cht 8 post

Ricky Woodie
Ethics
Cht. 8
16 September 2007
Blog post

In chapter 8 of PPD the authors thesis is Dominant groups do not see them as being part of the problem and use privilege to get away with it. He talks about privilege people will list the advantage of not being a dominant group and say that subordinate groups are actually better off. It goes on to say how other groups would be better off if they acted a certain way. For example, whites say if blacks acted more like whites, than they would be better off. It talks about gender wars. Saying men act like women are from different cultures when they are really some the same families and life styles as themselves. He mentions how whites say that blacks would rather live with other blacks, when in reality, black would rather be integrated and whites would rather live with other whites. Whites also say color people don’t live with whites because they can’t afford it. This is also untrue. People that that claim they are not racist can be unintentionally racist. A teacher may only call on white kids in class, but not realize that she is doing so. The chapter also states that men seem to try and do what is polite for women, but never help them when they actually need something. Once again it mentions that whites claim they are good, but can be just as bad when they are silent and don’t speak out against racism. It finishes saying how whites are unaware on how privileges happen for them.

The question that I ask is would this book be written differently if it were written by either a person of color of a women? The author does a good job of arguing his thesis and supporting them with many examples, but I think he should have examples on people of color feel about the matter. Its harder to sympathizes with someone complaining about privileges, when they themselves have the same privileges.
My opinion is that I agree with him for the most part that white people try to say they are not racist or don’t take the time to see all the privileges they have. I know I some time judge girls as stuck up if they don’t acknowledge me sometimes. Or anyone in general if they never say hi to me or go out there way to talk to me I may feel that they are too cocky, but they just may be quite. When I get to talk to them I normally find out that they are not like that at all.