RGM Blog 3 - Feb 13, 2009

I think Tim Wise's presentation raises a great amount of legitimate concern. In fact, I think the most important thing I gained from listening to excerpts of his speech is the realization that I need to do some self reflection. It caused me to look inward and take note of how my life is shaped by privilege.

I think there is much truth behind his idea of privilege, specifically white privilege. However, I think privilege extends to other races too. (My numbers 2 & 6 about being Hispanic.) Also, I think it's more difficult for a non-black person to gain "acceptance" in a social group of all African Americans. For example, the Caucasian girl in our class who is an African American Studies student... she mentioned an example the other day in class about skepticism from African Americans about why she was taking the course.

When I try to think of examples of how the media uses privilege the first thing that comes to my mind are stand up comedy performances that I see on television. For example, George Lopez is privileged to make jokes about Mexicans because he is Mexican; Katt Williams can joke about blacks because he's black; Jeff Foxworthy can joke about rednecks because he's "a white country boy". (I put that last one in quotations because I doubt he's actually all that much of a country boy with his fame and consequential money.)

In keeping with answering the "reflection questions", here's my list of the privileges I see in my daily experiences:
1. doors being opened/held for me because I'm a girl (gender privilege)
2. going to Mexican restaurants and often gaining more attentive service because I look Hispanic (happens most often in the summer when I get really dark) (ethnicity privilege)
3. blogging... I think the anonymity which the internet allows gives people more courage to express their opinions bluntly (no-identity-privilege?)
4. I've noticed that people who dress in "labels" gain much more attention and service at hoity-toity retail stores (rich-privilege)
5. last summer my Caucasian friend and I went to a store owned and operated by Hispanics and they refused to speak to him in English, though they know and speak the language well, and instead looked at me and spoke to me in Spanish, ignoring him (ethnicity privilege)
6. my mom and I went into a high-dollar store one time last year just to browse (seriously) and she being much darker than I and much more obviously of Mexican-descent was ignored and the people spoke only to me (we left soon after) (ethnicity privilege)
7. I was at a nail salon a couple of months ago when two friends, one Caucasian and one African American, came in to ask for service. The Caucasian was seated almost immediately while the black woman had to wait for much longer, while other people who came in after here were seated, and all the while chairs were available (ethnicity privilege)
8. I'm not taken as seriously as my father or boyfriend whenever I visit car dealerships because the salesmen assume, before any words are spoken and knowledge displayed, that I know nothing about cars (gender privilege; gender and age privilege when I'm with people obviously older than me)

I honestly don't remember Tim Wise speaking about the "one drop rule".... but from my google search I find that it's the idea of being "non-white" by any fractional amount. (See "How Far Have We Really Come From the 'One-Drop Rule'?")

I don't think society still believes in the one drop rule. I'm not denying that racism is still existent in society; I jut think that racism is a product of ignorance and ignorant people often just look at outside features like skin color to judge whether or not they should treat that person differently. In other words, if you look white, you're treated like you're white; you look Hispanic, you're treated like you're Hispanic; etc. It doesn't matter what your actual ancestry is.

In regards to responsibility, I pretty much believe every idea he expressed. I believe awareness and lack of ignorance is the first step in changing people's behavior. This seems obvious to me perhaps because of my Public Relations background... awareness, attitudes and behavior are three campaign aspects constantly preached to us. As a Caucasian-Hispanic I also agree that knowledge of different cultures and backgrounds is the essential element in overcoming adversity and actions that stem from ignorance. It's a responsibility to be more aware of your privileges and to step outside your comfort zone and extend those privileges across social barriers (i.e. racism based on appearance, gender biases, ageism, etc.)