Privilege and Microaggressions

Hey again everyone! This week’s readings on privilege and microaggressions really revealed just how many everyday advantages white Americans are afforded in contrast to people of color. I found Peggy McIntosh’s use of male privilege to identify and criticize her own white privilege particularly interesting (1). It becomes clear as the list of privileges goes on and on, that our culture is still very much damaged by racism, and these daily advantages predisposed to whites perpetuate those ideas. Similarly, whites’ (as a whole) failure to recognize their own privilege serves to create a further hostile environment in American society.

Aside from the daily effects of white privilege, microaggressions aid in the oppression of many individuals due to race. Like the article on microaggressions explains, these instances of racism tend to be subtle, and therefore difficult to eradicate from our culture, but still remain highly dehumanizing to members of different racial backgrounds. I think microaggressions, and the generally more elusive nature of racism in modern society is very damaging to social progress and equality. One of the most important ideas I gained from the McIntosh article is that in order to create social change, be it against sexism, racism, etc. an awareness of one’s own privilege and an active effort to lessen it are crucial to social change efforts because these systems of oppression are so intricately related.

The link posted below is to a French video (with English subtitles) I stumbled upon about a week ago on the topic of sexism.  The video is a hypercritical commentary on how women are oppressed in society, presented in an unusual way by flipping gender roles. While sexism is the central issue of the short film, the video also revealed some racial and cultural microaggressions, such as the main characters’ interaction with Nissar (1:54 in to the video) by asserting that he must feel “more trapped” by cultural dress customs. Additionally, the video criticizes the justice system similarly to #11 on the list of “Common Racist Attitudes and Behaviors” (3).  While the video is technically a commentary on sexism, other forms of privilege not related to gender become very clear in the film.