Whiteness In African American Analysis

History of subjectivity is too often forgotten within black communities where assimilation and lack of identity is not uncommon, this being a major sign of oppression, which hooks demonstrates in her writing. The struggle to survive under white supremacy was alleviated by “special” knowledge developed from close examination of whites in their everyday lives. “Special” because it was shared among blacks that thought critically about whiteness and did so in a way that reflected their experiences through time. The way in which whiteness is conceptualized by blacks is unimaginable to those unable to conceive whiteness in terms of terror. It was assumed that blacks were oblivious to their long history of oppression. However, as a result of systemic …show more content…
hooks recalls attending a conference to discuss culture and noticing the underrepresentation of black women and men speaking of their experiences on behalf of their communities. This was a probable cause of desire to marginalize the black perspective on whiteness. Theorizing black experience stems from an insufficient understanding of black history and culture due to ignorance of the black standpoint. Theorizing the black experience in order to educate and deconstruct norms was made possible through “travel”, often associated with history of imperialism and colonialism in the black imagination. hooks, however, recalls travelling in fear of hateful stares and experiencing racism through detailed searches at airports. She associated “travel” with encountering terror. It was deemed acceptable to search visible minorities to ensure safety of the whites because they were seen as terrorists, ironically how whites were represented in the black imagination. hooks also examines “travel” in terms of knowledge in which seeing the world differently allowed whites to learn about culture. this last sentence is random…make it fit and flow better …show more content…
For instance, when using credit cards or cheques at grocery stores, she is trusted as being reliable on account of her privileged race. Blacks, however, would be prejudged in these scenarios regardless of their intellect and character, constituting meritocracy, which McIntosh describes as a fantasy unknown. Similarly, daily experience of inherent gender and age advantage work in the same way as systems of privilege. The lack of equal opportunity works in favor of the privileged and a lot of the times it goes unrecognized. McIntosh admits to having forgot her entitlement to white privilege, only discovering how much easier her daily encounters were having written a list of ways that she was advantaged by it. Unlike McIntosh, many individuals acted on the pretense that universal subjectivity where the mentality was that ‘we are all human’, as hooks explains, and never acknowledged