Thursday, May 12, 2016
Why is the default White?
A system of white privilege, for example, is white-dominated, which means the default is for white people to occupy positions of power. White-dominance doesn’t mean that all white people are powerful, only that the powerful tend almost always to be white, and when a person of color occupies a position of power, that will be noted as an exception to the rule (as when Barack Obama is routinely identified as a black President and not just ‘the President’).
http://www.agjohnson.us/glad/what-is-a-system-of-privilege/
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Yes and there are many more examples, some quite subtle but nonetheless powerful, of whites as the default. Toni Morrison, the award winning writer, writes about having to be a black author because if that was left out, and people didn't know her work, in the people's imagination, she would be white. All a part of the long long trajectory of white power.
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