White Privilege Reflection Paper

White Privilege Reflection Paper

Christian Foy
Ivy Tech Community College

InTASC Standards Rationale Page

Standard #1: Learner Development
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development
vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs
and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
Name of Artifact:White Privilege Reflection Paper
Date:June 26, 2015
Course: EDUC 255: Multicultural Teaching
Brief Description:
I will write a reflection paper on what white privilege is, and how it is not something you can run from.
I have used 4 different resources to write this reflection paper: the text book, two different videos of Peggy
McIntosh, as well as an article from her. I will discuss what Peggy learned about herself, and white privilege in
this paper as well as how what I have learned has affected me, and what I will take from this.
Rationale:
To document my understanding of InTASC Standard 1, Learner Development, I will share what I have
learned about white privilege, and how the lens I see the world through is different from the way woman, or

White Privilege Reflection Paper

people of different cultures will see the world. The way we see the world, as well as ourselves and what we
subconsciously learn affects us socially and emotionally.

INTRODUCTION
The way I see life and experience the world is different from the way my friends will see life, and
experience the world. Yes, we all see colors; we are all able to see shapes and wonders, and yes, we can
experience the same amazing feelings and thrills such as sledding down a hill on the perfect winter day. But
what we cannot experience is what it would be to live life in a different lens. White privilege is the ability to
grow up and believe that racism only exist in individual acts of meanness, and is not an invisible system
conferring dominance on my group. White privilege is the ability to not have people double check everything
you say just because of the color of your skin. Peggy McIntosh said I have come to see white privilege as an
invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day.
RESOURCE SUMMARIES
I learned about white privilege from four different recourses. The first recourse I used was my textbook
where I learned how racism is not something you can hide from. It is not something you can ignore; racism is
all around us. Even if we are nice to everyone no matter the race, and claim to be colorblind towards the color
of ones skin and treat everyone equally, race will still play apart in our thinking, and decision making because
of the lens that we see society through. The textbook explains that the reason white people cannot see, or
experience life the same way a minority will experience their life is because white people are in the position of
power, thus are considered the norm.
The other three resources all come from a lady named Peggy McIntosh. The first sources I used from
Peggy McIntosh was a YouTube video where Peggy McIntosh listed all of the privileges she experiences she
could think of were money or government are not related. In her longer video How Studying Privilege Systems
Can Strength Compassion, Peggy McIntosh dives deeper into her history of why she began to study white
privilege and how white privilege affects her and changes the way she thinks. Peggy talked about how the

White Privilege Reflection Paper

white privilege affects white people the way man privilege affects men. You never notice it unless you are on
the receiving end of it. Peggy realized that despite some of the men she knew and worked with being really
nice guys, these men were oppressive to women without even realizing it. Peggy gives another example of
white privilege, comparing her white privilege to a bank account that will refill every day. She talks about how
if she were to be pulled over, there is a really great chance she will get out of a ticket because she is a little old
white lady who speaks soft.
In Peggys article, she talks again about how she uses men privilege to understand white privilege better. Men
do not understand that they are being oppressive, and began to realize that the black woman who wrote about
white women being oppressive in 1977 might have been telling the truth that she was just blind to. Peggy
mentions how she does realize white privilege is a problem that is not easy to fix. She shares how women want
men to give up some of our men privilege in order for women to become equal, but asked what white privileges
was she willing to give up in order to become more equal?
PERSONAL REFLECTION/OPINION
Before this chapter, I never heard of white privilege. I knew there was racism in the world, and that there are
certain things I am unable to do, or that I should not do because of how it will reflect on me. This knowledge of
racism, and me not being able to do things that my white friends would do is due to the lens I have grown up.
Growing up, I grew up as the only black child in almost all of my classes. When I was in Minnesota, my sister
and I were the first black children our classmates had ever seen. This happened a while ago so I do not
remember all of the details, but my mom would tell me that the kids would rub my skin, or wash my hands for
me because they thought that my blackness would just rub right off. When I grew older, and even changed
states, I was still the only black kid in my grade. My mom would always warn and tell me if my friends are
doing anything they could get in trouble such as fireworks, playing ding dong ditch, or anything that could get
them in trouble I should always call her and have her come pick me up no matter where we are or how bad the
situation is because if they are caught, or someone tells on us my mother told me that I would be in more
trouble than the rest of my friends because I was black. If that didnt scare me enough, she told me how she
would punish me on top of what ever trouble I was in with my friends.

White Privilege Reflection Paper

Growing up in schools where I was often the only black child, I had very little interaction with other people of
my race. This article talks about how white children are always taught that they are the norm, and how we
should not trust people who do not look white. Although no one ever said you can trust all white people, and
people from other races should not be trusted I feel like it was still implied. Our teachers would show us
videos and talk to us about stranger danger. Our teacher would show us pictures of random people who could
kidnap us, or people who might save and help us. The irony to this was that the people who would kidnap us
were always wearing suits, or dressed nice while the people who might help us were always rougher looking,
not as well dressed white guys. During the people who would save us, I do not remember one black person. I
remember seeing an Asian, a white guy, and even an Indian. But I did not see one person of African descent.
This subconscious teaching was really obvious with in my family. Later in life when my brother was about 5,
and I was 11 my mom would often leave my siblings and I in the car while she grabbed a quick item from the
grocery store or went inside a gas station. My family realized how if there were black people around, My
brother would always lock the car door, or be more scared as opposed being in a neighborhood with more white
people.
One thing that really stood out in Peggys list of privileges she has for being white was I can be pretty
sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for
advancement than to jeopardize mine. One reason this stuck out to me is because I was thinking of how my
mom will want to argue with one certain lady at her job who was constantly getting under her skin, but couldnt
because she knew that even if she won the argument, it would look bad on her as opposed to the other lady.
Being a black man in elementary education, I feel like I constantly fighting white privilege because
everyone who is around me whether they are my class mates or professors, are white females. You are my first
minority professor I have had in my 3 years of being in college.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Peggy McIntoshs insight and view on white privilege is unique because she is writing and educating
people from the view of someone who is privileged side. What makes her paper so unique is because telling

White Privilege Reflection Paper

others, and acknowledging the existence of white privilege will not help her in anyway. In her paper Peggy
McIntosh said I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he
is the only member of his/her race. When a minority gives a speech, or writes an article about how unfair
white people are, white people are able to just ignore it, but because this paper is coming from someone who is
white, and explains this in a way that is easy to understand, other white people can be more inclined to learn and
realize that racism is still real and alive in todays society.

REFERENCE PAGE
McIntosh, P. (n.d.). Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Retrieved June 27, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRnoddGTMTY
"How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion": Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools.
(n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BY9UEewHw
Tiedt, P., & Tiedt, I. (1979). Multicultural teaching: A handbook of activities, information, and resources.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon

White Privilege Reflection/Opinion Paper Grading Rubric

White Privilege Reflection Paper

Category
Title Page

Points

Points

Possible
2

Earned

InTASC Standards Page

Introduction

Summary of the 4 resources used (textbook, article, Youtube, TED

12

Talk)
Personal Reflection/Opinion

12

Summary/Conclusion

Mechanics - In-Text Citations, Grammar

Reference Page

Titled and saved properly

-3

Total points

50