Help Wanted

[Starling2003]

I'm a little embarrassed to ask for help on something that may sound "trivial" but it's for my master's program and I just can't get it right. It is stressing me out, brought me to tears. I do not think I done what I need to do...could someone read the following and just let me know if it sounds like I am addressing the question asked by my professor? I don't think I wrote it right and I'm freaking out.

Thanks......I'm really in a pickle....

Question: How does my identity, power and privilege affect my perspective of others and my practice as a social worker? Through this paper, students will explore how their historic, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds as well as their status of power and privilege, influence their understanding of others.

My paper:

As often as my family and friends tell me that I “think too much” or I “analyze” things to death, I do not often find myself reflecting on my own identity. Even though there are times where I do self-analyze, I do so on a micro level, mostly reflecting on my actions and my upbringing to determine why I act, or perhaps think, the way that I do. Rarely do I think of my identity in regards to such factors as ethnicity, gender, or class. Nor do I often associate privileges that I have with success, instead focusing on the hard work that I have done. However, as an aspiring social worker, knowing what cards I bring to the table and how each card affects what I do, is crucial in having the ability to effectively work with others. So I invite you to take this journey with me, to retrace some steps, and to explore the question of, “How does my identity, power and privilege affect my perspective of others and my practice as a social worker?”

The year is 1991 and my family and I are in Mexico, living in a motor home. Although not a luxury motor home like the ones we see today with all the bells and whistles, it sure did beat having to sleep in a tent. My memories of Mexico include standing in line for fresh tortillas, drawing water from a well, eating mangos, and knowing that no one else around us had an indoor toilet. I also remember my family being robbed. Looking back at this in regards to who I am today, I ponder the reason for this occurrence. Did having a motor home make us look wealthy? Or was it because we were white? Would another family of darker skin have faced the same fate? And what did living in a motor home and having white skin mean to those who robbed us that night? In retrospect, what it comes down to are privileges.

One of my favorite definitions of privilege is by Peggy McIntosh from her article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” in which she describes privilege as “an invisible package of unearned assets (1988). Alison Bailey, in “Privilege: Expanding on Marilyn Frye‘s “Oppression” adds on to this by distinguishing between assets; “(unearned) privilege and (earned) advantages” (2008). Privileges, whether we recognize it or not, are a part of our every day lives as they are a part of us. Having certain privileges can indicate that the goals that one has, will be easier to attain, even if this is not recognized or considered. One often only looks at what they do or do not do, in regards to whether or not they attain a goal. In reality, some have privileges that offer an advantage over others in regards to reaching goals more quickly and possibly with less effort. Being white for example, is an unearned privilege, which holds with it many advantages: access to more resources, social acceptance, less discrimination in various aspects of our lives. “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions (McIntosh, 1988).” Not being able to see these privileges just indicates that we are unaware.

Although I was unaware of it at the time, our “privilege” was showing when we were in Mexico. I walk around with this privilege every day, the privilege of being white. In Mexico this was even more noticeable-most everyone notices the things that are different from them more often than the things that are the same. Even if we do not recognize our privileges or even believe we have them, those around us who do not have the same privilege, often see what we cannot. Peggy McIntosh has this to say about white privilege: “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege” (1988). “Most privilege is invisible to or not recognized as such, by those who have it” (Baily, 1998).

Our skin tone and English speaking tongue stood out in a poor Mexican town and screamed, “We are rich, and you are poor.” The truth was far from this. My mother did not work, and my father had mostly held random, blue collared jobs. My mother immigrated to the United States from Finland when she was nineteen and neither of my parents have a college degree. To make things more difficult for them, there were four of us kids at the time. Yet in Mexico, our skin and language told another story, a story of privilege.

Patricia Hill Collins, in “Race, Class, and Gender,” points out how we need to understand that race, class, and gender effects individuals in various ways. The Matrix of Domination approach as also discussed by Collins, “see(s) social structure as having multiple, interlocking levels of domination that stem from the societal configuration of race, class, and gender relations” (p. 4). So then depending on the situation that we are in, we may have an advantage due to our race but at the same time, may have a disadvantage due to our gender. I believe that this also plays hand in hand with privileges. In some situations our privileges are an advantage to us while in other cases, a disadvantage (such as being a white person in Mexico).

