If you are white, describe at least five ways you have benefited from white privilege. Discuss whether it was difficult to think of five examples and, if so, speculate on why that was. Discuss whether you had considered yourself privileged in any way, but specifically along racial lines, before. In other words, was white privilege visible to you? If so, why do you think that was so? If not, explore why that was not the case.
If you are a nonwhite student, reverse the questions. For instance, list five ways you have been discriminated against due to your race. Were these examples difficult to come up with? Speculate on why or why not. Additionally, speculate on a few ways you think your life might have been different had you been born white in American society.
I have never really been discriminated against that I can remember. I’ve been called names but mostly jokingly. Examples for me are pretty difficult to come up with for me. I feel like I treat people how they would like to be treated and I stay to myself and friends. If I was born in a white American society I feel like my life would be fairly different. I feel like maybe I would get more privileges.
If possible, describe white privilege to two white people you know—friends, coworkers, or family members. What is the general reaction to this notion? Why do you think this is so? Is it possible for you to not see white privilege after reading this chapter? If so, why do you think that is? If not, why not? Describe white privilege to two people of color that you know—friends, coworkers, or family members. Describe the general reaction to this notion. Tie this in to the idea of standpoint perspective described in Chapter 1.
There general reaction isn’t generally surprised. They know mostly what white privlage is. No I think that white privlage is still possible for me to see after reading this chapter. For me I still feel like I see it in a lot of places around the world and others getting mistreated. My friends of color are very aware and have seen this everywhere just like me and aren’t surprised. Standpoint t perspective is where you stand on a a certaint point such as white people and colorored people both have there point of views on a topic.
Provide evidence of the “ethnic revival” or “symbolic ethnicity” in your family or community. Were these hard to identify? If so, why do you think that is? If not, why? There is symbolic ethnicity everywhere in my family. My great grandma implemented it into or family and didn’t want us to ever lose it and we will continue it for her. These were not hard to find for me my family is proud of our ethnicity.
Had you previously considered the gendered nature of early racial/ethnic conflict and inequality? If not, why do you think that is? Speculate on the ways racial/ethnic inequality is gendered today.
I have previously considered the gendered nature of racial conflict and inequality and I think that it is absolutely horrible and wrong. I feel like now at days racial and ethnic inequality is still in the world but not as bad. I still think it is horrible and wrong and I hope that one day this can change and we can all get along together.
Do you have ancestors belonging to any of the groups discussed in this chapter (whites, Native Americans, Chinese Americans, Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, or African Americans)? If so, how does this information make you feel.
I have many ancestors from these groups and the information makes me somewhat upset. I feel like a lot of it could of been handled differently and it’s sad to hear about these things from the past. All we can do now is try our best to treat all equally. I feel like from the start we all should of been equal but people don’t see things that way.
Ask your parents and grandparents what they were doing during these decades of activism. What do they remember of the movements described in this chapter? Were they activists or sympathetic to the causes? How did they perceive these activists? Would you have engaged in activism in this era? What kinds of things might have facilitated your activism? What may have hindered it?
My grandpa was part of WW II and he says when he got back he was sympathetic to the movements. They perceived them as just wanting to be treated equal and not be treated so unfairly. I feel like I would have engaged in activism in this era. I feel like reading more and learning more things about these topics make me more interested and want to make changes to the world.
Explain how the racism of the dominant group can be understood as prejudice plus power and how the color-blind ideology is an example of dominant group power. The racism of the dominant group can be understood as prejudice plus power because society’s. Establish racial hierarchies to disadvantage others well giving others a advantage well as color blind ideology is the dominant group power as color blind means not seeing color because race does not matter anymore. Now most inequality is not for race but more for religion. This racial ideology allows white peoples to deny the significance of race in our current society.
Think about some arena in which you hold privilege (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, nationality). Identify five ways you see privilege operating in your life. Being a athlete has been a privilege in my life as it has helped me get through many things and challenges in my life and has gave me some advantages such as school and taught me how to control my actions. I feel like being a male has Been a privlage in my life even though I feel like that is unfair
Being born in to my family and having the hardworking and caring parents a support system I have around me. I feel like my community and where I was growing up later in my life helped me a lot I feel like my friend group hs also been a big part of my life.
What do critical race theorists mean when they refer to counterstories? Identify a counterstory you are familiar with (whether historical, in popular culture, or in scientific research). How does emphasizing counterstories affect how we all view the world?
Counterstories are told by people of reflect their view of the world from there particular social locations. Native American author Vine Deloria Jr. offers an example of a counterstory that addresses the ongoing anthropological study of Native peoples: “The massive volume of useless knowledge produced by anthropologists attempting to capture real Indians in a network of theories has contributed substantially to the invisibility of Indian people today” (1988:81).(page 102) counterstories are designed to show you examples of how other people or groups view the world from there group
Would you argue that immigrants are pressured to assimilate into the dominant, Anglo American culture, or would you argue that the United States today embraces cultural pluralism more than it does assimilation? Provide evidence to support your answer. Why is it important to understand slavery from the perspective of those enslaved as well as the perspective of the dominant group (see Unchained Memories under Recommended Films)? Why have these voices only been discovered recently? What does this tell us about history and how we understand the past?
I think that understanding slavery from the perspective of those enslaved is extremely important. What we do know is mostly word to mouth but we don’t know exactly what was going on and what they had to deal with. Seeing things from this perspective makes you realize what really went through and could see from their view and instead of not understanding what they really went through we can have more of a idea if we view it from that point. I think perspective from the dominant group is also important as seeing from there view from their point of view that we don’t understand and we could see from there view on why they did such horrible things. I feel like these voices have just been discovered recently because people may have been scared in the past but they understand that they have the support and this is very important to understand and to educate people on this topic. This tells us that history is usually from only one point of view and we don’t understand from all points from what we’ve learned in history. We understand the past buy only what we are told or we have learned but there is so much about the past that we don’t know.
I feel like the way that the us government, capitalism, and racism are linked I’m a couple ways. I believe that In business typically white people typically are in charge of these big corporations and there the ones who make the decisions. I feel like they choose people who are like them to work for them. I feel as they privlage others and don’t give some people a equal chance. Malcolm x once said “you can’t have capitalism without racism” I believe that all three things are linked together and reinforce each other. I feel like it’s completely wrong that racism is used to give others privlage and gives others none once so ever.
I feel like I’m the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was a lot of racism. People of all colors were being punished just for the color of their skin. It could ask so be described as a racial democracy because I feel as people are constrained by gender and class as well as race.
Why did these protest movements choose to use nonviolent direct action tod challenge the white power structure in the beginning of the movement? Explain why most of the movements (with the exception of the Asian American movement) shifted away from nonviolent direct action toward more militant positions.
I believe they wanted these protest to be non violent to make a point that not everything always has to be about violence. I feel as they were challenging the white power structure in the beginning of the movement. I feel as they felt as they didn’t need to be violent and wanted to do things another way as being violent usually never works out good for you especially toward militant positions. From doing this assignment I’ve learned a lot about stuff that i didn’t know before and it was very interesting. Learning about Malcolm x and white power will be some things that will stick to me because they were very interesting.
