White privilege is a new term for
me. I read about it in an excerpt from a paper by Peggy McIntosh, and it really
opened my eyes. As a white person who grew up in a white suburban school
district, I was never overtly taught about the privileges I have as a white citizen
of the United States. Situations similar
to my own are what continue to perpetuate the colorblindness in an educational
setting, because the majority of teachers are white middle class females. Which
I just so happen to fall into this category.
Since reading McIntosh’s except and
now including Desai’s article I have been struggling to educate myself more on
these topics, because I want to stop the perpetuation of colorblindness, white
privilege, assimilation and everything else that relates to my pedagogy. In my
efforts I have found very little by searching the internet and library. White
privilege is a very pushed under the rug topic. So, I have come to the
realization that in order to become anti-racist I need to step outside of my comfort
zone and get involved with other ethnic groups. I am fortunate to be in a university
that provides those opportunities, despite its lack of diversity. I have decided that the best route for education
is through clubs and other various activities that relate to or focus on
different ethnicities. While doing this I also plan on educating myself more on
my own race and culture in order to be able to recognize the differences and
advantages between my ethnicity and others.
In my search for more information
on white privilege I have stumbled upon the Un-Fair Campaign. The Un-Fair
Campaign started in 2011 by a committee in the YWCA of Duluth, Minnesota and a
local advertising agency that created the campaign’s graphics and aided in
naming the campaign. Their mission is, “To raise awareness about white
privilege in our community, provide resources for understanding and action, and
facilitate dialogue and partnership that result in fundamental, systemic change
towards racial justice.” The graphic art of their posters stirred up controversy
in Duluth. Regardless of the controversy that arose from the posters, their
message was still heard.
I hope that in the future my small contribution
to art education might have helped in developing a post-racial era like the
movement started by the Un-Fair Campaign. I believe that through art education this
is possible; because of the possibility for freedom of expression, where other
subject areas in first and secondary education would deem such a topic as inappropriate.
Teaching about topics like the deconstruction of stereotypes in visual media is
important, because students of this age are being exposed to all sorts of
stereotypes in popular culture. So, as a future educator I feel as if it is my responsibility
to teach students about how to deconstruct the stereotypes in and outside of
popular culture. I also believe that when minority students are shown that
their ethnicity is just as important as the majority that they will become more
interested and excited about their education. Which I believe is the main goal
for most educators for all their students both minority and majority.
Poster 2: http://unfaircampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Un-Fair_Poster_8x11-2.pdf
References
Desai, D.(2010). The challenge of New Colorblind Racism in Art Education. Retreived fromhttps://cms.psu.edu/section/default.asp?id=201314SPUP%5F%5F%5FRA%5FED%5F212%5F001
McIntosh, P. (1988). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies. Wellesley, MA:Wellesley College Center for Research on Women
Un-Fair Campaign. Retrieve from http://unfaircampaign.org/ .
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