Category Archives: Invisible Privilege Discussion

Invisible Privilege

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When people refer to the invisible privilege, I consider it to be in reference to social class. The determining factor is usually dependent on the family’s income. The first day of class, during a conversation about feminism, someone behind me said, “I know the world is male dominated and complaining about it won’t help. To achieve equality women have to overcome their differences with men, not complain about them.” While the article doesn’t complain about sexism, it says the social class is race dependant, and the saying applies to racial differences as well. People who have been victims of racial class separation and inequality need to stop complaining about being treated differently and need to rise up and demand the equality. If someone wants the “prestige” and complains that it is because of the hand they were dealt or the race they were born with that prevents them from achieving professional or social goals need only look into the mirror for who to blame. History is filled with people who overcame their lack of privilege and gained it for themselves and their people. The fact of it is simple in order to change something you have to fight (not necessarily violently) for it. Given equality does not have the same value as equality (freedom, prestige, money, etc.) that is earned through struggle.
Privilege is usually only known to people who have earned it. Reason being is that they have been without privilege so they know the difference. People who are born with “the invisible privilege” often don’t recognize that they have it because people seem to think of everything as self accomplished and rarely acknowledge he or she received help or had an advantage. When Andrea entered Jewel’s Newark home she was uncomfortable because she was experiencing culture shock. She was being made aware of their social differences and forced to a level she has never known before. This shock can easily be overcome with practice. If Andrea’s mother exposed her to more uncomfortable situations she would develop and tolerance to her surroundings forcing them to become more familiar and less taboo. School funding is not a form of invisible privilege as far as public schools are concerned. I for one went to an out of district school but had to make up the difference in transportation costs. College is where the invisible privilege is most prevalent, with expensive ivy leagues and state universities upper middle and upper class children are usually the only ones who can afford them. I think the invisible privilege is less with race and more with income.
By Nick

Invisible Privilege

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Privilege is often invisible to many people. People are born into this world with what their parents could provide to them. Some people can be more privileged than others due to being in a certain class, race, or gender. Some people need to work harder than others to provide their family a comfortable life. Others don’t need to do much because they are already privileged with a more than comfortable life. It almost isn’t fair because not all people can work up to get to what they want. It’s nice to see people work from the bottom up knowing they deserve everything in their lives including living in a nice home in a beautiful neighborhood with great job. People who work hard to get to where they want to be are more aware of privilege. They set themselves expectations to conquer and are rewarded with privilege. As others don’t see what privilege is because they were born into it and seeing nothing less than what they have.

Andrea was uncomfortable in Jewels Newark home because it was a totally different environment that she was used to. Jewels home was different than Andreas. It was dark, lifeless, and small. It wasn’t homey and comfortable as Andrea had expected. Andrea’s home was big, beautiful and roomy.  It almost scared Andrea because she wasn’t used to these conditions, which made them lose their friendship between one another.

I feel that people can overcome the social differences just like the one explained in this story. I feel that one needs to learn how others live before judging and coming to conclusion. It seems like it was a hard transition for Andrea to see her friend’s home because it was so different. She was too young to understand that her friend’s family is going through a hard time and struggles to keep up with everyday life including making money, powering their house with electricity and feeding themselves. It was two totally different environments they live in, and a person can only understand what they are going through unless they have been through it themselves. I believe people can overcome this as long as one can understand another in order to accept their social differences.

Schools that are better funded have better education to provide for the public. When schools aren’t funded they aren’t able to provide the same quality of education. Things like teachers and learning materials may be worse in the less privileged schools. This can lead to problems because families want their children to go to a school that can provide their needs for a better education. Children don’t see that they are attending a nice school until the go to the less privileged school and see the differences. When people of a lower class can’t afford their children attending these more privileged schools, they also don’t understand the difference between what they have and don’t have until its right in front of their face.

BY ALCIA

“Invisible Privilege”

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I feel that privilege is often invisible because we as people don’t see what we have is always a privilege,but what we feel like we need to get by everyday. I’m not sure if I would category people as having a privilege. I can say if someone has something and makes there life better to live and you don’t have the same you might feel jealous. I would say Andrea was uncomfortable because she saw that Jewel didn’t live the same way as she lived, but notice how Andrea liked playing with Jewel before Andrea knew how Jewel lived or what her family was like. I did like how they said Andrea’s mom didn’t show any sighs that she was uncomfortable at Jewels house, but how it explained the people that were there was only Jewel’s family members and Andrea was the only friend ,but pointed out that Andrea was the only”white friend.”  I do feel like people should over come differences in other people. We all don’t live our lives the same way, just think how borrowing that would be if we all lived the same way.I do feel that we are all the same no matter of the color of your skin or how much money you make or if you don’t make money at all. I also feel that we as  HUMAN BEINGS should always help out the person next to you if you can. what I mean by that is if you are living a good life and you are lucky to have the privilage life you should give to those in your community that don’t it as privilege. I do feel that funding for schools is a form of “invisible privilege.” We all should have to pay the same tax. We all should have the right to go to what ever school we want, as long as the parent can provide transport of the child to and from school.

