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Shwe Nemyo

Professor Delany-Ullman

Writing 39B

4 February 2018

Two Different Sides of Race

Throughout the years of history, the topic of race, literacy, and power has always

been a controversial idea in our culture. Individuals have always experienced

discrimination and suffered in various ways that the privileged might not know of.

America, then and now, has an inadequate system. The color of one’s skin, the ethnicity

of oneself, and overall identity are connected to how one can live. Authority and

education relies on the race of an individual, rather than his or her abilities. It is still

currently a hot topic. People of color are especially targeted and cannot rise up as

minorities. They still do not have the equal amount of respect. Women still earn less

wages than men. This ongoing situation can only be solved if we put aside our

differences and view each other as the same human race. Fortunately, this is taking

place in different discourse communities. For example, Hasan Minhaj’s ​Homecoming

King​ represents public discourse, using his platform as a performer to communicate to a

larger and specific audience. On the other hand, Peggy McIntosh’s ​White Privilege:

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack​ represents an academic or scholarly discourse,

where writers and professors write to each other to further expand on their knowledge of

the academic realm.

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Hasan Minhaj’s purpose is to inform his audience by bringing awareness of racial

segregation. He expresses his innermost thoughts and feelings of living as “a brown kid”

among the superior. Many of his spectators were of the younger generation, but he

directed his message towards those of his parent’s age. He mentions the generational

gap between the older and younger generation, leading to the topic of the “audacity of

equality.” Minhaj wanted the older generation to realize that situations were different

now, that everyone deserves the right to live in peace with nothing to fear. They might

not have laughed for some of his jokes but surely have understand this message. He

also targets those who made his life miserable, only to forgive them all in the end. He

pinpoints the struggles growing up as an Indian American and of Islam descent, shifting

from comedic to emotional moments. Many immigrants, not only Indian, can relate to his

narrating stories, including the context of 9/11. Minhaj impacts his culture by sharing his

childhood to give others a new perspective. This type of public discourse can also be a

form of entertainment, as he performed in Davis, California, broadcasting on Netflix

earlier in May 2017.

Peggy McIntosh’s purpose is to also inform her audience, especially those who

are of white ancestry, about their implicit privilege. She writes a descriptive print text on

the idea of carrying around an invisible pack of power. It was not until later on she

realized the inequality between others. Her audience can be broader as well, but

McIntosh wants to focus on explaining the ongoing situation to the privileged. Other

than academic discourse, her text revolves around the issue of race and education. In

her message, McIntosh compares the experiences of those who are underprivileged
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and are not. The color of her skin allowed her to have the right to live without fear or

pressure, she was born into a higher pedestal than others. She notes, “I was taught to

see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring

dominance on my group.” Being white herself, she witnesses the problems the people

of color experience. She published her text in the 1980’s, when racism was even

greater; however, it still persists into society. Her message can still be put forward into

action today.

Although they discuss it in different ways, both McIntosh and Minhaj put forward

the same idea: oppression exists everywhere, there will always be a group higher than

the other. They come from different perspectives, one being from a privileged point of

view and another as a minority. In McIntosh’s text, she makes a list of various

circumstances in which she would not have any trouble in, “I can if I wish arrange to be

in the company of people of my race most of the time. I can avoid spending time with

people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.”

On the contrary, Minhaj is one of the individuals who cannot say what she can.

McIntosh writes from a scholarly discourse but Minhaj reveals his ideas through

performance, while utilizing comedy. Although they come from different time periods

and opposite cultural upbringings, their ideas clash into one. Both discuss the issue of

the oppressed through different mentalities with personal examples. The idea that race

impacts how one can live his or her live influenced McIntosh and Minhaj to do

something about it. This brings back on how the topic of race, literacy, and power are all

connected as well as ongoing issues today.

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Works Cited

Félix, Doreen St. “Hasan Minhaj's ‘New Brown America.’” The New Yorker, The

New Yorker, 30 Nov. 2017.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”

“Peggy McIntosh: Beyond the Knapsack.” ​Teaching Tolerance​, 5 Feb. 2018,

www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2014/peggy-mcintosh-beyond-the-knapsack.