From the “Who am I” article I realized that privilege is not a straight line and that people can be privileged in different areas. Factors such as race, religion, sexuality, and nationality all play a part in determining someone's privilege; a person can be advantaged in one aspect but disadvantaged in another. “Unpacking the Knapsack of Privilege” exposed me to the idea that men's dominance over women is comparable to a racial majority's dominance over a racial minority. When you are in a dominant group, you do not think about other groups; but that is exactly the awareness that must happen in order for grievances to be addressed. I'm guilty of never having thought that my gender advantaged me in any way. I found it fascinating to see the ways in which the author’s race granted her certain freedoms and safety nets beyond what we typically think of (one particularly interesting one was how Band-Aids are naturally colored to match light skin). A fact from “Is Race Real” that surprised me was that most variation is not between but within races; 85% of total human genetic variation exists within local populations (so two random Norwegians are likely to be as genetically different as a Norwegian and a Korean). This illustrates that race is an illusion- we are all the same species regardless of phenotype differences.
I like how you noted that "when you are in a dominant group, you do not think about other groups; but that is exactly the awareness that must happen in order for grievances to be addressed." This is so true. I think it's generally pretty easy for us to think about the groups we are in that aren't dominant, but we also need to acknowledge our membership in dominant groups as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen you said "I'm guilty of never having thought that my gender advantaged me in any way," I appreciated your honesty!
Cool picture, btw :)
Your favorite race fact was also interesting to me as well. "5% of total human genetic variation exists within local populations (so two random Norwegians are likely to be as genetically different as a Norwegian and a Korean)". It stands out because most would think that opposing races would have more variation than with a race. It just goes to show that we are more similar than we like to believe.
ReplyDeleteRace really is only skin deep. We're all in reality so similar, especially in terms of genetics, but we as a society forget that the moment we see another's skin, gender, and face. We really all are one human race.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated how you said that 'privilege is not a straight line' and I completely agree that a huge a variety of factors goes into how people are (or are not privileged). Reading about privilege is always eye-opening in the sense that you can think about your identity in ways that you never thought about it before. When I first read "Unpacking the Knapsack of Privilege" a couple of years ago, I had never thought that my identifying as Christian could put me at an advantage, so I liked your piece about not considering gender privilege.
ReplyDeleteI like your meta-analysis of race and what you mean by it. I appreciate your honesty in expressing this!
ReplyDeleteI like your meta-analysis of race and what you mean by it. I appreciate your honesty in expressing this!
ReplyDelete