main post 9/23

The reading “The Masters tools will never dismantle the Master’s House” by Audre Lorde is one of the few articles we have read that takes a critical look at feminism. Audre Lorde is a black lesbian. She spends a majority of the time talking about how feminism is really only from the wealthy white women’s perspective. She explains that” Differences in race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.” A prime example is the conference that she is speaking at only has two black women and they were found at the last hour. Lorde also talks about the conference lacking the perspective of lesbian women and women from third world counties consequently leaving a serious gap in the conference. In order to make a real change women have to unite if they really want to see results. “ As women we have been taught either to ignore differences or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change.” Why are wealthy white women the only ones to attend feminists conferences when poor women and women of color clean their house and take care of their children. When seeking political change it is important to garner the perspective of ALL women. Larde talks about how white feminists have educated themselves a great deal the past ten years but no time was spent educating themselves about black women. Black and white women have fundamental differences, which is “key to our survival as a movement.”

The article “White Privilege” by Peggy Mcintosh was the other reading for class. This article states how whites and males are taught to not recognize their social status and privilege. Judging by this then most oppressive behavior is unconscious, which is why women of color sometimes feel, oppressed by white women. I found the quote “ White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes tools, and blank checks.” To be hilarious obviously this is an exaggeration but gets the point of white privilege across. I shared the quote with a few of my white teammates and they automatically got defensive and said that they to had endured hardships and life was not all peaches and cream for them. I found the list to also be very interesting and as I was reading through I couldn’t help but think about how many of these did not apply to my family or me. I think the last one sums the list up well “ I will feel welcomed and normal in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.” I cannot say this is true for me I can think of a number of examples where I have felt uncomfortable or out of place many of those examples coming while I have been at Colgate. In order to “ Redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions.” We cannot begin to change as a society if those who are in power a have privilege do not even realize it. These people are faced with a difficult task if life is easier for them and most of the people that are close to them then what is their incentive to change?