Black Vs Racial

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Black vs. White Perception on Racism When it comes to racism we all have our own viewpoint on what this term may mean. However, when it comes to race, there are privileges not many of us have the opportunity to take advantage of because on our ethnicities. The word racism can have conflicting meanings depending on what your own viewpoint is. Racism has been common for plenty of decades and in fact, is acknowledged today. In particular, well-known speakers such as Beverly Daniel Tatum and Peggy McIntosh provide their own viewpoints on the common topic racism and white privilege. First, Beverly D. Tatum, an African American, does not see racism as an act of hate, but rather she sees it as a system of privileges based on one’s own race (Tatum …show more content…
Nevertheless, in order to support her idea of having an invisible knapsack of privilege, McIntosh lists some of the daily effects of white privilege in her life. She does mention that this list of daily experiences is a part of her invisible weightless knapsack that she can count on cashing in every day because of her race (McIntosh in Sweeney, 44). In particular, McIntosh states that she can go shopping alone without being followed or harassed (McIntosh in Sweeney, 44). On the contrary, there have been plenty of cases that clearly show people of other races; for example, blacks, who are followed and looked at suspiciously, something that will not happen to McIntosh because she is white. For instance, in the film Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, Marguerite gives an example of when she had to explain to her twelve-year-old daughter what white privilege was. Marguerite explained to her daughter by giving her an example of a student she had named Layton, young black male, that would guard her house while they were away. Marguerite points out that she had to warn the neighbors that Layton was taking care of her house so that when they would see this black man, they would not think he was up to something. Marguerite explains to …show more content…
McIntosh says in the beginning of her article that she was never taught to see one of the main aspects of racism, which is white privilege, but she does know it exists (McIntosh in Sweeney, 43). This could be the case on why many white individuals have not realized white privilege exists because it was something that they were taught not to see. Tatum on the other hand, clearly points out that white privilege has to do a lot with racism and whites not realizing the fact that they are privileged. The idea of not knowing how fortunate white individuals are something that Tatum and McIntosh agree with. Although Tatum and McIntosh have completely different backgrounds, they do agree that white privilege exists. On the other hand, possibly one of the differences they see about racism is the fact that they are both from different ethnicities and their personal experiences in life can shape their minds into thinking differently about this topic. Thus, although McIntosh and Tatum are both from different ethnicities, they can agree on the fact that white privilege
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