I chose to not mention race or ethnicity in my first blog post, because I guess I did not fully understand the prompt. I don't think I discussed any traits. However, if I did, my Nigerian ethnic background is something I would've mentioned because with that description, explains so much of who I am, my morals, my culture, my lifestyle, etc. I consider my race to be amongst the non-dominant group in the country I am from, thus coming with many disadvantages and challenges.
My reaction to “Unpacking the Knapsack of Privilege” was that I agreed with everything the author wrote about white privilege and how it is similar to male privilege. I never realized, however, that white students growing up weren't explicitly taught to be the oppressor; but in some ways it was already known to them based on external societal roles.
“Who am I” relate to dealing with the pressures of matching the dominant culture. I was a victim of skin bleaching back in early high school. But in my case, I wasn't bleaching to become white, I was bleaching because I understood that being of a lighter skin tone put you at an advantage in many aspects of life.
One fact that stood out was "Race is a modern idea: ancient societies did not divide people according to physical differences, but according to religion, status, class, and even language." I found this interesting because I've always known race to be an important ideal and divider that I jus always assumed that that's how it has been since the beginning of time. So it was refreshing to discover that that wasn't the case.
I think white children may not realize the privilege that they are raised in and thus take it for granted. It is true like you said that external societal roles play a big part in how come to play in the dominant role in America. What you said about having lighter skin tone is so true, even in cultures around the world. If you look at India's Bollywood movie industry, most all leading female roles have significantly lighter, almost white, skin compared to majority of Indian women. It's amazing how this western view of lighter has spread across the world and even affected the youth of America. Maybe someday we will relapse back to not dividing people into categories based on this thing called "race".
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