BY KELLY

Invisible Privilege

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Privilege is often invisible because, some people don’t realize that some people have less than they do.People in society who have more then others do,don’t notice that some people actually have to work hard to earn there stuff.The lower class of society are more likely to be aware of privilege.Due to the fact that they didn’t grow up with alot and there kids don’t have alot.So when they work hard and earn newer and better things,they are grateful for what they earn.Andrea was so uncomfortable in Julie’s home because she and her mom were the only white people there.Also because they only had one light bulb turned on in each room,on such a dark day.There a was a second bathroom that Andrea had to use,it scared her because it was a toilet that has four walls that were made out of cabinets.There were no electric lights in the cabinet,the only light there was,was coming from a little space between the cabinet and the ceiling.In my own opinion I do think that people could overcome these social differences if the really tried.Race should not matter when it comes to where families live and their kids go to schools.Colors of your skin shouldn’t have to determine the way your life is.If people could just realize this then maybe we would be able to overcome the social differences.Funding for schools is a form of invisible privilege because the upper class can go to good schools(private schools).Some middle class people if they are lucky can get some type of funding to school to a good school and get a good education.Lower class have to use a family members address to go to a good school so that is a good privilege.Instead of going to school where nothing works and the education isn’t that good they get a good education and if they are lucky and do well they could earn scholarships to a good college and really succeed in life.

CHALOTTE

Invisible privilege

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Privilege is often invisible because if you grow up having things and thinking of them as provided for you sometimes it is hard to image people not having them. The category of people most likely to be aware of privilege is the low income and people who grew up in a low income environment. Andrea was so uncomfortable because she was not aware up till that point that people can get along without things she has or with things being so bad. Yes people can overcome social differences, but it takes a lot of work because you are almost adapting to a different culture to do it. Funding for schools is an invisible privilege because people in the same income bracket tend to gather together and when they pay tax for the schools they pay more because they make more. This creates an imbalance in the funding a school system has and is what creates this invisible privilege. BY TYLER

Invisible Privilege

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Privilege is often invisible because people do not realize what class they are in unless they are directly effected by the consequences of that class. For example a rich white man may not realize that he has more privilege than a poor black man living on the streets. The white man looks over the black man day after day like he isn’t there while the black man looks to him in envy. So privilege is invisible to those it does not directly effect. Andrea was uncomfortable in Jewel’s Newark home because her lifestyle was so much different than Jewel’s. Andrea is used to a certain way of living where they can use lights as decorations for their homes, but in Jewel’s home they conserve energy and use the lighting as little as possible. I think people can overcome these social differences by just accepting that some are more privileged that others. In my life i am not as privileged as some of my friends.

Many of my friends having parents that make a lot of money got sent away to an all paid for trips to thirty thousand dollar colleges. They were more privileged than i am because they got their schooling paid for while i had to earn my own way to pay for my schooling. This high class free schooling that they received puts them in a better position to succeed than myself. This has caused me to lose quite a few close friends because i couldn’t go to college like they do and we drifted away. Was my relationship with them seriously affected? No, but privilege did effect the situation.

Invisible Privilege

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Privilege is invisible because you can’t see it. It is something you have that you can’t control. I think minorities are more likely to be aware of privilege because they are the ones that don’t get it as easily. Andrea was uncomfortable in Jewels home because she was not used to being the minority in the room and she wasn’t used to that kind of poverty. I think if people try not to judge each other and realize that people are doing the best they can then they can overcome these kinds of social differences. I am privileged to have a nice home, job, and car.

Invisible Privilege.

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Privilege is invisible because the class that we live in is not black and white and it can be hard to determine what class someone is in. Lower class people can be aware of the privileges of life from the upper class. Andrea was uncomfortable in Jewel’s home because it was out of her norm and below her class. I don’t think that people can overcome the type of social differences because we tend to mingle with people in our own social class, and as we seen in this case once Andrea and her mom found out that Jewel and her mom lived in a class lower than that of their own they started to fade away and eventually stopped socialization. Funding for schools can be a form of invisible privilege because in a town with higher class people the school will also be in that higher class.
Barry Glidden.

