9. Impacts of Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Racism in Your Own Life.

As I read this chapter, I remembered an activity I completed as a student in my Master of Arts in Teaching program at Emory.  We were asked to describe our identities using six terms, similarly to the way we were asked to define ourselves in our first class session.  Our professor asked us to notice whether or not we had included our race.   I was astonished, and then embarrassed, to realize that I had not listed my race as a primary element of my identity.  I was humbled to realize that as a member of a dominant group, had never been pushed to closely identify with my own race, or to think of my own race as anything other than “normal.”  My Whiteness had never caused any problems for me or marked me as different from the majority of my peers. 

Since that time, I have been challenged to recognize the ways that my race, and other parts of my identity that match with dominant groups, has provided subtle privileges. I resonated with McIntosh’s (1996) list of advantages that a White heterosexual person will probably be granted.  Coming to grips with unearned privilege is difficult; I would prefer to believe that everything I have experienced and accomplished is the direct result of a combination my hard work, determination, and natural abilities.  However, I have to acknowledge the role that others’ positive stereotypes about some of the categories I fit into have helped me along the way.