Essay On System Of Privilege

The concept of “Systems of Privilege” refers to the idea that we live in a world where certain people receive more benefits than others due to socially constructed ideologies. Shaw and Lee define privilege as “advantages that people have by virtue of their status or position in society” (p. 54). According to Shaw and Lee, systems of privilege are accompanied by what one of my psychology professors referred to as “-isms.” In psychology, these are referred to as implicit stereotypes; Shaw and Lee challenge student readers to take an IAT, an implicit association test designed to measure our unconscious “-isms.” Systems of privilege would not exist without our unconscious, implicit stereotypes tied to our psychological functioning. One of the systems …show more content…
The answer to why those that possess privilege continue to resist acknowledging it lies within Peggy McIntosh’s article about white and male privilege. In her article, McIntosh mentions that much of her male colleagues’ oppressiveness was unconscious (p. 87). Considering this author also mentions that unearned privilege is harmful for men’s development, the idea that a man’s consciousness is not fully developed due to such a narrow world view can be considered. Now this theory is not to say that people that are privileged are undeveloped or less developed than those that do not experience privilege; but from my own background in psychology, my theory based on McIntosh’s ideas is that a privileged mind does not have the ability to develop a cognitive awareness to acknowledging such a privilege. It appears that resistance to acknowledge one’s own privilege is the result of a lessened cognitive and conscious awareness. This is further supported in McIntosh’s phrase, “the dominant group are taught not to see” (p. 92). She continues this with her own personal recollection of race, citing that she never saw racism because it was taught to her in a completely different way than she now understands …show more content…
76). In an expanded version of “A Question of Class” acquired separately from the provided reading though the class, Dorothy Allison mentions that everything in our culture is seen by one pair of eyes and shaped by one pair of hands, and everything cooperates with this process. Even if one does not identify with what the media portrays, one is still shaped by the message the media creates. This relates back to my own personal interpretation of the readings about privilege. Even though one may be able to understand that a certain group receives privileges, identifying as a person of privilege is not such an easy task from a psychological perspective. Dorothy Allison mentions how everything that constitutes our culture is a constant influence on our interpretations of hegemony, and this form of projecting ideals can eventually become so ingrained in a person’s psyche that it begins to lie in the