Teach Out Summaries

A reading titled Privilege, Power, and Difference talks about how certain individuals have power, even though they might not realize it.  A privilege is an advantage or special right that a particular group or person has.  Due to this privilege, these groups or individuals have power over others.  Groups of people or individuals have differences that cause them to have more or less power over others.  When we ignore or do not recognize that we have privilege and power, we become part of the problem that is injustice.  But, if we do recognize it we can change the way we act to disrupt the injustice.  Injustice is when a situation is morally wrong or lacks fairness.  Society has made it uncomfortable to talk about racism, white, and white racism.  We need to bring these words to the surface because if we cannot talk about them, we cannot fix them.  One step to changing the world we live in is by recognizing these things exist and acting out against them.  The author of the article shares many facts about privilege involving race, sex, sexual orientation, etc. that I will show you later.

The second reading introduces the term colorblindness.  The author is referring to “unacknowledged white privilege”.  This is when white people do not recognize the, oftentimes, unearned privilege that they have because it is not within their consciousness.  Being “white” is normalized and awards us opportunities that we otherwise might not have.  If we examine and acknowledge this privilege, we can cause discrimination discourse and begin to change the world.  You might be thinking “But, I did not mean to hurt anyone” or “I’m not being racist”.  This is why it is important to step back and look at ourselves and what privileges we have.