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The matter of whiteness summary
Identity and race in canada essay
The matter of whiteness
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I want to make it clear, to those who may question my positionality, that I do not believe that my journey as a white person is somehow special or better than anyone else’s. I do not believe that I hold some sort of special looking glass through which the solution to whiteness can be seen. I am a production of whiteness, and I am also a human being, which means I have many, many, flaws and blind spots that I continue to work on while simultaneously being inhibited by this blindness in my effort to see past it. What I do believe, as Roxanne Gay so beautifully said in Bad Feminist, is that, “I am just trying— trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself: a …show more content…
I am not perfect, but that does not mean my voice does not have a place in the conversation about whiteness. No one’s voice is perfect, and the sooner we stop attacking each other’s imperfections, the sooner we will be able to talk about the issues, like racism, that need our immediate and serious attention. In the hopes of communicating to the Canadians, “who call themselves white,” what it means to possess whiteness, I will deconstruct how the child – me – in Figure 1 was trained to embody the, white, Canadian narrative of multiculturalism and citizenship (“On Being” 180). I will argue that the practice of teaching whiteness to other whites stems from a Canadian imaginary in which the white Canadians who “…imagine that history
Growing up as an African-American you are always taught to be twice as good. Twice as good as the white people to receive the same treatment as them. I grew up hearing this same phrase constantly but never really understood exactly what it meant until I got old enough to actually see the kind of world we are living in. The author of the article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” Peggy Mclntosh, took as step into shoes of black America and found that white privilege not only exist, but many whites are blind to it. She gives a clear argument about how white privilege is harmful to our society and how we can work together to fix this.
Firstly, I identified myself as white. Being white in today’s society means you are automatically given privilege the second that you are born. Skin color is something that you carry with you your whole life. It cannot be changed and it will most likely be used against you or in your benefit at some point in your life. In America being white means that you are on the top of the social hierarchy, and that you are given the
In American history, there are centuries upon centuries of black people being deemed less than or not worthy of. Never in were black people equal, even in the sense of humanity. White people declared black people as three-fifths of a human, so to the “superior race”, because one has darker skin that automatically takes away 40% of their humanity. Now, in white history they repeatedly dominant over other nonwhite groups and especially the women of those groups because they feel anything that isn’t white is inferior.
Attending a predominantly white school, white people were very interested, or rather over interested, in the so-called black culture. Being in a space that had minority black people, oppression was felt on the highest level. Anything that may have remotely involved the black skin, was downplayed and undermined, and more cases than one, my voice was silenced. From this experience, I started realising that wherever I may go, the female black body was not correctly or remotely represented positively in the media and in general society. For many years, as a regular television watcher, I began to realise that the media and entertainment industry did not put black women in power or inspiration, but women who are needy, sexual objects or women who play second best to men. In my educational systems, I have not been exposed to black lectures or teachers enough, and I realised that we were not being correctly and rightfully represented. As a black body, I am aware that I occupy space in a white environment, and that much of what I do is under the scope of white supremacy. Much of the experiences I have at my university are very much related to my racial profiling, and my level of intelligence is marked according to how I look eternally. Daily, I am constantly reminded that I am black as if it is something to be ashamed of social elite environment. In the article written by Dill and Zambara,
This cognizance really ensued when I first started work as an educational therapist in a residential placement for severely emotionally disturbed teenage girls. Being in such a arbitrary position of power was difficult enough with people who have issues with control and lack of respect from elders but I also happened to be the only male ever in this position at the facility and a "white guy" to boot. Ninety percent of my clients happened to be Latina or African American. This ethnic flash point did not initially bother me because of my lack of awareness of its existence and my naive determination that it was not important for my therapeutic and educational goals. However, of course I had not really considered at that time what being 'white' really entails in this society. Consideration of one's identity is obviously key to successful educational and therapeutic interventions but it took the actual experience of being what I call "white-washed" to make me realize that skin color may actually have something important to do with one's perceived identity.
Prior to beginning my readings on white racial identity, I did not pay much attention to my white race. If someone had asked me to describe my appearance I would have said short blond hair, blue eyes, average stature, etc. One of the last things I would have noted was the color of my skin. Growing up in overwhelmingly white communities, I never thought to use the color of my skin to differentiate myself from others. Over the course of this dialogue I have learned that my white racial identity is one of the most defining aspects of my appearance in this society. There is a certain level of privilege that I am afforded based solely on the color of my skin. According to Peggy McIntosh, “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” (71). All these objects listed by McIntosh are things I have access to and certainly take for granted. Due to a history of non-white racial oppression, which transformed into decades of racial discrimination that still lingers today, the white race has dominated our society in terms of resources and prosperity. The ideas of wealth, higher-level education and ambition to succeed are all traits commonly linked to people of the white race that collectively define privilege. The aspect of privilege can also produce disadvantages for people of the white race as well. In the book Promoting Diversity and Justice, the author D. Goodman notes that people of advantage groups develop a sense of superiority, which will sometimes lead them to wonder if, “their achievements were based on privilege or merit” (107). Along with a diminished sense of accomplishment, the cost ...
