In the book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” by Beverley Tatum she starts off by explaining the difference between prejudice and racism. She describes prejudice as preconceived judgments or opinions made with limited information. Prejudice is considered a consequence of cultural racism, where images and messages affirm assumed White superiority and assumed inferiority of non-whites, and people of color. Racism is then defined to be a system of advantage based on race. (Tatum, 2003, 7) It can either be actively participated in such as what the members of the KKK do, or can be passive in nature, such as a person listening to racial jokes and not speaking up about them. It is compared to conveyor belt style walkways at the airport; it moves you forward in a direction towards white advantage (racism). Actively racist is walking or running forward on the belt, passively racist is just staying on the belt, passively going along with things, or being actively anti-racist by moving in the opposite direction.(Tatum, 2003, 11) …show more content…
I had never looked at it as a “system” of advantage. While reading, I became angered because the first couple chapters of this book I felt were “white” bashing. As a white male I felt like I was not as privileged as she described white males to be but at times disadvantaged. The ideas that came to mind are the wide variety of clubs and organizations catering specifically to people of color, there are no organizations specifically for white skin that aren’t controversial, people of color or females could potentially benefit from affirmative action. There is almost no affirmative action for white people on the basis of skin, even for foreign-born whites, and black pride is considered a form of empowerment and while white pride is considered a form of
Active and passive racism is also relevant. Tatum describes active racism as being equivalent to “walking fast on a conveyor belt” (Tatum, pg.110), which means the person engaged in active racism has identified with the idea of white supremacy and is moving with it, basically its means that white people are okay with it so they still continue to do it. Passive racism on the other hand is similar to standing still on the walkway. Which is stating that passive racists see that racism is occurring but no effort is being made to stop it or try to change it and are being moved in
Racism is an ideology that is based on the principle that human beings can be subdivided and ranked into categories as being inferior or superior. It’s worth mentioning that in recent years the concept or notion of racism has changed. Racism in the post-racial twenty-first century is now marked by subtlety that discriminates against individuals through unnoticeable or seemingly passive methods. Although overt racism has decreased since the 1960s, it has been supplemented by what is called colorblind racism,” which refers to “contemporary racial inequality as the outcome of nonracial dynamics” (p. 455-456).
The difference between prejudice and racism is that prejudice is an opinion or an idea that is based on fact, logic, or actual experience and racism is a belief that one race is superior than another or treating a person or group differently based on their race. An example of racism would be that someone believes that whites are better than blacks because of the education we
1) The article “White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack” explains that shows from a very young age, we are educated to see racism on an individual level, not only racism but oppression as well. The idea of oppression starts with the topic that women are at an disadvantage when it comes to the idea that mean are the dominant sex. The male population will always have an image that they are better than women. This ties into race because men are always in competition and we notice some men believe they're better than others due to ethnicity. McIntosh explains that white privilege using the idea of an invisible weightless knapsack. To summarize that, a white person in the United States has an invisible weightless knapsack that allows for acceptance, favors from the law, and common discrimination. This is truly an issue in the United States that should and will be addressed. We can raise awareness by simply treating everyone with the same respect, not because they share the same skin tone as you.
In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh argues that racism can be found imbedded into the culture of society; conferring and denying certain privileges on some rather than all. This is a dangerous cultivation; endowing a strong expectation that white privileges are naturally deserving. Furthermore, making the cornerstone of McIntosh’s main argument; that white privilege is just a less aggressive synonym for dominance. When you receive privileges for looking a certain type of way, the recipient becomes immune; often not being able to acknowledge their advantages. As a result, this creates a cultural divide, between racial groups.
