What defines you?
In Tatum’s article, he starts off with discussing how identities are built off of the world around a person. The subordinate identity is people being looked down upon because they can’t perform their preferred roles. The dominant identity is where society accepts you but they’re also the ones who set the ground breaking work for the next ones up to follow. One group is being more accepted than the other by society. Tatum says, “For example, Blacks have historically been characterized as less intelligent than Whites, and women have been viewed as less emotionally stable than men. The dominant group assigns roles to the subordinate that reflect the latter’s devalued status, reserving the most highly valued roles in the society for themselves” (12). Some of born into the dominiant group wether they want that or not. But why is it that the color of somebody’s skin changes a whole outlook on them? Since they’re not white, they’re not intelligent. Since they’re a women, they’re emotionally unstable. Society built that stigma. Powell takes a stance on white privilege. He shares, “In other words, privilege is a system by which groups of people actively acquire or passively attach to reward without earning it, simply by mem- bership in privileged groups such as whites, heterosexuals, males, able- bodied persons, or a combination of these or other categories” (76). These are some of the main groups identified as privileged in today’s world. These are the ones who can be seen as taking away opportunities from some real hard working people. Being privileged is one thing but what you do with that privilege is another.
In the beginning of Powell’s article, he states, “The necessary first step is acknowledging that there is indeed white privilege, or what I prefer to call white supremacy or white racial hierarchy” (75). This is something that should be acknowledged because it’s definitely something you can’t just look past. It’s everywhere. When comparing this to my community partner program, a lot of things go through my head. I get the opportunity everyday to go to school to learn. At 19 years old, I’m on the way to graduating from a university. I’m going to be working with young adults where a lot of them don’t have an education past the 3rd or 4th grade level. Where does this place me? These people are coming from work, taking care of families, etc, just to finish their night off with a 2 hour session of school work. They’re choosing to do this in hopes of creating something for themselves. They’re doing something a lot of us couldn’t. In this sense, I would be looked at as privilege but I’m not here to rub that in anybody’s face. I’m grateful for what I have and very humbled by the people around me who go through obstacles 10x tougher than mine just to try to gain an education.
In order to work on the unequal relationship between the dominant and subordinate groups, changes needed to be made. We need to be open and willing to take everything in front of us in. By accepting one another for who we are instead of the labels we’re given would be a step in the right direction. What you do with your privilege is what truly makes the biggest difference. Use it to be a positive voice instead of being the negative voice we see in the media. The students I’m working with through my community partner are getting a chance to build something academically for themselves. Even though I have yet to start, just through the training and the information given, I can tell this program works really hard to attain to their students and really put them first.