Present day Canada encourages multiculturalism -- but that has not always been the case. In the late 1800s and early 1900s residential schools were prevalent in most parts of Canada. People of Aboriginal descent were stripped of their language, cultural identity, freedom and traditions. Upon analysis of the excerpt from Thomas Highway’s novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, one can conclude that there are many symbolic interactionist concepts within the excerpt. This short paper will concentrate on the symbolic interactionist concepts of social conventions, role-taking, and nonconformity that are demonstrated in Highway’s excerpt Kiss of the Fur Queen.
I had never directly heard about the idea of white talk, but I am now aware of how relevant it is to our campus. Even after reading the discussion we had on blackboard last week, it made me believe that I was being more ignorant than I would like to admit. There have been times in my life where I would use a “needle in the haystack” example to justify why I did not believe racism was present. Now I see that this was me only looking at one part of the birdcage. I see now that it is important for me to not use my whiteness as a shield to the racism occurring on our campus. I am white and that does make it nearly impossible for me to understand what it is like to be a person of color, but it does not make it impossible for me to make sure I do not add to the racism. While I do not believe I am a blatant racist, my silence can be adding to the racism around me. From what I have learned in class and from this article, it is important that we look at the whole picture and try to see the implications that situation is having on all races. So often white people only focus on how they are impacted, when in reality they are protected by the bubble known as white privilege. White talk is not going to stop overnight, but I can put more attention to making sure I am not blindly participating in it
In Roxane Gay’s book Bad Feminist (2014), she writes an essay, “What We Hunger For”, about the difference between strength and surviving, and the importance of strong female characters. She argues that surviving something doesn’t mean you are strong; life throws unendurable circumstances as people all of the time, and people manage to overcome them and survive, but that doesn’t make them strong. Gay uses Katniss in The Hunger Games trilogy as an example of a relatable, strong female character. Gay describes her as a “heroine with issues” (p. 146). Also in the essay, Gay refers to Meghan Cox Gurdon’s article in the Wall Street Journal about how Young Adult fiction is too dark for its intended audience. Gay argues against it, stating that
As a black woman in America’s society there are different stereotypes placed upon you, especially throughout media. Roxane Gay’s essay called Bad Feminist talks about her implications of being a feminist. Gay has a Ph. D. in rhetoric and technical communication, and has done many works on different social issues (Barrios 168). In this passage, she discusses the complexities of being a feminist, and how she feels like she is not fit to be a good feminist. However Gay ultimately comes to the conclusion that she wans to be a femensit, because not being a feminist is worst. Gay goes on to discuss the essential feminist, then she discusses how she fits into feminism, and she then discusses states her final position in feminism. I would like to discuss the
As defined by Hannah Sternberg in her article Conservative Feminism is Not an Oxymoron, “feminism is ‘the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.’” While this is the dictionary definition, Sternberg believes that liberals have transformed the meaning of the word to promote their own agenda and have unjustly deviated from true feminism. She is sick of being ridiculed for being a female conservative, and she firmly believes conservatives should have as much claim to feminism as liberals do. Although I can understand where Sternberg’s resentment is coming from, I think that she focuses more on attacking liberals rather than discussing how being a female conservative “is not an oxymoron”,
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.
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.
I must admit that before I began taking this class I took for granted how much racism still exists in this country. I have started to put more thought in to the way the world really is, the topics discussed in class have started to catch my interest. When I first started reading the Tatum book I was mad when I read her version of the word “racism”. I thought to my self “I personally have never held down the black race, what does she mean?” As I progressed in the book I was starting to understand what she meant about the system of advantages that white people are given. I also understood this better when I read Elizabeth Munich’s list of examples of how there are advantages to being white. I couldn’t help agreeing with her argument based on what I have seen in my life so far. I have seen blacks harassed in stores and denied housing. At the time I simply felt it was too bad and forgot about it. According to Tatum I was practicing “passive racism” and I agree with her on that. I have never done anything to try and change the system and I do reap the advantages of being white whether or not I like it. I believe that reading this book has opened my eyes to how much racism still exists in this country that claims to uphold equal rights. Another argument that Tatum discusses is how everybody is prejudiced in one way or another. I also believe this is true, almost everyone I know has made a racist joke or laughed at one at least. I believe that this is because of th...
To begin with, the role of Critical Race Theory provides us with the idea of “racial realism”, the idea that racism, the normalcy of white supremacy is part of the everyday life of an ‘other’, in other words, racial or indigenous minorities in Canada (Slides on Critical Race Theory). The Critical Race Theory gives an understanding of the power that can be given to a definition such as ‘race’, and how