GLSEN

GLSEN is such a great program, I had heard of it before but I never ventured to the website until now. There are so many great articles, resources and tools to help anyone become more aware of the alliance. With my sister being in theater I've been around lesbian and gay's all my life and I think nothing of it. I feel very strongly about this bullying and harassing of LGBT's. It made me remember a class discussion that I had back in the 7th grade. Our English teacher brought up the subject and was trying to make kids more aware of what was going on. There was one kid that was just outright rude and disrespectful and kept on saying how it was "gross and disgusting" and that it shouldn't be allowed. I was not going to let him get away with that so I stood up and freaked on him. I dont remember exactly what I said but I do remember how I felt and I was furious. I was upset and pissed off that people could be so unwilling to being supportive about this and I didn't understand why it was such a big deal in the first place. I later figured out that people are afriad of being different and out of the everyday "norm" of society.

The resource kit I liked the most was the one for the Day of Silence. I think that it shows courage and strength and really speaks to all people. By participating it speaks to other children/classmates, teachers, faculty and their own family. It has many useful handouts and information for teachers students and parents to try to get everyone on board with why this is so important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOIIwmVbzw&feature=related

Peggy McIntosh White Privilege

Peggy McIntosh argues in her article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack that there is an unspoken, unaddressed power. That she has learned what racism is as an act but not the issues that aren't spoken about. This is the power of white males and white people in general. She goes on explaining how growing up white she did not realize the power her color of skin has given her. When you are in the group of power it is hard to see what others do and do not have. As a privileged human being you walk around life with just the mediocre struggles you as a person goes through. As a person of non-privilege you walk around with your personal struggles and that of being black, Hispanic, Indian etc. With that being said she also argues that you as an individual cannot change what has been done. She believes that the whole social system needs to be looked into and changed and that it is up to the ones with power to do it. She argues that whites have this “knapsack” and that wherever they are and what ever they are going through there is usually something inside that metaphorical knapsack to get through it. Others go around with problems just the same but can’t do anything about it because of the color of their skin. For example she gives a list of conditions that being in the color of power help her. Here are a couple that stood out to me. “I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. “,  “I can be sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge" I will be facing a person of my race. “. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race.” and “I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.” These are just a few of many conditions that people of power do not have to worry about. McIntosh continues to say that these conditions are things that people of power don’t even realize that they have these privileges