The word privilege, which means a benefit experienced by a person or class that is greater than what is available to others, is derived from the Latin word privilegium. While I am significantly more fortunate than I give myself credit for, watching the film on “What is Privilege?” made me aware of how privileged I do feel in some respects that I take for granted. I have some advantages, such as coming from a second generation of immigrants. Due to the fact that my parents spoke both English and Spanish when I was growing up, I was lucky enough to be able to speak, write, and read both languages before starting grade school. I never knew poverty or lacked the resources I required to grow up because both of my parents were able to pursue careers. Oppression, on the other hand, is leading a life that is not just constrained but also shaped by forces and barriers. In all honesty, the readings and video from this week made it quite clear to me that I do not live under oppression—far from it. However, I have witnessed events that I believe only ever occur as a result of the privilege that those in positions of authority have. An older man made inappropriate comments to me at a previous job , for instance, and it was really uncomfortable for me. After complaining to a supervisor, I learned that he had not been fired, and my coworkers indicated that they had overheard the older man complaining that I was flirtatious, often smiling at him, and sending him mixed signals. The way it was handled made me feel absolutely barricaded. The supervisor had the power to handle the situation correctly, so I was most shocked that she chose not to. 

I came to the conclusion that my privilege is genuine in both microscopic and macrocosmic ways as I watched the video and studied the literature. “Some people are born into families where they have to walk miles just to get water,” the girl says at the beginning of the video. It’s a blessing that all I have to do is turn on the faucet. Even if that remark should go without saying, many people’s lives lack even these basic essentials. The movie was eye-opening because I could see how each person would advance or retreat, growing more apart from one another as the female read the statements. One African American woman was the only one there in the video at the very end, and she did acknowledge how uncomfortable it was for her. The emotions that were pushed to the surface made the experience for those in the film seem uncomfortable overall, especially as the distance between the participants grew larger. Although it absolutely saddens me to see how that privilege divides us from one another, it is crucial because the first step in correcting an issue is accepting that there is one. I believe that in order for oppression to disappear, individuals who are privileged should be aware of it and make use of it to benefit others who don’t. 

Alok’s Beyond the Gender Binary emphasizes that for Alok, moving beyond the gender binary implies having to coexist in a world as someone who does not fit into the conventional gender binary. Alok delves into various concerns concerning his daily existence as a person who is glad to move beyond the gender binary. One problematic statement Alok addresses that people still believe is, “It’s common sense that everyone is a man or a woman.” The issue with this belief is that it has been regarded as the status quo for so long that, while it is not true, it has been accepted and, as a result, has been the norm for years. However, it appears that we have failed to recognize that prejudice, enslavement, and genocide were the direct result of an opinion that was widely held for a long enough period of time. 

I experience privilege by being white. I am very aware of this privilege and have noticed it even during childhood. I understand that being white means that I inherently get better treatment than non-white people. While this does not dismiss hardships that I have faced in life, I understand that my race is not a factor of my identity that causes difficulty in my life. Ways that I have been oppressed correlate with my gender. Being a woman has caused me to feel left out and limited in the past. During childhood when I was not allowed to play with the boys even though I loved to play sports and on a larger scale, during school projects and work I have been ignored and dismissed by men who felt that I wasn’t capable. Relating to my health, I experienced an incredible amount of dismissal and difficulty during my journey of getting diagnosed with endometriosis. Speaking of limitations, women’s health research and funding are extremely limited!! This has actually caused the deaths of many women but speaking from personal experience, I missed out on lots of schooling and had a major setback in my education because of the lack of care and attention from doctors. After watching the videos I better understand that privilege comes from many different factors and each individual’s privilege is unique to them because of their identity. What I did know before watching the video is that privilege essentially means advantage and people can use it in negative or positive ways. I also understand that oppression is always cruel and comes from a need to feel superior. Additionally, the video helped me better understand that ignorance is a choice and that educating yourself should be a responsibility, not something that is optional.

• In what ways do you experience privilege?

I experienced privilege when I looked for a job at age 24 in New York. I didn’t speak English or had no experience, and I would walk from restaurant to restaurant, asking if I could be a hostess or a waitress. I was hired even though there were American college graduate students and a woman of color next to me. I was shocked. One of my friends with a black associated name told me my name sounds white, so my resume might be picked up before someone else’s. I felt horrible, but it was a privilege I didn’t know was attached to me. I also recognized how privileged I was in The United States because of my European education and how much my parents invested in me. To be raised by both parents is a huge privilege!I was very privileged as an emigrant, even though I had to struggle to fit in and adjust to my new life. 

• In what ways do you experience oppression?

I felt oppressed being harassed by older men trying to be too friendly with me, I knew an opportunity would put me on a plate like a piece of meat. My mother taught me to speak up in situations like that, so I did. Men would approach me often in many ways, and I never felt comfortable and I would be scared. So I was insulting and unpleasant to them. I felt oppressed at home because I was raised with three brothers, and they were the solid structure of the family in the conversations. If they had good grades, they would be praised for intelligence and awarded. If I would get good grades, I will be a girl who studies well, as every girl should. My housework was never appreciated, and my efforts were undeniable in a household because this is what women do in Polish society. I was also treated very unfairly by my ex-husband, who wanted me to be a housewife, and I was not allowed to have male friends. He would decide if we go for a trip or if we go out that weekend or not. I had to say yes to many rules he had, and I disagreed. So I left one day …

