Examples and Privileges

The first of my three examples is from the Black male checklist and it’s “When I read African American History textbooks, I will learn mainly about black men.” I can see where this notion comes from. I remember in middle school we had assigned reading, and most of the books we read had to do with white male main characters. I can see this being the same with someone who reads African American literature. An example from the Heterosexual checklist that appealed to me was “ I can legally marry the person I love.” I do have that privilege and sometimes it’s easy to forget the struggle that so many other people have to go through because a state refuses their approval. Makes me feel grateful for the already circumstances, but motivates me more to be involved in the GLTB community, so that is finally something we can both equally celebrate. An example from the Male Privilege that caught my eye was “If I seek political office, my relationship with my children, or who I hire to take care of them, will probably

Not be scrutinized by the press.” This is very interesting to me, because it makes me think of Sarah Palin and all of the bad press she got about her personal life and family. Makes me wonder if it were a male in that position if it would even matter as much. This is just making me think of all the growing pains of equality that are still present in politics.

1.I will be more successful in acting because it’s easier for woman to pull emotion

2. I am not offered certain scholarships because I am white.

3.I am classified as ethic because of my dark features

4.If I wear a thong to the pool I am slut.

5.I will not walk by myself in a parking garage because I am woman.

The first privilege I listed has to do with acting in film, and theatre, and speech. It seems like woman are constantly more successful in the roles they play because of the abilities to channel “real” emotion to the audience. Time and time again in speech woman are winning first place in the acting events, because of how well they can portray emotion, tears, and headache. Very rarely is it when a male wins because of his ability to do all of those over a woman. When it does happen, people are wowed. The second one I wanted to talk about made me think about when I was a senior applying to schools. It was imperative for me to get whatever scholarships I could. My teachers gave websites and guides to where you can find them. I remember getting stressed out because the numerous amounts of scholarships that only pertained to an African American descent. There were so many cool one ‘s I wish I could do, but I couldn’t because I am white. Not to say there wasn’t any for white females, but the ones that seemed the most interesting and enjoyable were restricted from me.

My third checklist is something that has really stuck out to me since I transferred this fall from South Florida. I can’t even tell you how many times since I’ve been here that I have been out at a bar and some man has come up to me and asked me what ethnicity I am, because I have super dark hair and dark eyes. I understand those features are not dominant here, but I get comments like “ What island are you from, what country are your parents from, are you Spanish, Latino ect ect.” I find none of that offensive but I never got asked that so much until I moved here. The fourth ties into the third. It is very normal to see thong bathing suits on woman at the beach or at pools in South Florida. I believe it’s because there are so many people down there from different cultures and countries where nudity is more exceptional. Here it’s quite different, considering the reactions I got from people over summer when I wore just a bikini (not thong) cut bathing suit. Won’t be doing that again till I go home. The last one I think is one that all women are privileged too. Parking garages can be very scary, and there are so many instances where woman have been abducted. I can relate to a place I used to work at. It was a policy for no woman to walk to their car without escort from one of the male employees. Now I can recall times being frustrated because of having to get out of there for whatever reason. But in the end it’s something I’m thankful for.