Invisible Privilege

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Privilege is often invincible because people who are privileged tend to be a part of the majority. Using race as an example people who are black, or Hispanic tend to use their race as a defining role in whom they are. When asking a white person in our culture who they are, they are less likely to use their race to define themselves. In the same context if you were to ask a white person living in Jamaica, or even possibly in a black community, or anywhere where being white is not the majority; they would be more like to use their race as a role description.  In an article I read called White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack the author, Peggy McIntosh says  “ White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.”  A good example of this is in chapter 21 of the book Seeing Ourselves when the author discusses how Andrea does not realize that having only one light turned on , on a dark day doesn’t make sense.  She does not realize that having lights on and using electricity is a privilege and an expense.

Andrea was uncomfortable in Jewel’s home because she had never been exposed to a lifestyle so different from her own. I do believe that such differences can be overcome, but it takes a lot of work in order to do so, especially for a young child. The parents have to educate her in the fact that she is privileged and that her lifestyle is not how everyone else lives. It is very hard for an eight year old child to understand that people have different life styles than their own, but over all for society I believe it is beneficial to teach the younger population about such differences. If people were to understand early on in life that people live differently than they do, then maybe the world would be a better place. Those children would hopefully grow into adults who are more compassionate and accepting of other peoples’ ways. For Andrea it was a bit of culture shock and she experienced it in an ethnocentric way which                         is understood for an eight year old. I think that Andrea’s mother could have tried more to help her understand why Jewel’s house was so different from her own and maybe she did try her best. I do think that people can overcome such differences especially when the privileged party becomes aware of their privileges. “As a white person I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage” (McIntosh, 1989)

The public school system in our society is very much a topic of privilege. I went to Lenox High School and I had a friend much like Jewel, she also went to school using a relatives address and not her own.  I did not realize it as much when I was a child, but I realize now how privileged I was to have attended such a wealthy school system. I was shocked at first when I saw some other schools in the county and how little resources they had. The schools here in Berkshire County are still not a millionth as bad as some of the schools across the country are, especially in poor communities. It is a shame that education has to be that way.

Amy Trombley

Resource:

McIntosh Peggy. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.  Wellesly College Center for Research on Women. Wellesly, MA.  1989 p. 10-12

Invisible Privilege

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                Privilege is often invisible to people because when someone is used to a certain lifestyle they are less likely to realize what they are experiencing is a privilege. People who are born into money would be a category of people who may not be aware of privileges that they have. These people who already have money from a family business or simply a family fortune often just replace their parents at the business. They do not have the experience of working hard towards a certain lifestyle. They do not worry about how their children will grow up or if their children are attending a bad school due to a bad community. People who have more privileges have fewer worries and therefore do not often realize these privileges.

                In the reading it was very clear that Andrea was very uncomfortable in Jewel’s Newark house. To Andrea, simply having two or more bathrooms was not a privilege or a luxury it was just the way their house was. When Jewel showed Andrea the second bathroom which was located in the middle of the basement made of four pieces of wood Andrea just didn’t understand, as the authors says,  “Jewel’s pride was my daughter’s terror.” Another example was that when Andrea first entered the house she couldn’t understand why, on such a dark day, only one light bulb in the house was on. To many people lighting has moved from having a functional use to be used more for decoration, and in many houses lighting is very abundant. I think that in some cases social differences as described in this reading can be overcome. If the friendship was merely between the mothers in this situation I feel that the friendship could have gone on because they were two grown women that were able to appreciate and recognize the differences in their lifestyles. But in this case the two young girls were the close friends. As the author says, “It was unreasonable for two eight-year-old girls to be able to negotiate each other’s worlds.”  I think that because the two young girls were so young and their lifestyles were so different that many aspects of each other’s lives would make the other girl uncomfortable.

                An element of privilege in my own life was attending a private school throughout middle school. While in the school I hated that I did not attend a public school like many of my friends. But now I understand that it was a privilege to attend the school because of the smaller class size. When I went to a public school in high school I found that it wasn’t as easy to get one on one help by the teachers because of the amount of students they were teaching. This did affect my relationship with others because transitioning from a small private school to a public school was in many ways difficult. Most of the student in the school had already established “clicks” and there seemed to be little room for new people.