I think privilege is when you have things that others do not have, which makes me feel that it depends also on how people value the things that they have. For example, I do think I experienced a lot of privilege in my life especially looking at those who don’t even have clothes or food to eat when I can have it easily. In my religion, they taught us to always look behind us and see how lucky we are to have things that others have to fight for in order to get them. I grew up in a poor country and wasn’t raised by my parents because they had to travel to a better country with better job opportunities to provide for us and at least for their kids to have the bare minimum. I was never mad that I didn’t have the chance to grow up with my parents because they lived in a poor country. My siblings and I were able to have the bare minimum for a living. And I also do think that I had the privilege to have healthy parents. Most of the friends that I grew up with had one parent and it was very hard for them so I was always grateful. I believe you experience oppression when you are being treated differently than others with injustice. I dealt with some oppression when I was younger due to the fact that I wasn’t raised by my parents and would get laughed at when my parents doesn’t show up to school events It didn’t really upset me since I was okay with the way I was living but it gets annoying sometimes and would instead to participate in any school activities that included parents so I would sometimes miss school and stay home, but I was so glad that mine was not as bad as other because some people would get pick a lot just because they were poor or didn’t have much clothes to wear which was very mean because some people do not choose to be the way they are and some others might even be okay with the way they are. After watching the video it makes me think that privilege comes from a lot of angles such as an advantage that they only can access due to their gender, race, age, religion, and social status. Oppression means a group of people that belittle people by using their power or what they have better than them, making them feel like they are better in a cruel way. 

Privilege means when a person has something of value that is denied to another person. From watching the video “What Is Privilege” one person defined privilege as when “some people have some thing’s and other people don’t have things”. I most definitely agree with this meaning of privilege because things that I do have could make another person who doesn’t have it less privileged than me. Watching this video made me realize that sometimes we tend to forget how privileged we are because of what social media and society to our mind have us focusing on what we don’t have and what we need. I experienced privilege by being able to eat because not many people have the opportunity to eat a meal. Having education is another privilege because many people wish they could go to school to become a doctor, lawyer, and scientist but they don’t have any access to these resources because of the environment they are in but I do.

Oppression is a situation where a person in power or groups treats others in a cruel or unjust treatment. I never experienced oppression before but I did witness people close to me who experienced systemic and institutionalized racism in many parts of the world. On vacation with my family and friends they were denied access to certain activities but those activities was available to people with more wealth. 

In some ways I feel I experience privilege by having water and food ,a roof over my head even school is a privilege. I feel privileged because I was born in the United States where I can truly achieve anything I put my mind to with of course some sort of struggle but still attainable. I say this because many people around the world do not have access to the things we do: food, water, school, even resources. I also have a supporting family even without a father figure. My mom did a great job raising us. In some ways that I feel I experience is that I am Hispanic and i come from a one parent household my mother worked day and night to provide for me my twin brother and two sisters. I also feel oppression do to me and my family living in the south Bronx in a three bedroom apartment with my mom, my grandmother and my siblings i sometimes never invited some of my friends over because i always felt that it was just a dirty area where my apartment building is i only invited over some of my friends that lived in the same area as me over because they went through the same thighs. After watching the video and doing the readings helps me define the concepts of privilege and oppression. My current definition of privilege is having easy access to things that other people don’t have easy access or just don’t have access to at all. Then the oppression definition that I believe is racism, sexism, hetero sexism lacking housing, education and healthcare. This is my definition of both privilege and oppression and I feel these both definitions that I gave also apply from the video and the readings that these are both very similar definitions.

Ivan De Los Santos

Prof. Hollis Glaser

GWS 100-1300

Discussion 4

In what ways do you experience privilege?

My understanding of this article was that even the littlest things in this world could be seen as a  privilege, such as having water and light and having things that most countries people don’t have. Before reading this article, I defined privilege as everything given to you, and I’ve always put privilege and spoiled in the same category. Still, when I heard Mcintosh’s definition, it transformed by definition by her saying privilege is what people work hard for and the benefits you get from it.

 In my life, I have been very privileged with the way I grew up. I grew up in America. Yes, in the beginning, we didn’t have much money. Still, my mother made it our mission for me never to feel like that, so in a way, I was privileged enough to be able to have somebody in my life that worked so hard for me not to be able to see how bad life was but also in America being able to have free education and accessible mode of trial because when I am in my home country, I see the difficulties people go through every day, for example, a lot of people in the Dominican Republic do not have light or Wi-Fi. I always take advantage of Wi-Fi, but this article has opened my eyes to say that I should be grateful to have Wi-Fi because many people don’t have that pleasure.

In what ways do you experience oppression?

If I’m completely honest, I’ve never experienced oppression, and there is one reason for this. When I was growing up, My routine was to go to school, and back home, I never really was outside, so the experiences that other people wanted were the same.

 How does watching this video and doing the readings help you define the concepts of privilege and oppression, and what are your current definitions?

In Mcintosh’s words, privilege is referred to advantages somebody has regarding religion, ethnicity, and location. “People without this skin tone are consequently viewed differently because it is not the dominant “skin tone.”  for example, privileges are based on the color of your skin, so if you have lighter skin, you have more privilege than somebody who has darker skin.

These videos and readings gave me a different viewpoint than I thought before these videos and readings. They have shifted my definition of privilege, and my impression of my current definition of privilege is still being determined. It says that sometimes it could be based on how you look. Also, when it comes to oppression, I didn’t have any experience with that topic, So reading the article made me see it from her experiences.