White Privilege

     White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh, is an article that describes how Whites benefit from unearned privileges and how it also goes unnoticed by Whites. In the beginning of her article, McIntosh discusses of male privilege and how it is unacknowledged and denied and protected just as White privilege is.
     She then goes on to say that even though she is a woman, she is white which gives her advantages over someone who is of colored skin. McIntosh lists unearned privileges she experiences as a white person for her personal use and to make these privileges more recognizable to her readers. I think she incorporated this list in her article as a reminder, to herself, that she really does experience these things everyday whether she is going to work, speaking to neighbors, going to the grocery store or mall, reading a magazine, watching a movie or TV episode, etc.
     And I think McIntosh included this list for her readers to reflect on their experiences as a white or not white person. It would make the readers think what they can and can't relate with. Even though I am half Korean and half White, I mostly identify as White - so whenever I fill out paper work and they ask me to choose only one race I pick White. I do this because I feel like I were to choose Asian then the people reviewing my paperwork might have some expectations or reservations about me. Anyway, back to McIntosh's list, I can relate with nineteen of her experiences and the other seven I cannot.
     This is straying from the prompt or assignment of this post, but my favorite part of this article is when McIntosh says, "Most talk by Whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist." I think most people only care about equal opportunity because they want that advantage instead of letting everyone have an equal chance. Does that make sense?