Sunday, September 21, 2014

McIntosh, Muwakkil, & Parker Connections

Examining connections between White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (Peggy McIntosh), Data Show Racial Bias Persists in America (Salim Muwakkil), and For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend (Pat Parker)

 Peggy McIntosh

 Pat Parker

 Salim Muwakkil

These three pieces discuss the same issue (Racism) -McIntosh's paper also discusses sexism, but I'm going to focus on racism- but approach the topic from different angles, and provide different views on how it should be handled. McIntosh believes that where one group has an advantage, another is being put at a disadvantage-this is only logical, if everyone had an advantage, then it wouldn't be an advantage in the first place. She believes, like Delpit that those with an advantage are less aware of that advantage, and how they use it in their everyday life. These racial advantages impact every aspect of being, but until you're on the disadvantage side of the scale, you scarcely know you have an advantage. Her goal is to eliminate this advantage. She is following Johnson's track on this; in order to change find a solution, we need to see the problem, so she looks at how whiteness is an advantage in her own life. Muwakkil approaches it from the angle of finding solid, indisputable evidence that racism still exists. He opens with a quote : "'The great lie of today's black protest is that racism still holds blacks back. It does not.' Simply stated ... Racism is over, let's move on" intending to demonstrate that we aren't as far advanced from the Jim Crowe laws as we'd like to believe we are. Muwakkil provides evidence in the field of employment that proves whites have the advantage in the work force. He presents the statistic that "Applicants with white sounding names were 50 percent more likely to get called in for an initial interview that applicants with black-sounding ones" (Muwakkil), this ties in nicely with Professor Bogad's story about Jose changing his name to Joe to get a job, and is most certainly a widely known problem. Muwakkil's point is simply corroborating what McIntosh previously presented- that whites have an advantage. While McIntosh aimed to prove racism existed, and then eliminate it, Parker outlines a different desired solution. Parker essentially wants the solution to be that skin color ceases to have a significant meaning, and instead of being treated by your skin color, you are treated by who you are as a person. Parker wants equality to not so hard, but to just be: instead of focusing on color, and whether to pretend ignore it, or intentionally cater to it to just see everyone as a person.

Parker is coming at this issue from the disadvantaged side, and McIntosh from the advantaged. I find it interesting that Parker is focusing on color, and how to cater to it, while Parker doesn't want it to be noticed or catered to, but rather wants to just be seen as a fellow human being. I really like Parkers view that sometimes by trying to solve a problem, we obsess over it, and make the problem larger than what it is, instead of just letting it go. When you consciously have to make an effort to achieve equality, sometimes that can be just as insulting as being unequal in the first place.



2 comments:

  1. Hey great job on this it really helped me understand what McIntosh was talking about and i really liked the comparison to Delpit it just made it click that much more. but, what connection do they all have to sexism which really seemed to be McIntosh's thing?

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  2. I definitely agree with you when you compare McIntosh's work to Delpit's. It's very clear the similarities between the two in the way they constantly reiterate how those who have the advantage are unaware it even exists. I liked Parker's view on the situation to, it really made you think! Good job!

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