When Implicit Bias Becomes Privilege...

When Implicit Bias Becomes Privilege...

What color dress is Mrs. Obama wearing in this picture?


This picture featuring Michelle Obama was published with a caption saying that she wore a "flesh-colored" dress. Are they implying that Michelle's skin is not flesh? I don't think so, but this is an example of the privilege of being white; white skin is considered normal/flesh-colored.  This is just one of many privileges of being white in a culture that sees white as normal, desirable or better than other "colors".  This type of privilege is often unnoticed, subconscious, implicit.  But, it has a big impact.
Here is another example from Johnson and Johnson.  Note that the bottle says, "Normal to Darker skin," implying that there is normal skin and then there is darker skin which is implicitly abnormal. And, here are some privileges related to Christmas.  Some sociologists call these subtle nudges of racism microaggressions.  Here are 25 microaggressions from buzzfeed.






Sociologist Peggy McIntosh writes about White Privilege in her essay, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.
In class instructions:

Please read through McIntosh's reading and choose one of the numbered privileges to respond to.  Take out a sheet of paper and write down which privilege you are responding to.  Things to consider: Have you ever thought about this before?  Why do you think McIntosh considers this a "privilege"?  Can you see this type of privilege happening in your day to day life?  

Here is an example of implicit bias from the NY Times about Baltimore and the Texas biker fight.

When you're accustomed to privilege, equality sounds like oppression.  From Chris Boeskool of Huffington Post.


Privilege does exist and it's measurable.  From Michael Harriot of The Root who explains the ways privilege shows up in education, employment, income, spending.


Robin DiAngelo, author of What Does it Mean to Be White and White Fragility; Why It's So Hard for  White People to Talk about Racism published this op-ed about White Privilege.  Here is a journal article about White Fragility.


Here is an example from Sociological Images of how white privilege shows up even when discussing racism.

This article from Contexts explains how the approach to drug problems change when the victims are middle class and white.

Teaching Tolerance explains white privilege here.

National Seed Project explains it here:
https://nationalseedproject.org/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack

Finally, this video called Slip of the Tongue uses slam poetry to explore how one girl stands strong to embrace her identity
without giving in to popular pressure to change who she is.

This 2018 Study by Harvard economist Nathaniel Hendren shows that there is a dramatic difference for American males who are black and growing up in a top quintile household vs. American males  who are black and growing up in a top quintile household.