As my role of becoming a justice based social worker and being exposed to new knowledge about oppression and privilege, I want to focus on the topic of race and White privilege to strengthen my knowledge and the knowledge of others on multidimensional levels. There are a few reasons why I have chosen an action plan focused on race and White privilege. I believe it to be a longstanding issue in our society, it is rarely discussed because of the uncomfortable territory that comes along with it, and more importantly, I would like to expand my awareness of how race affects individuals on different systemic levels and my awareness of my privileges can affect my role as a social worker. “Teaching about White privilege is fundamental to understanding …show more content…
I have decided to take certain steps to grow as an individual with the intent to move forward as a justice based social worker, with particular regard to race and being aware of my own race and what that means to my career. The first step in my action plan is to take the valuable knowledge I learned throughout this course, which is mostly recognizing what it means to be White, and try to practice it every day in all social settings I am in. I strongly believe in teaching as a way of learning, so I plan to take what I have learned in class and explain White privilege to my closest friends and family members. I seem to have a better understanding of what the benefits of White privilege are, but I would like to work on having a better understanding of what the consequences are for people without White privilege. There is an annual conference called “The White Privilege Conference” that examines the concepts of White privilege (www.whiteprivilegeconference.com). With the discussion of privilege, also comes with the discussion of oppression. Many different people attend this conference from all over the world. I have looked into this conference and would like to attend one when it is being held close to home. I plan on welcoming friends to join me as …show more content…
How does my privilege influence my work? How does my privilege influence the way I interact with my friends and the public? How can my awareness of my privilege affect the way in which I choose to practice as a social worker? These are questions that I plan to continue to ask myself and evaluate as I continue with my career and with my education. I intend on measuring my expansion of knowledge on race and White privilege through my own awareness. I believe that measuring my awareness is the best way to determine growth. I have already begun to notice my awareness of my understanding of White privilege and that of others as well, or lack of. My goal is to search and read an article once a week on race or White privilege and I will measure this by marking in on my calendar at work. Discussing what I read and learn with close friends will help with reaching my goal of becoming more informed and more aware of my privileges and in turn, will help me become a more well-rounded justice based social
Tim Wise’s book White Like Me provides a picture of what it is like to be white in America. A main topic covered in White Like Me is white privilege. On pages 24 and 25 Wise illustrates what white privilege is and shares his opinion regarding how to address white privilege in society today. Wise’s plan for addressing white privilege is one not of guilt, but of responsibility, a difference Wise highlights. The concept of feeling guilty for white privilege lacks reason because white privilege is something built up through generations and its existence is not of any one person’s fault. Guilt would just be detrimental to the possibility of making progress in this field. Responsibility, on the other hand, is a perfectly logical action to take when
In her 16 January 2016 The Washington Post editorial, “What is White Privilege?”, Christine Emba asserts white privilege is a societal advantage inherent in people who are white, irrespective of their “wealth, gender, or other factors.” According to Emba, white privilege makes life smoother and is an entity that is hidden or unknown until the privilege is taken away. Although racism is still a rampant issue in society today, white privilege is a concept created by the progressive left in order to brand whites as a scapegoat for issues and adversities that non-whites face. This concept of privilege ultimately causes further dissension between whites and non-whites.
In today’s society, the dominant ethnic group continues to be the white race, as it has been for the past few centuries. Whites can ignore what is occurring in the world since the majority of the time it does not specifically affect them. The Caucasian race is very privileged, yet they are unaware of this fact, and it is, therefore, invisible to them. There are many reasons as to why this fact is true, some of which is explained in Roxane Gay’s novel “Bad Feminist,” she outlines her views on this subject and writes about what knowledge people should have about their privilege and how they can change their perceptions. People being unable to acknowledge their privilege becomes a worldwide issue and affects the lives of many individuals worldwide.
