Obionservations from this week's readings

My blog for this week is about as unenthusiastic as it has ever been. I acknowledge that some of the passion of expressing my thoughts is primarily based on the enthusaism that comes from that which I read, feel, see and/or sense from topics I cover. However, this weeks readings, especially Chapter 9, left me with more questions than answers.

Two of this week's readings captured my attention, however. The first was the article by Peggy McIntosh on, "White Privledge and Male Previlage...," which I first read and wrote extensively on during my undergraduate course work for a Women's Studies class. She captured my attention then and now due to the candid way in which she expressed her opinions about her'unspoken' privilages in society and I really admired her for her candidness.

I have had many debates with colleagues at school and at work regarding her stance. It was my belief then, and now that McIntosh conveyed in this article what many white people would like undoubtedly to suppress: That almost every social, economic, religious or historic outcome which takes place in this society, with respect to human interaction and coexistence, is dictated and determined by how it impacts the predominant group in our society; that,
1. white privilage permeates through everything we do and has a negative or positive impact
2. determines who wins and who losses and how
3. is contingent upon whether this group is willing to defer some of that privilege in order to advance the subsequent privilage of other groups and enable them to rise -- in otherwords, even the playing field for the rest of society.
4. or reject the opportunity for advancement of other groups (despite power, money, position, etc.) and pretend that white privilege has no impact at all.

It has been my experience that we continue to muddy the waters, downplay the facts, change the rules when they no longer fit the outcomes of the predominant players and ignore the unwritten rules of the game instead of dealing with the basic center of our conflict.

Interestingly enough, I did manage to enjoy reading the second article on, "Working at Walmart," by Barbara Ehrenreigh. Ironically, I ordered and received her book called, "Nickled and Dimed," about a week ago and intended to read it during spring break.

The irony of her article is that she too has been able to use white priviledge in a way that would never have worked for any other group in that she is able to pass herself off as a poor wage worker of the lower classes in order to analyze their activity for her book. How has it worked? No one can dispute that she was able to get a job (any job she wanted) due to this privilege, Would it have been so easy for an African-American, an Asian, a Hispanic to walk through the door of Walmart (any hotel or even choose to work for a bakery, at will)?

I draw a parallel between the two articles in that though they came to the same conclusion (white priviledge does matter) the difference between her research and that of MacIntosh is that, MacIntosh uses her article to make a point that she acknowledges how her privilege helps her in self-pursiuts while Ehrenreich uses hers to reveal some of the harsh realities of being poor in America. Those of us who have comfortable homes, drive nice cars and work for higher wages or salaries probably had no idea how hard it is (or do they care?) for the the working-class and the poor.

I must admit, that even I had no idea how hard and uncertain things are for our fellow citizens and probably would never had known had my business not taken me in a direction where I now come face to face with poverty and human suffering. Sure, we may want to sit back and say things like, "these people need to get more education, find better employment, return home to parents, or stop being lazy." The fact of the matter is that many of the working poor today are continually former employees of large corporations who have been laid off and downsized over the past few years. More than one million people lost their jobs in 1999, and more than 101,000 have lost their jobs since the start of the new year. I guess my point is, that we all must be careful of how we analyze things and come to the solutions we do in this life. Neither privilege or opportunity will save us from a society where corporate greed, corruptness, unchecked government power and employee/employer relationship demise are the only topics of discussions we can look forward to.

Our jobs may be our safe-net today, but we could very easily wind up like some of the people cited in Ehrenreich's article. I viewed the articles with renewed strength in my belief that whatever path my leadership takes me in my career, I will always remember to plan wisely.