Gatsby Haiku Deck
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ESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE PITFALLS OF PRIVILEGE?
As a result of reading The Great Gatsby, a question I further wanted to investigate was what are the pitfalls of privilege. I have personally found that in my life as I have received unnecessary hate and been wrongly stereotyped for being white. And although there are examples of white, privileged people in society, that stereotype is not accurate and does not justify a general hate for white people.
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The historical significance of this topic has greatly impacted the formation of many groups and movements. Author, Cabrera explains how all throughout history white people have been labeled as bad for exercising or even just being privileged (79).
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Cabrera also suggests the historical significance when he notes that “elevation through racial degradation was core to the formation of Whiteness” (83). This speaks to my essential question as it talks about white privilege and how the origins of it may have been greatly due to simply the degradation of other races.
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Cabrera notes in his article that “privilege discussions (...) tend to dichotomize whites into good people and bad people. The good ones are those who identify their racial privileges and the bad ones are those who deny them” (80).This quote again makes the observation that denying privilege is seems by society as being anti racist and a good person.
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When people suggest disregarding privilege, they often fail to consider that “White people do not have the option of rejecting their racial privileges the way people can take off a backpack” (Cabrera 81).
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When others look deeper they see “the most compelling rationale for the privilege is that it serves as a distancing mechanism, allowing defendants to disassociate themselves from prosecutions” (Redmayne 1). This simplifies down to the main point that no one wants to be labeled a bad person, and most people are willing to go to unhealthy distances to achieve this societal acceptance.
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Redmayne also makes the observation in his journal that the “recognition of a privilege against self-incrimination implies that we should recognize a privilege against other incrimination which has similar force” (1). This again proves the harmfulness in denying oneself the way some are expected to.
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The impact of this topic continues as our society exemplifies this concept as white people are often labeled as privileged for having some basic human rights that other races are not always given, otherwise known as “white immunity” (Cabrera 82). This quote describes how sometimes white people are expected to forfeit basic human rights because other people are not given them. Flaunting excess privilege and exercising basic rights are not the same thing.
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The continued impact of this topic in our world has major effects on white people. Cabrera notes that because society labels it as racist, many white people cope with their white privilege by discarding and denying it altogether (80-81). Encouraging white people to deny their heritage proves not only harmful but hypocritical.
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Fitzgerald notes in his novel that “It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment” (134). This quote makes the observation as it speaks about perspectives and the importance of seeing things through the eyes of others. This wraps up my argument as life is all about perspective and who’s eyes you are looking through. In reality, although white people have not had the history other races have had, they still long to be included in the justice and love other races get.
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WORKS CITED
- Cabrera, Nolan L. “White Immunity: Working Through Some of the Pedagogical Pitfalls of ‘Privilege.’” Jcscore, vol. 3, no. 1, 2018, pp. 77–90., doi:10.15763/issn.2642-2387.2017.3.1.77-90.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Redmayne, M. “Rethinking the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination.” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, 2005, pp. 209–232., doi:10.1093/ojls/gql001.
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