Obviously, White males can claim privilege because of their gender and skin color. But we wondered what privileges may exist to members of other cultural groups. What privileges, if any, does membership in other cultural groups afford? To what extent does any concept of privilege create and reinforce a notion of “us” and “them”? Our hope is that by examining these issues, we can all become more aware of our own world views and cultural experiences and the privileges we are afforded because of them.
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Hi everyone. I think your post will be very interesting. Are you talking about just white privilege or privilege within minority groups? For instance, in the movie Skin Deep, I noticed that the minority members stated how differently, (negatively) treated but they also talked about labels. How Black people are considered violent and Asian people are considered industrious. I am excited to see where this goes!!
ReplyDeleteI am very glad you picked this topic because I have been thinking so much about this since I started this class (and even before). I always wondered why catholic and Christian religions (no offense to any in the group-its just a thought) would go across to other countries and try to convert them to their almost "American" or white Anglo Saxon religions from their own. I always felt offended in a way for these people. It's almost like what your post says. We have been molded to believe that our ways, religions, and beliefs are the normal, right ones and everyone else needs to be like that. It has worked, though. That's why, say in Africa, there are Catholics and Muslims within the same races. I am glad that some Americans have grown to take on other religions like Buddhism.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great area of interest to look at. I look forward to looking at your future blogs, if I can find them again....
ReplyDeleteHi, it's Cindy again. I am just wondering, is what Melissa posted true? Do Christians and Catholics from America go to other countries and try to convert them? (If so, I had no idea)
ReplyDeleteI understand that once a minority member comes here, we wish for them to assimilate, (perhaps including religion), but do we actually go to other countries and do the same?
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ReplyDeleteThey're called missionaries Cindy. And yes it's sad but true. In the most harmful situations people without "formal" education (western philosophy alert!) are sort of taken advantage of and converted without other choices being made clear.
ReplyDeleteWow Jarica - that is amazing to me. When you say "missionaries" it brings (or brought) a whole different idea to my head. I thought missionaries were people that traveled from place to place to help people - not to try to convert them. Two years ago there were missionaries in the news that were held captive and one was killed. I did not know what their mission was. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI think there are definitely positive missionaries in the world... I'm not trying to bash that name or throw everyone into the same hot tub, if you will but yeah
ReplyDeletevery important topic for discussion, but I would love to hear the personal stories/experiences of group members and others on how privilege divides us from them.....
ReplyDeleteI agree that privileges are there and everyone has some or other form of privilege, it can be said that everyone also is oppressed in some or other forms. But, going back to the notion of the society where we live and how privilege is defined in a specific context is critical in our discussion. What might be a privileged state/status in one place/country might not be so in another.
Hi everyone. I have been thinking and thinking about the Professor's post about personal stories/experiences, (my power has been out so I am have had plenty of time to think) and I honestly cannot think of a personal experience other than the ones we have learned about through our readings. For example, things that did not happen, i.e., I am less likely to be pulled over while driving because I am white. I think that I must be overlooking something important because there had to have been an experience in my life where I actually saw that I experienced white privilege. Right now it feels like the "invisible backpack" because I know I have it but I have no concrete examples. I'm going to keep putting thought into this. Perhaps other posts will spark a memory. I am short and my husband is 6'2'. Often people look right past me toward him. I was trying to think of some examples like that but haven't come up with any.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more. I think that privilege is something i hadn't stopped to consider before this course. So i will learn quite a bit i'm sure!
ReplyDeleteI think we have lots of different types of privilege and bias towards lots of indaviduales. We group do many people into one catagory!! Such as still blacks and whites and gays and lesbians and poor and rich!!! I look forward to learning more about other people's views!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent topic! I have been most surprised by the notion of privilege. I think that there are levels of privilege that exist worldwide. White privilege is most obvious to us here in the U.S., but if we are talking privilege alone we can also see location privilege whereas people in urban areas have greater access to public services rather than those who live rurally.
ReplyDeletethis is such an interesting topic. just fyi....there are missionaries in this country too everyone. Every spring people from the church of jesus christ and the latter day saints (mormons) knock at my door and preach their religious values/principles to me in an attempt to convert me/my family/members of the community. The missionaries I have spoken to come all the way from Utah in many cases. The history of missionaries is extremely interesting...they have been around for centuries.
ReplyDeleteI tend to hide in my house when I see the Mormon missionaries at my door. I know they want to talk me into being a member of their religion, and I don't want to be. These people tend to be pretty pushy. Whenever I don't answer, they leave panflits at my door. I wonder what the statistics are of people who convert their religion to the missionary's religion.
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