Examples Of Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack

I grew up in a typical southern town that was majority Christian and White. I saw a lot a of faces like mine on a daily basis and got most of my information about others from those familiar faces. Coming to college was quite a change, as I was introduced to almost every race within the first week living on my hall. I can remember meeting people of races that I had only heard about in my hometown and imminently making assumption about them based on my stereotypes. For a long time, I believed that my views were normal, since that is what I grew up around, but quickly came to realize that what I believed in my automatic attitudes was very wrong. That is when the dissociation started to happen. I would see someone and in my head make a conclusion about them before I even met them; but, would never do anything but be nice and open to getting to know this different person better. Just like the respondents in Blindspot said, “I know these stereotypes quite well, but I don’t for a moment endorse them myself.” This is a statement that I have come to really embrace and has allowed me to get away from my automatic perception of someone to meet many interesting and unique people. I find this to be very encouraging, believing that if I can do it, maybe these stereotypes about others will go away if we as a whole embrace the

I wholeheartedly endorse what Cottom calls “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, that poor people buy status symbols to survive in this world. She demonstrates that, as a middle class black girl, her family had a way of turning the tables in their favor in multiple aspects in order to supply their needs and wants. Poor people buy expensive items, sometimes depriving themselves of their other needs, just for the respect of others. These items are 21st-century status symbols, they can single-handedly determine the fate of your everyday encounters. The author uses personal experiences to support her argument, persuasively changing your entire perspective and broadening your mind to another individual’s lifestyle.

Throughout the deep studying and discussions of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, a message has resonated and created a deeper understanding inside of me. There is a terrible plague all around us. It is called inequality. Whether it is due to ethnicity, gender or religion, the effect is all the same. Inequality in America suppresses individuals from their true potential.

In “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh we discuss the concept of white privilege, and white male privilege and its existence in modern day society. McIntosh goes on to speak of how unacknowledged white male privilege is a phenomenon that is constantly being denied and protected. Mcintosh compares white privilege to an “invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.”(175) Much of male oppressiveness is unconcious, basically, many men don’t realize that what they are doing is oppressive towards other people.

Male privilege has existed for centuries, but it was not widely discussed until around 1988 when Peggy McIntosh, a scholar working for Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, wrote a paper titled, “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies,”. The paper takes a look both at white and male privilege, with a long list of 46 examples of McIntosh’s own, self-recognized privilege as a white woman. The paper sparked a massive controversy and extremely opposing opinions on privilege. David Horowitz, an American writer with deep conservative views and values, deemed McIntosh one of “America’s ten wackiest feminists”.

I believe that beliefs, assumptions and expectations and how we see our family and friends and culture may have an effect on most people because for example my father side of the family is Indian(Cherokee) and the have beliefs that I'm not accustom to only a few of my family members still go by that tradition of the clothing they wear the festivals they have for example to exchange food to symbolize a promise once a couple wants to get married im not to much familiar by that because it's too much to do and to much to learn and I feel it shouldn't be like that for the entire family, as for the other half of my

Privilege, when defined as having advantages or receiving special benefits that are available exclusively to a certain group or groups, is an extremely important social phenomena. At its most mild, experiencing any form of privilege segregates or categorizes individuals in the group receiving the benefits of that privilege from others who do not receive those same benefits. At its most extreme, experience of privilege, or equally significantly the lack of privilege, violently alienates groups of people, often in the form of cultural, political, social tensions. What are seen as social constructions such as race, ethnicity, gender, social class or status, religion, etc. can all be seen as mechanisms for becoming a recipient of or being denied social benefits. Social class or status achieved through financial and educational background is one of the many mechanisms of receiving privileged benefits that Zadie Smith writes of in her novel, On Beauty. Her character Zora Belsey’s experience of financially secure social privilege creates for her a sense of entitlement and superiority. Even the commendable actions Zora takes in making higher education available for those who may not otherwise have access to it become fuel for her self fulfilling savior complex. Through her juxtaposition against Carl Thomas, an individual of lower social status than herself, Zora performs a near perfect display of how

In Arthur Miller's Focus, society gives many conferred advantages to people whose identity accords to being "white". Mr. Newman, Focus's main character, does not give thought to many of these advantages until he finds himself losing them. Peggy McIntosh's discussion on male and white privilege exposes various types of these privilege. McIntosh lists many of the advantages she can identify and brings to light effects that advantages can have for both people who have them and those who are unfortunate enough to be without them. She says, "… some privileges make me feel at home in the world.

As student support worker I am working with vulnerable adults and as performing artist I am working with people of all ages and personally I am living in a shared house with people aged 8, 10, 30 and 40. In private live as well as in professional environment I believe that I have excellent social and interpersonal skills which make me approachable while keeping a balanced amount of authority.

To begin with how this idea influenced my life, is when people asked me if i good at soccer because society said that Mexican are good at soccer, but in reality most aren’t good at soccer. Another example is when I was in elementary school. I took an important test that decides how smart you are. Based on your result, also decides what class are you supposed to be in. Most people in my ethnicity and age at the time, everybody expected us to do bad on us. After I took the test, the result were surprisingly because I was in the group that scored close to advance on the test. These are one of the events in my life, society has gives me expectations and what am I supposed to be good at.

Modern human nature is characterized the exploitation of other human beings. Minorities, such as women or blacks, have been subjected to discrimination throughout history and have had to fight for their rights on multiple occasions. In Death of a Salesman this idea is explored in the quote, “you can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away” (Miller 61). In other words, a man is more than just a resource, one cannot simply take what they need and leave when their job is over. This indifference for human life is prevalent in both literature and ordinary life. Various minority groups, such as women or the elderly are key examples of unequal treatment.

Many people live in different circumstances, for example, I live in a diverse neighborhood with a mix of races and cultures. Most of the time where you live can affect and shape you.

An individual’s compliance to examine their own possible biases is very important in being able to understand the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society. Starting early in a person’s life, the human mind has the ability to automatically categorize people. This is a crucial feature. These categories give an order to our everyday lives. Every day, people are grouped into categories based on social and biological characteristics, this is called race. Cultural biases exist whether we want them to or not. We all have cultural biases if we would just acknowledge them we can recognize it.

I believe that my skills in conflict resolution can help to effectively solve problems related to differing opinions with my

In the world there are a plethora of different types of households. Each household has different struggles and burdens that can affect their standard of living. Within the article "Invisible Privilege," Paula S. Rothenberg recalls a time when her daughter was introduced to the unfairness of the world around her. The realization of the different struggles that other families go through was a shock that she was not ready for and found it hard to accept. In "Invisible Privilege," different sociological theories and concepts, impact the way that the story is view, and the main themes throughout it.