Week 2 discussion

Understanding of Privilege 

    My understanding of privilege in general I felt was very broad and I didn't fully have a good understanding of what makes a person privileged. As an African American, I only thought and been taught about white privilege since I was a kid. But I haven't fully realized this as my elementary/middle school was predominantly white and I was one of 5 black kids there. In my head, white Americans had the higher status compared to people of color. I felt I had to fit in and look like them. But I also have failed to realize that things like your nationality and gender could give you privilege as well. I knew about gender privilege because of the fight between equal pay between men and women in the same work-field. I always thought it was unfair. Honestly, I feel angered by it because it goes back in history and those quotes such as, "strong like men" exist. I've personally witnessed this in my elementary school where teachers would only call on the boys to carry tables or chairs, never asking any of girls like we are uncapable of such a thing. There's such a boundary on people's mindset that they seem to not realize they're being discriminatory against females. 

    I've always thought that I'm inferior to white Americans and it honestly stopped me from wanting to do certain things for a while. In the textbook it says, "Many of us think that we don’t hold prejudicial thoughts against people. Because we think this, we see ourselves as free of prejudice" (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 77). I feel that it became socially acceptable to be prejudice towards a group of individuals because of the stigma of it just being acceptable. It affected me negatively before that I couldn't do anything. But as I got older, I realized I'm more than just my race because all in all we are all human beings. I feel that since I myself wasn't really taught in school about the privileges people have that exposure when you're young is good. This should be essential and be incorporated in school lessons. It's better to teach it early than having those young kids growing up blind and closed minded on the issues.

    I've been oppressed in many ways I started to build this mindset it was normal for someone like me. For example, when I'm shopping with my family, either grocery shopping or clothes shopping, we get followed all the time. Just like in weekly lesson, it speaks about white privilege: invisible knapsack. Some white people are aware that they don't have to be followed until you're out the door. Something like that actually causes my anxiety and I try to make myself look less suspicious. But how can I? I'm being myself. I realized it was because of my skin color. Am I really that intimidating? I've been told I have a black name due to it not being common and hard to say. I've been told multiple times that I talk "like a white person." Something like that triggers me the most as I didn't know speaking intelligently had a racial profile. A way I've used my privilege to help another is when I'm vocal when standing up for others and helping my friend who is from Spain with her English comprehension. I help her understand things that she may not understand as an native Spanish speaker.