Privilege: Post-Article Analysis

Improved Essays
Pre-Article Thoughts. Being a straight, white, Christian, female in America, I easily could tell anyone I am “privileged.” This term, to me, has always seen to have a negative connotation to it. It implies being separated out, being a part of a group of ‘elite’ or belonging to the social norm. This implies that most people are accepting of you based on preconceived notions and stereotypical thoughts.

Post-Article. The article that helped explain privilege the most was the Buzzfeed, This Teacher Taught His Class a Powerful Lesson About Privilege. This post used a simple interactive model of how many individuals may not be aware of their privilege status based on their personal perspectives in life. It was a great visual that brought

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Argument to Check My Privilege by Fortgangs Having Privilege has always been a controversial issue that hasn’t been discussed enough throughout history; Privilege gives advantages or immunity grants to particular people or groups of people. An article published by Tal Fortgangs titled “Check My Privilege: Character as Basis of Privilege” tackles on the subject matter of checking his own privilege in a strong, blinded, single-sided, opinionated style of writing to express his feelings and family struggles to obtain their privilege and what one and their ancestors have to go through to obtain this Privilege we all desire and want. In this article Fortgang beings by talking about “Checking his Privilege,” which rephrases to explore how you…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In today’s society, I perceive myself as white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, upper-class, college-educated, and Jewish. That is a gift in today’s world. I am fortunate to come from a privilege background, but I recently started to have more sense of appreciation of my white privilege ever since I started to take a Gender, Race, and Class course. One of the readings that really caught my eye was “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy Mcintosh, and in her article, she discusses how some people who have white privilege do not seem to recognize the privilege that they have. She gives numerous of examples on how white privilege helps in real life encounters.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “What is a ‘System of Privilege”, sociologist and public speaker Allan G. Johnson explains how privilege, specifically white privilege in this case, works as a system. “Privilege does not guarantee good outcomes for the privileged group or bad outcomes for everyone else” according to Johnson, however, it does load the odds one way or the other. Unfortunately, social privilege is often invisible to those who experience them, claims Johnson. Johnson goes on to describe a few examples to validate his claim. For example, in a recent survey a group of volunteers were asked to close their eyes and picture a drug dealer.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article, What my Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege, the author explains how them changing their primary transportation method from a car to a bike has taught them a lesson about being privileged in America. Personally, I agree with everything that the author states and mentions within the article. A few main points I would like to highlight are privilege in general, the explanation of white privilege, and I would like to include my own experience viewing white privilege. Like the article mentions, the topic of white privilege is hard for a lot of people to talk about, and it is guaranteed to get some people into a heated argument.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unearned Privilege

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What exactly is white privilege, one might say? White privilege is knowing that one has unearned privilege but choose to ignore the meaning of it. " White Privilege Shapes the U.S" by Robert Jensen, first appeared in the Baltimore Sun on July 19, 1998. In this editorial, Jensen speaks about his personal experience on white privilege and how being white can give them more unearned privilege than those of other races. Furthermore, Jensen states that unearned white privilege was given rather than by working hard for it, but faces the choice on how they use it, and to admit they have benefitted from it.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reading these articles was an eye opener. Before I read these articles, I had a sense of white privilege but never really thought about it. As stated in White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh on page 172, “..whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege.” Learning about it has really opened my eyes about society and the government, and it’s shocking. I never knew Asian Americans faced such severe treatment.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    It is hardly controversial that there is an extensive claim that certain groups have more power over the others, and that the conception behind sexism and racism still exists. Whereas when privilege or poverty is mentioned, the media receives vast backlash. This is because, the world privilege can be perceived in many ways.…

    • 53 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have always viewed racism as people of other color being discriminated against. Most people view privilege as being a favored state, meaning that by birth or luck a person is at an advantage to another. McIntosh states that privilege can also be viewed as a state of dominance because of one’s race or sex. I disagree that privilege should be viewed as dominance because individuals who are privileged do not necessarily set out to intentionally control others. McIntosh discusses what can be done to bring an end to white and male privilege.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I am frequently told that I am privileged because of the color of my skin. Then I’m told I’m underprivileged because of my gender and my income. Obviously, someone needs to make up their mind. This is the starting place of Natasha Rodriguez’s essay “Who Are You Calling Underprivileged?” She writes about her experiences dealing with labeling due to ethnicity and income while applying for college and financial aid.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Corcoran gives her own reality from the daily life she lives and how being white has treated her. The meaning of being privileged to Corcoran she states “I am privileged as a natural-born white citizen. I’m privileged as a cinder woman. I am privileged as an able-bodied person”. (Corcoran)…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Peggy McIntosh elucidates the idea of white privilege as an “invisible backpack” of unearned rights and privileges that white people enjoy. " Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they 've done or failed to do."…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a white male I am oblivious to the fact that I have privilege in this country as a poor white male I don’t tend to see much in the ways of advantage, but I do have them and I tend to see things in a different light because I never have them come up in conversation. I live a simple life and I try to treat everyone the same regardless of their color or gender. I do agree with all of the 6 reasons and know them to be true because some of them I am guilty of and I know a lot of people that are guilty of the ones that I may not be guilty of. The mindset of myself can be judgmental at times and it does usually end up in me feeling bad later on but I am just as guilty as most white males.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The text, Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson, is a 156-page detailed account of Johnson’s views on American society and how social class, race, sexual orientation, gender, disability status, and privilege causes a “difference” in the way we view each other. Johnson’s personal views on how these factors affect the way members of the minority live and survive in current day United States is aimed at raising social awareness. The text, written by Johnson, identifies the social principles that form the belief of privilege and entitlement, often making jest at the very serious issue of inequality. This was a quick and easy read, yet was packed with valuable information and valid arguments. Johnson delves into American history,…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This author mentions in the beginning that to truly understand the term privilege you must be willing to learn the basic foundation of the word (Ferguson 2014). Also, that thinking that the word privilege cannot be learned as a single lesson, but as a field of study, which means that we must continue reading, learning, and thinking critically. When looking at this term in a social-organizing setting, we see the word “privilege” refer to the set advantages that a group is favored by society, just by being within that group. Think of this term as bring born, members of the same privilege group all receive an invisible jetpack. They get so used to this jetpack they forget they even have it at all, even though it has helped them get through their daily obstacles.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays