Milwaukee Combats Racism
Heade Photo: Miller, Matt. “White Privilege: What Does It Really Mean?”
Dorothy Roberts, an American sociologist, law professor, and social justice advocate defines race: "race is a political category that has been disguised as a biological one" (Francis, pg. 455). This connects us to white privilege as race isn't biological, we are all born the same and the only thing differing us is the pigment of our skin. Nobel Laureate Sir Arthur Lewis, in his book Racial Conflict and Economic Development, explains how dominant groups stay on top in a racial sense, "he described how dominant groups maintain their social hierarchy positioning by rendering subordinate groups noncompeting" (Chelwa, pg. 380). In other terms, as soon as the less dominant group catches up the dominant group chooses to change the game to stay on top. This connects back to white privilege as the reason those who are white remain the dominant group is because they have led the game and have changed the rules to stay there.
Photo: Chuchu, Jim. “All Oppression Is Connected.”
When considering why Milwaukee County Executives decided racism could be considered a public health crisis, it is as well important to understand other underlying issues of racism as a whole. One of these underlying issues is white privilege.
The term white privilege was first coined by Peggy McIntosh in her 1988 paper White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. She described white privilege in terms of "the unspoken advantage that the dominant culture has over people of color" (“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' and 'Some Notes for Facilitators"). Atlin Cuncic, a mental health author with a degree in psychology from the University of Western Ontario, describes this:
power, benefits, and other advantages are distributed in unequal
ways among the different groups in society. Specifically, concerning white privilege, the advantage rests with white people ("What is White Privilege?").
The given definition shows how white privilege stems from the inequality of others. Peggy McIntosh is a Senior Research Scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women and a known anti-racism activist, she discovered how she had missed how she is an unknown oppressor of racism, inspiring her famous paper on white privilege.
McIntosh starts her realization of this by sharing how as a white person she was taught about racism “as something that 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" (“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' and 'Some Notes for Facilitators'"). McIntosh discovered that she thinks that just as men are taught not to recognize their male privilege, those who are white are taught to not recognize their privilege. McIntosh being a women's researcher has the knowledge of the extent of men not understanding their privilege and found a common factor between male privilege and white privilege. When you have the extra privilege that you are taught to ignore, much of your oppressiveness is unconscious (“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' and ``Some Notes for Facilitators").
This relation has caused McIntosh to understand and see why those who are white can be seen as oppressive, even when they do not see themselves that way. She began to think and count numerous ways she was blindly privileged due to the lightness of her skin.
Second Photo: Cote, Karla Ann. "The Problem With “Privilege” Talk."
Third Photo: Myers, Erin. "Inclusive Fitness Streaming—Accessibility, Diversity, and Fitness For All."
Fourth Photo: “Understanding White Privilege, Systemic Racism and Implicit Bias.”
