“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”. McIntosh is explaining what most of us believe when we hear the word “Racism”, that it is an act of “Meanness”. For example, a colored person cannot drink from the same water fountain as a whte person because s/he is black. However, that is not the case; McIntosh is stating that it’s an “invisible system conferring to dominance on my group”. It is a system that is used to show dominance in one group, for example, going through high school you are taught that the greatest explorers/leaders are white. This indicates that no other race is more powerful and keps the standard for the “white” race at a very high level. An “invisible system” that I have encountered, which gives dominance to the white population would certainly be the school system. For exAmple, in middle school I was given materials that spoke highly of Christopher Columbus and all of his achievements but no materials on how he tortured and enslaved the natives in the places he landed.
Professor Laura Westengard
Email: lwestengard@citytech.cuny.edu
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30-11:30 am and by appointment
Office/Mailbox Location: Namm 503
Phone Number: (718) 260-5761-
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Great point, Savitri! Most people are not even aware that our history lessons do not give us the complete picture. Instead, many young people internalize those stories as evidence that certain groups are more admirable than others. That’s definitely an “invisible system!”