Yeah, you go Gandalf!

This week's article, "The Silenced Dialogue" by Lisa Delpit, is quite interesting, in that she tackles education at its most basic level: the communication of ideas.

Quoting Deplit directly from her work, we can first see her ideas about power:

There are five aspects of power I would like to propose as given for this presentation:

1. Issues of power are enacted in classrooms. 

2. There are codes or rules for participating in power; chat is, there is a "culture of power." 

3· The rules of the culture of power are a refection of the rules of the culture of those who have power. 

4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. 

5. Those with power are frequently least aware of - or least willing to acknowledge - its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. 

Right off the bat, Delpit dives into familiar territory. As we read with McIntosh last week, white privilege acts as a sort of "invisible power." Delpit put it into universal terms which could be applied to any race with advantages, stating that there is a culture of power in certain environments whose rules are a reflection of the culture of those who have power.

(Not Finished, had to go to class. Will finish later.)

The Argument of McIntosh

Alright, so.....

Now that that's out of the way...

The first article I'll be writing about is "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh.

In this article, McIntosh writes about all of the "invisible" (invisible to the people who have them, at least) privileges that white people take for granted. In listing the various "skin privileges" and assumptions, many of which someone such as myself never even thinks about, one can slowly piece together the daily trials, tribulations, and hardships that people who aren't white have to go through while navigating our current American society.

However, McIntosh didn't write this article simply to list the unearned power of white people. McIntosh's primary argument is that to change and ultimately remove white privilege, we first need to acknowledge how colossal and dominating of a force it is. She wants us to start talking less about "colored disadvantage" and more about "white advantage." We need to tackle the tendency of white people to be oblivious to their own unearned power rather than try to lift others up to that same level of power. McIntosh is essentially arguing for a reduction in the power in white privilege to level the playing field, sort of like taking away an army's guns and forcing them to use their fists like everyone else.

Personally, I agree with McIntosh. While yes, there are things that both sides can do to help alleviate this issue, the vast majority of work needs to be in bringing white people to acknowledge the simple fact that, under the current institutions of this country, they have many "inherent" benefits simply because they are white. Once we get enough people to acknowledge these facts, we can then create truly impartial systems and institutions that are fair and balanced for all.

How we get to that point is certainly far from certain, but if we don't try, we'll never get there. However, there are certainly many people who are trying (unfaircampaign.org).

Hopefully, if we all work together to get to the point of fair and balanced competition for all, we can stop using the term "white privilege."

Perhaps, one day, we can start saying...

Human Privilege

 

Hello everyone! My name is Chris, an as I'm sure everyone can tell, I was not the smartest person in our class. I never actually used the blog during the course of our class, so I'm making one now in the hopes of making it up to one of the best and nicest teachers I've ever had.

I was foolish at the time. I thought that I could just skirt by and not do any of the work. I don't know why I didn't do it. Looking back, it would have been hundreds of times easier. I could have done the work little by little, week by week, and passed with little effort. Instead, I chose to spend the five minutes a week it would have taken me to do this work doing other, silly things.

I now realize my mistakes. I've made the same mistakes in all my other classes for the past three semesters, but no more, Even if doing this blog won't help my grade, I still want to do it for my own sake. I will no longer relegate my future to the whims of other people.

Today, I take my future into my hands!