People are very dynamic. From a surface level, the privilege of some is very obvious. But every person is privileged, as well as disadvantaged to some extent. I am an eighteen-year-old Black, heterosexual, female. I am a Christian and a citizen of the United States of America who grew up in the middle class. I possess qualities that show both privilege and disadvantages in American society. During the third week of class, a comprehensive list was made of what it means to be privileged in the United States today. This list included things such as “not recognizing you are privileged”, “being the “The Default””, “being exposed to opportunities and resources” and “not having to fight stereotypes”. I believe that I do recognize my privilege,
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The middle school that I attended was the most diverse in my county, and I would no longer be the only Black child in the class. Despite not being the only African-American in the class, I still encountered problems regarding my race. At times I was called an “Oreo” (Black on the outside, White on the inside) or kids would say things such as “Oh, Savannah? She’s not really Black”. The thing that shocked me the most about these comments is that they were coming primarily from my White classmates. In Maintaining Inequalities, Tracy Ore writes that “the media engage in practices of media framing—the process by which information and entertainment are put together by the media in order to convey a particular message to an audience” (Ore 230). Although Ore uses this concept in terms of class, I believe that it can be applied to race as well. I think that the media can often portray a very stereotypical view of what it is to be Black, when in reality, being Black is a very complex thing. So, if the media perpetuates the stereotype that Black people are unintelligent criminals, who come from low-income housing and cannot enjoy television shows like Pokémon, then I guess I could not truly be a person of African-American descent. Although I was able to go to a good middle school that helped me get to where I am today, I still faced disadvantages such as having to “fight stereotypes”, like we discussed in class, and having to defend my “blackness” something the White majority does not have to
The middle school that I attended was the most diverse in my county, and I would no longer be the only Black child in the class. Despite not being the only African-American in the class, I still encountered problems regarding my race. At times I was called an “Oreo” (Black on the outside, White on the inside) or kids would say things such as “Oh, Savannah? She’s not really Black”. The thing that shocked me the most about these comments is that they were coming primarily from my White classmates. In Maintaining Inequalities, Tracy Ore writes that “the media engage in practices of media framing—the process by which information and entertainment are put together by the media in order to convey a particular message to an audience” (Ore 230). Although Ore uses this concept in terms of class, I believe that it can be applied to race as well. I think that the media can often portray a very stereotypical view of what it is to be Black, when in reality, being Black is a very complex thing. So, if the media perpetuates the stereotype that Black people are unintelligent criminals, who come from low-income housing and cannot enjoy television shows like Pokémon, then I guess I could not truly be a person of African-American descent. Although I was able to go to a good middle school that helped me get to where I am today, I still faced disadvantages such as having to “fight stereotypes”, like we discussed in class, and having to defend my “blackness” something the White majority does not have to