Images, actions, and messages that “affirm the assumed superiority of the White race and the assumed inferiority of people of color” (Tatum 388).

The key defining characteristic of racism is POWER (388).

A. Transmitted culturally (music, movies, television, advertising, education, consumerism)

B. Transmitted individually

C. What has NOT been said, what people have NOT been exposed to

What representations of people of color are still missing in the media?

How many times have affirming or positive messages been sent to you about people of color?

A. Cultural Transmission

Arab-Americans figured as taxi drivers and gas station operators or, at worst, religious extremists.

Black men figured primarily as rappers, athletes, or criminals

Vogue cover, figuring LeBron James in a King-Kong-like pose with white model, which draws from a long history of hypersexualization of black men and their threat to white women’s purity.

B. Individual transmission

How do family members speak of other races?

How do other students or co-workers “joke” or make use of racial stereotypes?

C. What has NOT been said, what people have NOT been exposed toWhat representations of people of color are still missing in the media?

How many times have affirming or positive messages been sent to you about people of color?

1. Internalized Racism: members of stereotyped group develop/follow categorizations. In other words, one “buys into” the stereotype and then fulfills it.

2. Institutional racism: various patterns of racism perpetuated by our institutions; how do institutions create situations where racial groups have fewer resources and options? This is what McIntosh calls “invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance”

3. Intra-racism: racism within a culture, where privilege is given

based on “levels” of blackness (i.e. light-skinnedover dark-

skinned).

Prejudice: a preconceived judgment or opinion, usually based on limited information (387)

A. Prejudice is transmitted in the same ways as racism.

B. Prejudice is distinguished from racism because it does not confer power or

privilege, especially in the long-term sense.

C. Anyone can be prejudiced, but people of color cannot be racist.

What Is It?Unearned benefits, rights, and advantages that

one receives because of one’s race

How Does It Work?1. Because it’s invisible to those who enjoy it,

white privilege grants white people permission to ignore race and thus oppress others.

2. It is enjoyed and experienced, most often, unconsciously.

Why Is It Useful (to Whites)?It reinforces theory of meritocracy, which is the

idea that good things happen to those who deserve it, work hard, “play by the rules,” etc.