In her article, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack", Peggy McIntosh describes the unconscious domination over others that supports an oppressive system of power, felt and understood uniquely by those it oppresses, while those in positions of dominance remain ignorant of their privileged status. While she notes that this unconscious dominance is evident in the various privileges that some are able to enjoy, mainly white people in comparison to people of color, she also points out that men enjoy a disproportionate amount of domination over women, regardless of skin color.
I agree with most of the author's points and feel that she did a great job of summarizing the privileges that white people take for granted. I was especially glad to see the list of privileges, many of which I had never thought of before, which only proves her point - that we are so unaware of our privileges and the systemic ways in which privileges are conferred. Reading her article, I couldn't help but wonder what could be done to change this system, with the end result being that people of all color are comfortable in our society and are incorporated into it so thoroughly that skin color becomes as irrelevant as hair color. McIntosh's only suggestion is to become more aware of unearned privileges, but does not offer us anything else to answer my question. I agree that if all white men in the world realized they weren't entitled to their unearned power that the world would be a better place for everyone else, but how do we as a society go about deconstructing a system which reinforces domination based on appearances and the need for superiority over others?
Privilege in regards to the spread of diseases is obvious to me. Why are so many people with HIV/AIDS in developing countries having to go without antiretroviral drugs while we here in privileged America can expect them? Why are black women more likely to die from cervical and breast cancer than white women? Because of unequal access to healthcare and health information. Even within the U.S., we saw in class the charts showing the distribution of various STI's, with the highest proportion often being in the Southern states where the largest proportion of African Americans live.
I think larger systems of oppression should be addressed when talking about sexual health because these systems are barriers to sexual health. Understanding how such systems affect access to healthcare and health information will help public health officials understand how to improve the health of communities that are oppressed because of their race, sex, class, or some other social marker.
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I agree that all issues with systems of oppression should definitely be resolved when dealing with health issues because nothing good ever comes from it. It's especially interesting that you asked why black women are more likely to die from cervical and breast cancer than white women. It's not because of racism per se... But they are more at risk and more likely to be unaware of the risks or treatments for diseases because these groups (including minorities) are not generally included in health-related media commercials and ads (since many health commercials depict mostly white individuals). It kind of has the same concept as ageism, like we talked about in class with Jennifer Jabson.
ReplyDeleteI think that you raise a good point about STI's and how this un equal distribution of "benefits" per se but i also think that racism and sexism and all the other "isms" aren't just created by the oppressor. They are also spread by the ones being oppressed as well. But i do believe these systems need to be dismanteled in order for the health of society.
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