Tag Archives: white privilege

White Privilege Explained in Oral Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2021

Tennessee teacher Hawn was fired in part for showing a video of an oral poet reciting this poem about white privilege.

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Sartre Captures White Privilege

By Robin Bates | Published: June 4, 2020

Sartre’s “Respectful Prostitute” captures many of the race dynamics of our current situation.

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We Benefit When We Check Our Privilege

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2017

Do be blind to one’s privileges is to live in a world of shadows and phantoms, as Ralph Ellison and Lucille Clifton both make clear. Life if much richer if we identify our blindnesses and engage with people as three-dimensional beings.

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How Trump’s White Appeal Degrades

By Robin Bates | Published: November 17, 2016

In his novel “Snow,” Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk captures what it is like for Turks to see themselves through the eyes of Germans. In Trump’s election, my students of color saw themselves through the eyes of white America and didn’t like what they saw.

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Toni Morrison: White Panic Led to Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: November 16, 2016

As Toni Morrison sees it, William Faulkner’s observations about white panic go a long way toward explaining Trump’s victory.

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Butler & Grappling with White Privilege

By Robin Bates | Published: October 2, 2016

The figure of the white husband in Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” captures many of the blind spots of white privilege. Examining him led me to examine how I myself have benefitted from America’s slave past.

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Lochte, White Privilege, & the Giving Tree

By Robin Bates | Published: August 23, 2016

Alexandra Petri of “The Washington Post” makes brilliant use of “The Giving Tree” as she examines the recent shenanigans of Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, As Petri sees it, Lochte is protected by white privilege and would be facing far different consequences were he a person of color

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