This video outlines some peoples experiences with their first encounters with white privilege. There is a scene when a black woman is dancing and there is another woman speaking. She talks about how when she walks past black people she smiles to let them know it's okay and she is accepting of them. She describes it as a "warm, cuddling, puppies and babies smile". She says she is guilty, sorry and nervous.
When you say this out loud, it sounds ridiculous but I feel it actually holds true. I find myself doing this all the time, it's like an unconscious habit. I feel like I need to do it to let them know it's okay and even though I am not black I have an understanding of their struggles. It's like I go through a vicarious experience because of the community I live in, my close friends and my fiancee. Many people in the video talk about when they were children and how their parents taught them to stay away from black people. Their parents would say racial slurs and keep them in the white parts of town. This shows that racism is a social construction and not biological. Peggy McIntosh is featured on this film, she shares her views on white privilege and the invisible knapsack.
I really love how candid you are in this review Kelly! You said "I find myself doing this all the time, it's like an unconscious habit. I feel like I need to do it to let them know it's okay and even though I am not black I have an understanding of their struggles", I feel this is so accurate for me as well. Peggy McIntosh writes in her article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" that "describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in Women’s Studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, “Having described it what will I do to lessen or end it?” (McIntosh, 1988).
ReplyDeleteIf we continue to have the discussion of white privilege, we can make individuals aware and educate them on ways to act on knocking down the barriers of racism and discrimination that encompass inequality. I feel you and I and our genuine and kind acknowledgement to people of another race does just that.