Sunday, April 19, 2015

is there such thing as whiteness?







The term whiteness and white people has become increasingly wide-spreading in contemporary research on race and ethnicity. Which focuses on whiteness as it provides a different form of racisms that offers insight into the privileges afforded to white people and how these privileges are sustained. Whiteness is not a thing but a process in which people of color are categorized based upon their skin color, culture, language and so on. Generally white people are the one who benefits from this power, and how whiteness plays a role in reproducing racial inequalities, as a result whiteness is invisible to white people, since its perceived as natural or normal, and even as something that must exist because its “truthful” or right. White people are simply tough not to recognize white privilege its completely invisible to them. Therefore, whites benefit from many of apparently neutral social arrangements and institutional operations, all of which seems to whites at least to have no racial basis, to be white then is a privilege in which white people particularly cannot “see” but most importantly find it difficult to acknowledge.

According to the Tim Wise video Something that I thought was interesting is when he mentions the idea that he is the one giving this lecture because he “fits” the role of the person who should. what he means by that is that he is a white, middle aged male. He says that he is not the one who knows the most about this topic, and that there are many black people who would be more qualified than him to give the lecture, but he was chosen because he “fits” into the profile that people give the subject. I think that this says a lot about how white privilege is understood in society because it shows that the general public is more comfortable talking about racism and white privilege with someone that is white, and not black, even if that black person was more educated on the subject. This also shows that the colour of your skin has an impact on what other people think of you. I admire Tim Wise for his honestly speaking about about white privilege.

Tim also mentions how he had the advantage of white privilege at school simply because he was white, he never had to worry about his grades, because his grades were never going to be associate with his race. But for people of colour it is a whole different challenge, knowing if they under performed in an academic environment, if they mispronounce or simply made a mistake in answering the question, they have to wonder where they have drop the ball not just for themselves but for those who look like them who is presence in that campus would always be questioned, and create negative stereotypes,Thats a white privilege because they don't have to worry about such a thing. According to his speech he explains how when white people were asked if racial discrimination were a significant national problem for those of colour and they were in denial of that unlike the minorities who have experienced first hand, who admit to that to be a significant problem. Therefore, white denials is everywhere and has never changed starting from back in the days.


for more information regarding this topic click below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AMY2Bvxuxc








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