This power keeps the behavior of the oppressed well within the set guidelines of the oppressor (Freire, 2000, pg. 47). Critical Race Theory outlines this system of oppression as it relates to white and non-white races. By using the critical race theory coupled with the system of oppression described by Freire (2000), I propose that within the system of oppression, the oppressor must keep its own members in line with the prescribed guidelines by reinforcing the social norms from birth. Freire (2000) suggest that the interest of the oppressors lie in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed not the system” (pg.34). Identifying as white, therefore, starts at birth when members of the white class work to reinforce social norms that began with our founding fathers at Plymouth Rock. This long history of white privilege was taught to me and I continue to teach it to my children. As an educator of white affluent high school students, I believe we provide college and career counseling based on this white privilege system of oppression as well. Here, I journey even closer to unraveling the myth of white privilege as I encounter the intersection of an affluent white student choosing a career after high
When the word “race” arises in a conversation, most people in general automatically think skin color, then ethnicity, culture and traditions, but sadly never one before the other. Society is to blame for the reason being, due to lack of educating unity between individuals and developing the non-discriminatory environment and state of mind. In the Oxford dictionaries, the definition of privilege is a “special right, advantage, or immunity granted”, whilst Peggy McIntosh, an associate director of the Wellesley College center for research on women, argues in her essay titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” is “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain
White privilege is a concept that many people are unfamiliar with, but not because they do not benefit from it. In the paper “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh argues that white people have an advantage over those of other races, though most are completely unaware of it or simply take it for granted. Her recognition of white privilege came from the concept of male privilege. She says that she looked at that concept and realized there was certainly something similar to it in regards to race (McIntosh, 1988, 11). This paper has great importance to the function of society. Because many white people do not recognize their unfair and disproportionate advantage in society, racial tensions can rise even more because there is a major wall blocking people from fixing the current issues.
Kivel, P. How White People Can Serve Allies to People of Color in the Struggle to End Racism. New Society Publishers, 2011. Print
...at are being fed to us by the media. This is definitely the harder way of doing things but there is power in numbers and even more power when those numbers are the people of the United States. We could leave the media powerless so that nothing they write even matters because we already know who we are and we refuse to fall into any kinds of racial stereotypes. One last thing that I’d like to mention is that it’s important to know that even if you are white and you think that racial injustice doesn’t affect you, it does. It’s also very important that you are aware of what is going on in your society since as a majority of the people it is your duty to help the minority of the people. Everybody, regardless of race, should be an advocate for social and racial justice because that is what being a decent and good human being is. So don’t be ignorant or encourage ignorance.
Because I am white, no one wonders if I am associated with terrorists or feels nervous and pulls their belongings closer if I am alone in an elevator with them. Going to school I always had a sense of safety. Having brought white privilege to my conscious awareness, it raised feelings of guilt and shame, because I was ignorant to my oppressiveness for so long. These feelings empowered me to identify various ways in which I can challenge the concept of white privilege in myself and others. On an individual level this can be done by increasing awareness of privilege, reducing feelings of guilt, accepting one’s own role in perpetuating racism. Do not assume that all differences are the same, acknowledge and validate everyone’s experience, avoid assumptions, listen with compassion, and create safety and room for everyone. Additional ways to challenge white privilege consist of exploring resources produced by or about other races, developing relationships with people across racial lines, positioning oneself in a context where they are the numerical minority, and/or exploring the field of whiteness
With all of these facts, the author tries to prove that racial differences and privileges appear exaggerated and unrealistic. The privileged and less privileged exist at all levels of society. Duke wants white people to understand that they are in the same position as all other races. The awareness of “white privilege” is only a fallacy that causes feel of guilt without foundation.
Both authors have recognized the fundamental structures behind privilege –specifically white privilege in America. Their purpose and that of many civil right activists of our era is to bring awareness to those who are in positions of privilege to bring change that fosters the spirit of inclusion, reform and progression into America’s social and mainstream environments.
One way in which I am challenging white privilege on a personal level is by volunteering my time at a county jail to assist and educate inmates in order for them to get their GED. Also, in addition to the GED I
The belief that white privilege never existed or that it is no longer a problem is skewed by the selective use facts to support this claim. How do we address this problem? We must define the what is is to be privileged, acknowledge the problem and identify a means to fix it.
I was aware of these oppressions and have often times struggled with what I can do individually to work towards alleviating these oppressions. The Next Steps portion of the chapter on racism really outlined methods of actions that could be applied to all forms of oppression. One method entitled “FLEXing Cross- cultural Communications,” outlines productive communication, depersonalization, and open- mindedness when it comes to understanding and practicing competency. This model serves as a tool to motivate action to those form other cultures in ways that in the end everyone can
families, and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social workers are change agents and because of that, they aim to help people develop their skills and abilities to use resources provided to them to strengthen and improve their lives and communities to resolve problems. One of the main goal of social workers is to improve the well-being and lives of the most vulnerable populations, fight against poverty, unemployment, domestic violence and the underserviced population by emphasizing on the person-in-environment and social justice model. The social work profession, considerers the individuals’ internal and external struggles, while working with the individuals to examine their relationships, family, work environment, community, and other things that might impact them and identify ways to help address problems and challenges.