Meyer Media Portfolio Entry #3

Just Facts is a web page dedicated to facts about racial issues. The list of facts is very long and can be very thought provoking. The facts stated reinforce the issues raised by Johnson and the Race: The Power of an Illusion videos. It also chronicles some of the racism and privilege that has existed in the United States.

This web page relates to the Race: The Power of an Illusion video because it reinforces many of the issues raised. The same facts concerning science and genetic makeup are presented. There are some surprising facts that seem to support Johnson’s claims that privilege is not an individual thing. We cannot predict how being a member of one privileged or oppressed class will affect a person’s entire life because all of the privilege classes build upon and support each other. The facts that support this are that black actually had higher salaries than white women. This goes against what a person would typically think, because the women in the privileged class are actually making less money with a similar education then women in the oppressed class. Both groups, however, also have to deal with male privilege. Johnson discusses a scoring system to determine how privileged a person is. In the aforementioned case, the white women would score a 1 while the black women would score a zero. Their income comparison does not reflect the higher privilege score for whites. Johnson would explain that by stating that we do not know which other classes the women polled were included in.

When I started reading through the list of facts, I was not surprised by much that was stated. Most of the facts seem to reinforce the topics we have been discussing in this class. They paint a picture of the privilege that whites receive. I never really think about these privileges I receive as a white male, but the facts sort of opened my eyes a little. It made me realize that while some progress has been made, we still have a long way to go for everyone to be truly equal.

Agresti, J.D. (2000). Racial Issues. Just Facts Foundation. Retrieved July 7, 2007 from http://www.justfacts.com/issues.racialissues.asp#income