Privilege Exercise Analysis

254 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on racial gap in education

Privilege is a special advantage available to only a certain group of people. I liked this exercise because it gave me an idea of what life is like for other people in my class compared to my own. This got me thinking about how certain groups of people are more privileged than others. The question that got me most interested during the activity was the one concerning food. I would have thought that everyone would get the proper food they would have needed. Food is a basic necessity for life and everyone should have access to it. Some people in our class might never have to worry about getting harassed and judged by their race while others would. This is what happens in Bifocal. Haroon is dragged out at the beginning of the book because the

Show More
Related

  • Privilege Is A Privilege

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sensory and DiAngelo (20012) showed the meaning of “privilege” in general and in academics. In general, people who have the privilege are treated as lucky, and they will benefit from this luck. Therefore, people think that privilege is a positive thing. However, the definition of the privilege is different when academics define it. The reason why it happens is because of how society works defined by academics. “They refer to the rights, advantages, and protections enjoyed by some at the expense of and beyond the rights, advantages, and protections available

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Checking My Privileges

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Having privileges gives out respect to those who earned it for you, as explained in the article, “Checking My Privileges”, by Tal Fortgang. Privileges are not for people who deserve them but instead it is for people who are lucky enough to have them passed onto them. Tao explains how she was handed her privileges from the hard work of her grandparents and the accomplishments of their struggling journey to give their granddaughter the privileges she has today to be thankful for. Society judges one another based on their sexuality, and color of their skin, you may judge others of the same basis without knowing the story of how they have received their privileges, because by looking at how a person looks will not give you their background story of them or their

    Read More

  • Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege And Male Privilege

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    Privileges are things that a person receives that gives them an advantage over most people (Merriam-Webster). These are benefits that only certain people receive for being in a certain group or discourse. Peggy McIntosh, director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, wrote “White Privilege and Male Privilege” and states “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privileges, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (605). She argues that whites and males receive certain privileges, yet they do not even notice them. This shows that different races and women are still put at a disadvantage, but the people who receive the benefits are blind to the problem. Many people will argue that she is correct while some others will explain why this not is the case.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Checking My Privilege By Tal Fortgang

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    When I read “Checking My Privilege” written by Tal Fortgang, a freshman at Princeton University, it made me stop and think. What does privilege mean, how should it be used and does it affect me and my life? Fortgang never really states the exact meaning of the word privilege but goes on to complain about the mistreatment of the word and how it is a form of reverse racism; could that be true, I wondered? However, he also claims that privileges do not exist based on race or gender, and that is something I do not agree with. I imagine many people will not agree with his stance on the word privilege or mine, as a matter of fact. Mainly because the word privilege has a different

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Confronting Inequality

    1832 Words  | 4 Pages

    Where would you consider yourself with your ranking in America 's social classes, are you upper class, middle class or even lower class? This is actually very important when it come to you receiving opportunities and in a sense special treatment. I’m referring to of course social inequality which is still very much alive in America and still affects a lot of families mostly in a negative way. This problem in America has grabbed the attention of two authors, Paul Krugman who wrote “Confronting Inequality” and Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy who wrote “The Upside of Income Inequality”. However, they both have different views on inequality Krugman believes that social inequality is only negative while on the other hand, Becker and Murphy believe

    Read More

  • Whiteness and Privilege in Society

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    To understand systems of privilege,I though it was important to first clarify and define privilege. According to the Cambridge dictionary, privilege is a “special advantage or authority possessed by a particular person or group”.Wildman and Davis go beyond this simplistic definition and examine how the characteristics of a privileged group definesocietal norms, benefiting those within the privileged group and disenfranchising those outside of it. They expand on these ideas and explain how the normalization of privilege inherently declaresthose whostand outside these normsas “abnormal” or “alternative”, and how this normalization makes these privileges seem almost invisible. Yet, these systems of privilege do exist and are palpable. For those who posses them it might be difficult to visualize and see them because to them they are “…merely there, [as] part of the world, a way of life, simply the way things are”(100). However, these systems of privilege can be made visible, and must be made visible to address issues of systematic oppression within our society.

    Read More

  • Privilege, Power, and Difference

    2519 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the beginning of the year I entered this class with a very sheltered and ignorant view of current and past events. Through time and sociological evolution I have begun to see things in a different light. The development of my ability, to look at something or some kind of situation, lets me use the sociological terms in such a manner to relate them to micro and macro problems in society. This started with the assigned readings of the class; the aim was to decipher the messages the authors were presenting. The goal was then to dig deeper and use my experiences to help myself understand the concepts throughout the course. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited." Plutarch (46-120 CE--common era) I was no longer supposed to retain knowledge on a factual basis but to observe the problems and challenge my own thoughts, values, and beliefs. Challenging these aspects lights the fire that creates the ability to use working sociological terms in my analyses. Through my analyses of the authors in the course I developed questions about the particular readings that we were assigned. The questions I present from these authors are on the basis of learning and seeing the macro picture from micro events. The authors that we read from were: Allan G. Johnson, James W. Loewen, Jonathan Kozol, David Nibert, Arnold Arluke, Clinton R. Sanders, and Elie Wiesel. From each one of these authors we are able to relate a theme of sociology to what is happening in their books, which results in the discussion questions.