I have an education. I am able-bodied. My first language was English. Most of the holidays I celebrate our recognized as such where I live. I am white. These are privileges that I have that those of other ethnicities may not benefit from. However, I too have struggled with feeling oppressed or discriminated against for various reasons. I have been laughed at due to my stutter, criticized because of my choices. When I have gone to car dealerships, the salesmen automatically turn to my significant other. As a female, what could I possibly know about cars? Or the time my car broke down and every man that stopped to help asked me if I had run out of gas, and even when I responded no, some of them had to check to make sure?

Perhaps some of the things I have mentioned appear trivial compared to the ways in which others have been oppressed, or the disadvantages they have due to lack of privileges. However, as a social worker, my experiences have given me the ability to emphasize with others. Not that my circumstances are the same, but that I am keenly aware of the difficulties that exist when you are “different” in some way. It is all the worse when the difference is something that you cannot change, such as gender or race (or that one stutters). Race, gender, and class has been categorized by society, deeming some “less” human than others.

After our experience of being robbed in Mexico, we moved to Alaska. My father said he would rather, “fight bears than Mexicans.” After about a year living in Seward, my parents moved my siblings and me (five of us now) to a small island on the Aleutian Chain. When we de-boarded the plane, there were only strange faces staring back at me. Faces with brown skin. At the time, I did not understand that we were intruding. Apart from the school teacher and his family, and one other adult, we were the only Caucasians in the village. Only a few generations before, during World War II, Aleuts were forced from their homes to other parts of Alaska due to attacks by Japan. Caucasians who lived on the Aleutian Chain were not forced to leave but the Aleut people had to abandon their homes and were forced to live in camps that lacked medical care and adequate supplies (Umnak: the People Remember, p 65). Was it any wonder that when we arrived, we were not allowed to stray onto their land? Or that once again, our skin color screamed out, only this time it said, “Intruder! Native Hater!

We were guilty by association. The power that the white man had abused only a couple of generations ago that had caused such havoc in their lives had not been forgotten. Once again we were seen as “those privileged white people” and once again, we were in their territory. It took quite a while before we were truly accepted into the community to where we were no longer deemed an outsider or another “power hungry white person.” Yet through integrating with the Native culture, through respecting differences, we were able to stand on mutual ground within the community.

My experience once again, was as a minority in a culture setting very different from my own. Such experiences though has allowed me as a social worker to have a high respect for cultural differences, as well as the opinion that race and culture only become barriers if we let them. Growing up in a village taught me the value of other traditions and the equality of traditions, though they are different from each other. I also gained the understanding of power, of the ability for it to be abused. In the village, once we were a part of the community, we no longer had “white” restrictions placed on us. We could walk on their land as well as hunt, fish; join them in celebrations as family. This experience and others like them throughout my life have taught me that power can either be used for good, or it can be used for selfish, hateful reasons. It is also often abused due to ignorance, or due to lack of concern for others.

Privileges and power have the tendency to put one human being above another. Instead of everyone having the same opportunities in life, we can be hindered because our race, gender, or class, do not meet the requirements for obtaining privileges. We can also find ourselves in a position of being oppressed by those around us. Respect for all people, cultures, and traditions should be the privileges each of us have from those around us; this should be a given. And power, something that each of us should have in regards to being successful in our own lives, without including the oppression of others to obtain this success.

[MSW13]

This was an interesting paper to read! You've had some pretty fantastic experiences that are great examples to tap into. You mentioned some good things, I think. For instance, you spoke about your privilege as a white, non disabled person and that this privilege is ever present. You also mentioned that dont always feel this privilege because you also experience the other end of the spectrum as far as social class and your stutter and being female--all points that can bring both oppression and exclusion.

I'm sorry, I am not a masters student so I dont think I would be the best person to critique your paper. I would only suggest that you go through it one more time because I did notice some spelling errors. As well, you start off saying that you are not really aware of your identity but as you continue, you actually do talk about how you see yourself.. Perhaps you could rephrase that a bit to indicate that this course has prompted you to investigate what your social location really is??

Good luck!

[Starling2003]

Thank you very much for yur thoughts!