Search results for privilege

Yesterday Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for President.  In the cartoon below, syndicated cartoonist Gordon Campbell compares Powell to Benedicte Arnold, a general in the American Revolutionary War who defected to the British Empire.  So, Powell’s endorsement makes him a traitor.   Comments after the image.

As Rob Tornoe discusses at Politicker, this feeds into the idea that Obama isn’t a real American and, accordingly, neither is Powell.  That this is about skin color is revealed by the fact that he put Arnold in blackface. and uses the term “Race Patriot.”  The implication is, Powell is endorsing Obama because he’s black and that’s treason (i.e, anti-white and therefore anti-American).

It also speaks to white privilege and a phenomenon I’ve seen elsewhere during this election.  It is white privilege to be able to vote for Obama without your endorsement being attributed to the color of your skin.

(Found via Jezebel.)

In this election, no one wants to be “elitist.” You know, the kind of person who went to an Ivy League, speaks perfect English, and avoids processed foods like high-fructose corn syrup.

Ben O. sent us these two ads, made by the Corn Refiners association, in which two historically marginalized groups–women and blacks–get it over on historically privileged groups–men and whites respectively–by exposing their obsessive-health-food-mania. Ben writes:

…the implication is that critics of [high-fructose corn syrup] HFCS are privileged (white and/or male) people who are condescending to inform black and/or female people that HFCS is bad, although they’re not only paternalistic but ignorant. And in both ads, standing up for the supposed virtues of high-fructose corn syrup appears to be an empowering action.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxH[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ-ByUx552s[/youtube]

Nice observation, Ben!

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Can’t make this stuff up.  See also this post on white privilege.

(From Skin Coloured.)

In this nine and a half minute clip, Tim Wise describes the way in which race was invented by elites in early America in order to divide and conquer the working class… and is still used to do so.

Found here via Alas A Blog.

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

This quick video presents an American and a Swedish military recruitment commercial back-to-back.

Our member blogger, Wendy, who is writing her dissertation on the military, had this to say:

The most striking difference between these ads to me is what these commercials choose to show and what they don’t show to recruit new members.

The Marines’ commercial focuses on the duty, bravery, glory, honor aspects of service. And this is entirely focused inward– toward the Marines and the country’s goals (and in that order– Marines’ loyalties are to “unit, Corps, God and country” in that order). Where is the “other” in this commercial (that is such a part of the Sweden commercial)? Who is the “for honor” for? Who is the “for courage” for? It seems implicitly to be to the corps.

This is right in line with most Marine discourse. All of their recruitment info is the same– the focus is on the corps, and on the highly specialized ways Marines serve. As a popular Marine slogan says “The USMC: When it absolutely, positively must be destroyed overnight.”

And the Swedish commercial is even more fascinating. There is no focus on the actual members of the Nordic Battlegroup. Instead it is all about everyday people– both in Sweden and in countries experiencing conflict. The focus is on the privilege of living in a country not at war (”everybody’s everyday is not like ours”).

The images of war in this commercial are disturbing– hectic, scary and out of control. This is the exact opposite of the Marine commercial where everything is ordered and organized and machines (helicopters, guns) are shown as extension of this order and control– instead of in a context of chaos. There’s a HUGE disconnect between the weapons shown and what they actually DO during war.

War in all its chaos is present in the Swedish commercial, and absent from the Marines commercial. That in and of itself is interesting.

Via Spiked Humor

Thanks to Julie C. for this tip!

How do we feel about this campaign, by Keep A Child Alive, to encourage people to donate money to Africa on the basis that we are all African? (Apparently we only care about ourselves, so if we suggest that Africa is ourselves, then we’ll donate?)

Do Americans, many of whom are white people with privilege based in race, class, and nation, get to claim Africa as theirs? Do white people now get to have blackness too?  Is this insulting? Some people think so. Here is a larger version of the poster with Gwyneth Paltrow (scroll down for a response):

I borrowed this image from Blackademic.

NEW!  Julie C. noticed that the Canadian Centre for Diversity put out a similar campaign.  There’s something very interesting about it, but I’m having a hard time putting it into words.  Click here to watch the short commercial.  What do y’all think of it?

I LOVE this image. It’s a fashion spread.

Question:
Who’s taking care of those little tow-headed boys behind the white picket fence when both mommy and daddy go to work?

I use this picture to talk about the way in which middle- and upper-class women are “getting equal” with men by transferring their caretaking responsibilities to less privileged women… who are, as in this ad, invisible.