Sunday, February 9, 2014

Other People's Children: The Silence Dialogue


Oh I found this to be such a difficult read! I think Lisa Delpit has a really great argument of course but I really only figured out what her argument was after about the third read through maybe? And this wasn’t even a short read so you can only imagine how long it took me to process it.  Delpit talks a lot about different theories and addressing them with terminology I was really used to so it became a very heavy read. Unfortunately I feel that because I struggled so much with it I may have lost a lot of the context.

What I really latched onto in this text is number five of the five aspects of power where Delpit states “Those with power are frequently least aware of – or least willing to acknowledge – its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.” This aspect of power relates back to two of the readings from last week, “White Privilege: unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh and the short article titled “Data show racial bias persists in America” by Salim Muwakkil.

McIntosh in her article lists twenty-six different privileges she has day that a person would not think about in their day-to-day lives but they are there. Many of the privileges she talks about are ones a white person is just used but are ones a black man or women notices every day. For example when we (white people) go to buy band aids we can buy them in a skin color that matches ours whereas there probably isn’t such a wide variety of skin colored band aids for people of color to choose from. Had I ever noticed that until reading these articles? Not even for a second because it is a “power” that I hold.
And in the article by Muwakkil, when a black man and a white man with the same qualifications and experience go out for the same job the white man is more likely to get called back than the black man. I highly doubt the white man realized it was because he is white and that’s why he got the job. But I’m sure the black man knew that because he is black is the reason he did not get the job. I’m not saying that this is always the case but more often than none it seems so be. White people go day to day with power they do not notice and blacks with a lack of power they know is holding them back. And it isn’t even just blacks in this situation it could be other races or women too who are more aware of the existence of the invisible powers and privileges that seem to rule our society.

 An interview I found, with Lisa Delpit, online really helped me understand what this text was about and of course with the help of all of your blogs too! http://www.thenation.com/blog/166888/interview-lisa-delpit-educating-other-peoples-children#

1 comment:

  1. Hey Kelly! I totally agree with you that Delpit was a difficult read - I had to reread a lot of sections of the article to understand what she was saying. But I liked how you connected it to McIntosh and Muwakkil! The article about how white people are more likely to get hired than black people was especially surprising to me, and it made me really angry that skin color makes so much of a difference to some people despite how qualified these people might be for the job. Great job on your post!

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