One of the things I love about Peggy McIntosh's piece about white privilege is the fact that she realizes the privilege she has been given, just for being white. Many scholars who write about white privilege often forget to mention their own white privilege and go about on a "blaming everyone but themselves" tangent.
The list of privileges she has that is provided is enlightening and really brings her point across. I particularly enjoy this list because it's so interesting to me the privileges she enjoys in our society just for being white. As someone who is both Puerto Rican and Japanese, I am not given these privileges.
I had already read this particular piece prior to this class, in Professor Diem's TAL 101 class, but still felt I learned a lot from it.
I think what everyone can get from this piece upon reading it is learning that one needs to become more aware. Many people go around in our society, including teachers, and they forget that there are privileges given to people of a certain race, just because they are that certain race. Being aware is very rare in our world, and all teachers, from all racial backgrounds, should be required to read this piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment