White Privilege
Robert Strode
In Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible backpack” we see detailed examples of how white people are extremely privileged in ways that people of other races may never understand. Even though sometimes we do not realize this is happening it has been seen to be true in many things throughout history and in the world today.
One of the parts of this article that caught my eye and made me think a bit was the list of 26 white privileges that McIntosh wrote about in her article. This list was very eye opening and made me think what I could put towards myself on this list. Even though I was born in a little different time that McIntosh was I was relatively aware that as a white male I was born with a number of privileges that came with not only the color of my skin but also by my gender, however this list did make me realize and understand some of the advantages of my skin that I often times look over. A good example that I could use before, I can’t say it is so easy now, is number 17 I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. Before the election of Obama I could easily criticize my government and no one would really give me a second look about it, but I do have to say that now if I criticize my government I get called a racist, so now I kind of see better how those of a different race felt when they criticized our government and got called out about it.
One thing for sure that I do have to say about this article is I could definitely tell that this article was written a good time ago. Many of the things stated in the list I felt were a little outdated especially the points that were talking about seeing mainly people of the white race in media or advertisements. Yes there was a point in time where this was very true but I feel like the world is doing a much better job at representing more than just one race when it comes to
In Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible backpack” we see detailed examples of how white people are extremely privileged in ways that people of other races may never understand. Even though sometimes we do not realize this is happening it has been seen to be true in many things throughout history and in the world today.
One of the parts of this article that caught my eye and made me think a bit was the list of 26 white privileges that McIntosh wrote about in her article. This list was very eye opening and made me think what I could put towards myself on this list. Even though I was born in a little different time that McIntosh was I was relatively aware that as a white male I was born with a number of privileges that came with not only the color of my skin but also by my gender, however this list did make me realize and understand some of the advantages of my skin that I often times look over. A good example that I could use before, I can’t say it is so easy now, is number 17 I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. Before the election of Obama I could easily criticize my government and no one would really give me a second look about it, but I do have to say that now if I criticize my government I get called a racist, so now I kind of see better how those of a different race felt when they criticized our government and got called out about it.
One thing for sure that I do have to say about this article is I could definitely tell that this article was written a good time ago. Many of the things stated in the list I felt were a little outdated especially the points that were talking about seeing mainly people of the white race in media or advertisements. Yes there was a point in time where this was very true but I feel like the world is doing a much better job at representing more than just one race when it comes to