White Skin: Belonging To Society

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Recommended: Racial inequality

Based on the readings in Unit 3: Whiteness, I do not agree with the following statement. White skin is not magical and it does not ultimately offer white women a sense of belonging to society, or from their ethnic community. Instead, I believe that the statement should be altered to where it states that: White skin can offer advantages in forms of privileges, yet this ‘privilege’ and comfort can be taken away and given at any time. My first argument would be based on Deliovsky readings from her article of Compulsory “white” Heterosexuality. Here, with the life experiences from several women, the readings analyses how these women’s acted when their white privilege was guaranteed, because of their skin colour, and when their privileges were taken away because of their …show more content…

This “good white girl status” is a social strategical move on Betty’s part to attempt to maintain her white privilege at the workplace. She explains how “at work, I am a white person”, (p.180) so that she can avoid tensions, and stereotypes that would be stigmatized her because of her husband ethnicity. The significance of this example is how it embodies of gained and lost advantages. Betty sees how her white is skin is offering her advantages in life, as so long as she follows the rules to support this privilege; however, this ‘privilege’ is always on the fine line of being retracted away from her.The privilege she lost according to the readings of Mcinstosh is: “people...will see my martial arrangements as an assets to my life...likability [and], my competence.” (p.47) Betty’s economic standing and social status are on a verge of changing from being perceived as the ‘norm’ to being seen as a form of deviation, and from being labeled as “white sluts.”

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