Racism And Sexism: Privilege Is Blind

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The frost had just begun to melt in Baltimore, Maryland when Freddie Gray, an African American in police custody, was killed. In response, hundreds of African Americans rioted, looting businesses and homes. Burning cars and broken glass littered the streets. Bystanders were brutally beaten; plans for murdering police officers arranged. While the outcry on racist police brutality strengthens with yet another African American corpse, a new question arises. Who are the real bad guys here? Who is truly blind, and who just chooses to not see? As such, on a festering July afternoon, novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns college graduates, “Privilege blinds, because it’s in its nature to blind.” By definition, privilege is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people. This intangible conception …show more content…
Better yet, our societies thrive and function on this inequitable idea of privilege. Not only does one witness privilege in actions, but in the record of our histories - literature. Predominantly displayed are racism and sexism. Privilege does indeed blind one’s sympathy for an individual; however, it is possible to regain that sight through perseverance and resiliency. The endless plight upon the ‘non indigenous’ races dates back hundreds of years. Racism — that is the timeless strain upon societies worldwide, beginning with the infamous, radical scheme to enslave others. This transformed during the nineteenth century into classical racism, “the belief that different human races have different endowments, just as different breeds of domestic animal — differences of intelligence, aggressiveness, and courage…a matter of biological inheritance” (Blaut 62). This contemporary notion slavery was ‘okay’ because “Africans were not truly human” (Blaut 62) translates to present time. In UCLA this Halloween, students “used brown paint and
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