In conclusion, Peggy McIntosh pointed in her article, white privileges don’t come from an individual person or flaw of a person. White privileges arise from the flaw of the system placed in a society. Therefore, if we want to change the society and equalize the privilege amongst whites and colors, then change must happen within the system. It is the system that influences individuals to act upon in the society. A great way, we can demise
Adams, W. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H. Hackman, M. Peters, & X. Zuniga book “Readings in diversity and social justice” chapters 6-10 (2010) they discussed in order to rid oppression it starts with recognizing our social identity and how it contributed to our socialization. In order to understand socialization you need to understand the socialization cycle. Supporting subordinate groups are privileged and target groups are disfranchised but the worse is these roles are determined without our permission. The authors argue that once individuals understand oppression and want to make a change they become frustrated with the process of liberation. Supporting that the process of liberation is a cycle that begins with empowerment of self, ends with maintain, and at the core is a serious of attributes (self-love, hope, self-esteem, balance, joy, support, security, spiritual base, and authentic love of others. In differ the authors’ further support the idea white people are compensating for the system of advantage but as high as the cost of black people. The authors back up this claim through the notion of whites benefit from racism but they don’t all benefit
In her 2012 TEDx Talk, “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion”, Peggy McIntosh discusses how race is a privilege system and how white people are given an advantage without even realizing it. In her lecture McIntosh says, “These privilege systems, which locate us above and below the hypothetical line of social justice, were invented and we were born into them. And we all know both sides and that is the reason for compassion, about the sadness of having been born into systems that gave us such… such different ‘politics of location’”. Here, it seems that McIntosh’s main goal is to inform people that we are born into a privilege system because of our skin color and the only way that we can prevent a social hierarchy we must be able to recognize that we are all different. I think that the human population should be able to identify that people are different and have compassion for the differences in society our world today could have little to no race issues. After listening to McIntosh’s arguments, I support the ideas she makes throughout her works and I find that privilege systems are still prominent in today’s society.
Analysis of Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or feeling, formed beforehand (e.g., before even meeting a person) based on non-personal characteristics (e.g., skin color, religious, gender). One form of prejudice is racism. Racism is negative attitudes and values held by people about other people based on their race. It is this attitude which causes one to discriminate against another. Discrimination is treating people unfavorably on the basis of race, color or sex. Prejudice and discrimination were prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s. This era was a time of hatred, a time of violence, a time when black people were colonized by the white colonizer, and it was a time of white-on-black racial violence. Because of this hatred, the whites
As a result of this individualistic ideology and confirmed by media, whites enjoy the comfort of not dealing with the “social burden of race.” Until whites can face the reality and openly discuss the imbalance between opportunities that whites and black have in American society, the injustice of segregated privileges will continue without any prevail.
In Marilyn Frye’s article On Being White, she brought up a few points that caught my attention. There are three points she made that support me arguing that whites carry privileges that are not available to people of color. First, whites have the power to define who is white and who is not. Second, white people have the option to hear or listen to black people or ignore them. Lastly, many white people do not understand or realized that they are privileged. I am going to explain why these points and Mark Twain’s book Pudd’nhead Wilson relates to I and Frye’s argument.
Tatum uses David Wellman’s definition of racism to set up the way racism is talked about in this book, however I mildly disagree with this definition.While I disagree with this part in her book I strongly agree with the idea that race she be talked about at a young age. In Tatum 's book she states, “He defines racism as a ‘System of advantage based on race’” (Tatum 7). This quote states that minorities cannot be racist because they do not benefit from past oppression which has helped form this system. I mildly disagree with this statement because there are several problems that arise from having this belief. However, I think this is wrong. Because there is a hierarchy in race, minorities who are farther up the line might benefit while other minorities who are “lower” on the line are further oppressed. By holding this concept as true, we ignore the fact that interminority racism exists. Due to the fact that this hierarchy has been formed over time certain minorities might find it easier to be accepted by the general population, and therefore, may benefit from their placement on the ladder of race. For example, an Asian minority
Throughout this course we have learned about many things, one in particular would be Racism. We have learned about many different types of racism along with examples of racism. Before I go into specific examples of racism that I have learn about in this class, I will first define and explain the differences between racism, prejudice or also known as bias, discrimination, race, and racist so there 's a clear understanding of why I picked the specific examples. The definition of racism that we learned in class would be an “Institutionalized system with disproportionate unjust outcomes for a particular race”. Prejudice or also known as bias was defined as “A negative feeling, opinion, or attitude toward a certain category or people” this would be an feeling with no action acted upon, where discrimination is defined as “Action or inaction toward a category of people” which would be acting on the negative feelings or opinions of a certain group. The definition for race is a “Social construct, but a lived reality” while a racist is “Discrimination based on the category of race”. (Disadvantage privilege notes, 2016)
I had a hard time answering this question. I don’t want to say or believe that I am prejudiced. Before reading this chapter I thought prejudice and racism where basically one in the same. Upon exploring it a little further I determined that prejudice is when we have preconceived negative thoughts directed towards certain groups. Racism is when we already have that prejudice, and use power to act on it. So, after I really took the time to think about these two words I was finally able to answer the question. Am I prejudice? I vehemently with every bone in my body would like to say that there is no way as an first generation African American women I can exhibit prejudice. However, I do.