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On Racial Privilege

Oppression & Justice (Fall 2013) Laura Guidry-Grimes. On Racial Privilege. Peggy McIntosh. Introductory Thoughts. Some Statistics. M ost Americans think that Hispanics are the most discriminated against social group ( poll here )

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On Racial Privilege

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  1. Oppression & Justice (Fall 2013) Laura Guidry-Grimes On Racial Privilege Peggy McIntosh

  2. Introductory Thoughts

  3. Some Statistics • Most Americans think that Hispanics are the most discriminated against social group (poll here) • Over 2/3 of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians surveyed in NYC have experienced at least one form of discrimination or bias-related harassment since 9/11 (report here) • For the past 15 years, the percentage of racial discrimination charges brought to the EEOC has remained roughly the same (data here) • Controlling for severity of crime, blacks receive 10% longer sentences than whites through the federal system; young white men are 38% less likely than young black men to be sentenced to prison at all (info here and here) • 47.4% of hate crimes in 2011 were targeted because of the offender’s bias against a racial group, and 71.9% of these were due to a specifically anti-black bias (report here)

  4. What Is Privilege? • “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious” (35) • “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks” (ibid.) • What do these metaphors amount to or mean?

  5. Blinders of Privilege • Their experiences, goals, viewpoint as “morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal” (37) • Blinders perpetuate exclusionary norms • Make challenging the norms more difficult • Privileged class spared various penalties, fears, barriers, burdened awareness, feelings of not belonging • Privilege imbued in daily interactions, everyday choices and option sets

  6. Taxonomy of Privilege • Advantages that should be shared by all in just society • Licenses to be ignorant and arrogant • Effects of being in numerical majority • Not being burdened by pervasive negative stereotyping Can confer dominance morally harm privileged and oppressed (in different ways) Given that our society is riddled with systems of privilege (for whites and other social groups), how should we promote equal opportunity?

  7. (Alleged) obliviousness in advertising…

  8. Group Work • Think of 2 other examples of unearned racial privilege to add to McIntosh’s list. • Identify what is morally problematic about those examples of privilege. • Propose ways to counter those privileges or ways for individuals to take responsibility. Be specific! • Can you think of other examples of racial obliviousness in our popular culture?

  9. Questions? Comments?

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