    Read More

  • Essay On Privilege In America

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a member of the dominant race in America, I know that I possess certain unearned privileges that allow me to be more successful overall. I was raised with the mindset that racism doesn't affect me because I am white. The U.S. education system taught me about my racial and ethnic history, but it is likely that my classmates of different races could not say the same. I learned about racism in school but not to view whites as privileged or degrading towards subordinate groups. My group was never seen at fault for oppression or took any responsibility for it. Myself, nor my peers, were ever seen or viewed as unfairly advantaged or privileged. I grew up under the impression that any person could achieve what they wanted if they simply worked hard

    Read More

  • Privilege: Character As The Basis Of Privilege, By Tal Fortgang

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Why can 't black people just work harder?" Hard work results in success, and black people are in many cases looked at as less successful than white people. Therefore, that means that black people simply work less hard than white people. This is the perspective that many privileged white people may have when discussing the issue of white privilege. They fail to realize that white privilege plays a significant role in what opportunities someone might have. In Princeton University student, Tal Fortgang 's essay, "Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege", he criticizes those who tell him to "Check your privilege". He argues that the phrase discredits his achievements, and that white privilege is not the reason that he became

    Read More

  • Privilege Examples

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    Privilege is a certain advantage given to one group of people to benefit them at the expense of the disadvantaged group. Popular examples include privileges regarding race, gender, sexual preference, class, and ability. McIntosh explains the concept of privilege as being in possession of an “invisible backpack of unearned assets” that one can “count on cashing in each day,” while remaining ignorant of having the backpack in the first place. While one person may carry around a backpack full of these tools, another person is walking around with nothing in their backpack. The tools provided by privilege are utilized every day to guide the advantaged group in their journey, but the advantaged group is not even aware of the backpack’s strength. On the contrary, the disadvantaged group without backpacks observe their advantaged counterparts skate through life with all these resources to aid them while they trek through the obstacles of life empty-handed.

    Read More

  • Overt Discrimination Essay

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    While both race and gender have very real societal and, in some instances, personal consequences which enables both to be categorized as real neither race nor gender is more real than the other. Both of them faced and still face overt and covert discrimination, and both of them are built upon a mountain of logical fallacies that are able to ultimately be reduced down to societal standards and obligations forced upon them by the dominant group. Since they are also both deeply embedded in our culture they have become integrated into our sense of who we, as humans, are and in our perceptions of other people and situations.

    Read More

  • Race And Privilege Essay

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before I read this chapter and read the questions given, I would have said that I don’t have privilege. The reason is because I am a woman of color and we are rarely afforded a sought after thing

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Being In The Middle-Upper Class

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we first broke into our groups, I was a bit confused as to why we were doing this exercise. I thought that it was probably had to do with sharing ideas of being in a privileged socioeconomic status so we could merge groups afterward and share what we brainstormed, which turned out to be correct. I wasn’t surprised to be included in the middle-upper class group because for where I stood during the “privilege line” activity. One difference that was noted in our group was how it felt to be in the middle-upper class group. I said that I felt a bit of pride because the reason for why I was in this class was because of how my mother worked to overcome oppression. Other people said they felt guilty because they didn’t have to work for anything they had today, and almost everything they had was inherited. I now understand why they felt that way because of the reading for this week.

    Read More

  • The Social Theory Of Crivilege And Social Advantages

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    The social theory of privilege states that unearned or otherwise reasonably unacquirable advantages are social endowed to a particular person or group of people. These unearned advantages are often granted on the basis of demographic features such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or generation, although other criteria (such as ability, height, or attractiveness) may confer such advantages. There lie subtle distinctions between advantages that are earned but reasonably acquirable and advantages that are earned but reasonably unacquirable. For example, education confers social advantages, but not privilege; however, the access to education is a reasonably unacquirable advantage and would be considered a privilege. The ambiguity of privilege, though,

    Read More

  • Cognitive Dissonance Essay Examples

    1606 Words  | 4 Pages

    An example in privilege would be straight privilege. I never thought about that privilege until this class. I then realized this is a norm and accepted in society. Homosexuality is looked down upon because of many reasons from religion to society norm. Someone who is straight does not have the problem to come out or worry about losing close relationships because of their orientation.

    Read More

More about Privilege Exercise Analysis

Open Document