What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege Analysis

According to Dowsett, white people tend to be extremely uncomfortable with the phrase “white privilege,” it elicits a feeling of defensiveness from those who believe that they are not racist or privileged and are good people. Even if your are a devout Christian who

McIntosh, who is a white woman that lives in America, says that white people are carefully taught to not recognize white privilege. They are conditioned not to be aware of the unearned disadvantages that are in an “invisible knapsack” that people of color carry with them. She listed some instances that clearly shows white dominance as an advantage in her daily life, which included that she can count on

Critical Review of White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

In this spellbinding lecture, the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son offers a unique, inside-out view of race and racism in America. Expertly overcoming the defensiveness that often surrounds these issues, Wise provides a non-confrontational explanation of white privilege and the damage it does not only to people of color, but to white people as well. This is an invaluable classroom resource: an ideal introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new tool for exploring the often invoked – but seldom explained – concept of white privilege.

Along with racism’s effect on the economic status of communities, it also impacts African Americans in other aspects of the financial realm. As Peggy McIntosh explains in her essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” she, as a white person, “can count on [her] skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability” (McIntosh). Thus, institutionalized racism still makes it more difficult for Blacks to become financially stable compared to whites. According the Pew Research Center, the net worth of a white person was 13 times greater than that of a Black person in 2013, even though slavery had been abolished nearby 150 years prior (Fry, Kochlar). Likewise, in 1970 about 4 percent of whites and 62 percent of Blacks

After explaining and providing many examples of white privilege, Wise then makes the case that this privilege is not only harmful to people of color, but also very dangerous for white people as well. He says white people should care about what privilege can turn them into, and that caring is an act of self-interest and liberation.

The article What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege by J. Dowsett talks about how there is a white privilege in today’s world even if people want to deny it. He used the analogy of bike riders being the minorities and automobile drivers being white. Most automobile drives do not think about the bike riders, they are not men to them they just do not cross there mind and because of that they might mistreat. There are also the automobile drivers that go out of their way to be mean to the bike riders just because they are driving a car so they feel superior.

Wise’s examination of the inconspicuous character of racism 2.0 dovetails fittingly with our course’s recurring theme of institutionalized racism. In class lectures we have defined institutionalized racism as the discriminatory practices that have become regularized and routinized by state agencies, organizations, industries, or anywhere else in society. Although such practices might not be intentionally racist, they end up being racist nevertheless as consequence of the systematized and unspoken biases that have become increasingly convoluted and entrenched within society over time. It also doesn’t help white people to recognize these discriminatory practices considering they have been unconsciously tailored to be consistent with white perspective and mentality. In her article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh examines not only how white folks often consider themselves to be a normative figure within society, but also how they are carefully taught not to recognize the advantages they gain from the disadvantages that impair people of color. In the article, McIntosh acknowledges the reality of her own white privilege and expresses, “In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth” (McIntosh 4). In fact, even if white folks do not believe themselves to

White privilege embraces the behaviours, values, beliefs and practices of the dominant white culture (Puzan, 2003). There are often unnoticed advantages

White privilege is a unique form of racism given its fascinating characteristic of not involving hostility. Therefore, it cannot be directly blamed on someone (Pludo, 2015). The lack of blame does not cause any discomfort on the white persons enjoying the privileges.

From this list, the two most important aspects of white privilege are: the fact that white people are taught not to recognize their privilege and the fact that it is an ongoing, institutionalized remnant of colonization. These are

Firstly, white privilege entails wide media representation, where people of colour are consistently underrepresented. Many people don’t see this as an issue at all, but it is necessary

There are two prominent writer/scholars who have taken the issue of white privilege to heart and have shared their expert analysis on the subject; these authors/writer-scholars are Peggy McIntosh, a white feminist, and Beverly Tatum, an African American Psychologist. McIntosh, in her article "Coming to See Correspondences," makes excellent observations about the privilege that she has experienced just by being a white female in America. The two most significant points made by McIntosh

Dowsett begins his essay with the topic of white privilege and the difficulty in discussing the topic amongst others, consequently translating poorly. To clarify the definition of white privilege, he writes that white privilege is not about placing blame or racism on white people. White privilege is the systematic imbalance in society geared to be in favor of white people. Using his bicyclist analogy, he hopes that it serves as an “a-ha” moment for those who struggle to accept that

Although some individuals may wish or even naively claim that we live in a post-racial society, the reality in twenty first century America is that individual and institutional racism continues to take a horrible toll on young people of color, who are at greater risk of race-based violence, unjust criminalization, as well as economic, political and educational discrimination. The powerful advantages that come from being born white are immeasurable and painfully real. It is critical that white individuals recognize the depth of their privilege, but doing nothing more than that can appear self-congratulatory, and as an attempt to exempt them from responsibility. An example of one writer’s over-simplification of white privilege can be found