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My RA Essay essay (Type: Comparative Essay (Introduction (Analysis 3 White…

- - - - McIntosh and Lorde are both females born into the pre-civil rights era and both lived dramatically different lives. McIntosh being a white American and Lorde being an African American. McIntosh focuses on unearned advantages she had when growing up. Lorde on the other hand focuses on a family trip that made her realize that America is white and people of color don’t have the same rights as them. Although they are just life stories written over 20 years ago, they contribute to the ongoing conversation of white privilege.
    - - The conversation of race and power has been going on in the United States since America was first found. Racism is socially constructed into our society and many people don’t even realize it. In addition, for most of the time in American history, one type of person was always the leader and had the most power, white males.
    - - McIntosh: Furthermore, in her text, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy talks about education and unearned advantages she and many other white Americans have. She talks about how “knowledge is white and knowledge is male” (McIntosh). She lists unearned advantages she has. Then she explains how her group makes themselves confident and comfortable while oppressing other groups.
      - Lorde: Lorde in her text, “The Fourth of July,” expresses her anger through her story of her family trip to Washington D.C. She expresses how she found out that America was white and that African Americans don’t have the same opportunities or rights as white people. She finds out what the American reality was at the time.
    - - Stereotypes
      - Comparing the Two:
        
        McIntosh’s work is about equality and how white men have power, and how colored people are treated differently, or have different experiences than whites. Plus, she mentions how whites are different from others and how they treat other races. She quotes in her essay that “a ‘white’ skin in the United States opens many doors for whites….” (McIntosh). To help support this quote she lists a bunch of unearned advantages she has because of the color of her skin. Having white skin has helped her all her life.
        
        Lorde on the other side, noticed that white Americans have had more opportunities and assets. In her poem, she talks about how her sister, even though she went to a white school, had fewer opportunities, she couldn’t even go on the school trip because she was black (Lorde 240). Also, because of her and her family’s skin, they were limited to what they could do and had less freedom than a person with light, white skin. Even though her mom had a lighter tone of dark skin, she still didn’t have the same opportunities (Lorde). Her family was born into segregation and the lack of freedom and opportunities. During the time period of when she wrote her poem about, 1947, African Americans had no equal opportunities. During 1947, there was African American segregation and discrimination, and lynching. However, some black students did go to school with white students but very few, according to Lorde’s poem and how she states her sister was the only African American student in her class (Lorde 240). This was when they had to sit in the back of the bus, when they had different fountains, hotels, and couldn’t sit in bars and restaurants. She really was spreading how bad times were back then when she was a child and tried to address it to modern people and how things should change.
        
        She and Peggy McIntosh were born into this era of separation, yet they have very different experiences.
      - People were born into slavery because of the dark color of their skin. Some people were born into poverty. Sixteen percent of white Americans born into poverty will eventually end up in the top one-fifth before they are forty years old; while for African Americans, that number is three (Mejia).
    - - Thomas C. Holts piece, “Knowledge is Power: The Black Struggle for Literacy,” he mentions “if blacks were to receive any education at all, it had to be of a type that wouldn’t change anything fundamental in the southern labor and social systems” (97). Holt talks about how if slaves were to receive an education, it wouldn’t be one that they could grow from. Whites only gave the African Americans used books and didn’t help them to build schools or gave them many teachers, and if they did provide teachers, the teachers would say that the black students don’t have the ability to learn and belittle the African American students (Holt 101).
      - White people sometimes don’t even realize they have these advantages and don’t even realize they are oppressing others.
      - Comparing the Two:
        
        In McIntosh's text she lets her main audience of fellow professors and scholars know that at first she didn’t even realize that she oppressed others and that she didn’t know she had all of these advantages. White privilege only stood out to her when she realized that male’s oppressiveness was unconscious, then she realized that women of color have said that the white females they work with can be oppressive too (McIntosh). At first she didn’t realize it because she was unconscious of her advantages like men were to theirs.
        
        However to Lorde, she saw all the advantages and privileges white people have and had. Expressing to her main audience of fellow black communities, she showcases the anger she felt at the time. She expresses how mad she was when she realized the reality of society at the time. Her main topic for this writing is civil rights and how blacks were treated so differently back when she was growing up. She talks about the things her and her family couldn’t do during that time because of the color of their skin. She felt like white people were oblivious to white advantages and wanted to show them that it’s not right and not fair. She even expresses how she wrote a letter to the president because the laws at the time were so cruel (Lorde 242).
    - - Comparing the Two:
        
        McIntosh mentions in her text the many advantages she has because of the color of her skin. She lists unearned advantages such as criticizing the government and not being judged because of her skin color, and if she was ever pulled over it wouldn’t be because of her skin color (McIntosh).
        
        Lorde on the other hand experienced many events in her life that showed the many opportunities she didn’t get to share with white people. Based on her text, she mentions how they weren’t allowed in dining cars of the trains, how they couldn’t sleep in the same hotel of white people and had to go to their own, and that they weren’t even allowed to eat at the same diners or restaurants as white people (Lorde 240-242).
        
        Click for Peggy''s list of privileges.
      - Current day school segregation
        Schools that contain mostly minority groups don’t have good resources and teachers to provide the education needed to prepare students for college and life, because it is based on the communities they live in and the materials and money provided to them.
      - In America 2009, African American low-waged job applicants get called at half the rate as a white American with the same qualifications (Campos). In addition, white Americans who just got out of prison have a better chance at getting a job than African Americans and Latinos who have a clean record (Campos).
        Another example of this is looking at the current government officials who are high in the line. They’re all old white males. Today, “Legislative bodies, corporate leaders and educators are still disproportionately white and often make conscious choices...that keep this cycle on repeat” (Collins).
      - Minority groups can’t really grow in society because white males in power make it hard for them.
      - Conclusion
        
        Talk about how white privilege is still part of today’s conversation/society
        
        Restate thesis
    - - White privilege has been around for many many years
        
        Slavery era to now (1619)
        
        Event: "Persky had been lenient to sexual offenders in other cases, showing bias to athletes and affluent white defendants.
        
        "White privilege is the unearned advantages white people get and not having to go through the hardships that most people of color have to go through
        
        It’s “a benefit that comes with having an ‘accepted’ skin color, regardless of other factors like class or sexual orientation or gender.”
        
        “To be totally clear: white privilege is not about economic status. We're talking about the nature of someone's white skin being an advantage over brown skin or black skin because society currently values the former over the latter.”
        
        White people think it’s offensive and people of color accept the term
        
        Pre-civil rights/ Segregation and discrimination
        
        It was only after discrimination persisted for years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that people like Peggy McIntosh began to view white privilege as being more psychological—a subconscious prejudice perpetuated by white people’s lack of awareness that they held this power