Peggy McIntosh- Unpacking The Invisible KnapsacK

As I began to read White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh I noticed that she began with talking about male privilege and how men compared to women are over privileged. She then begins to talk about how that lead her to the issue of white privilege and how it is intermingled with the issue of male privilege because of how these issues are “denied and protected” (1).  She talks about how being white automatically brings with it so many advantages but are taught not to really acknowledge or “recognize” (1) the fact that they have the upper hand in society. I however, feel sort of the same way because society is in-favor of white privilege. We live in a world where it is easier for white people to live. Now in this case I am going to speak from my perspective since I am not of the white race and I believe that it is harder for me to get a car loan based on my race, and the majority of people I work with are white, I am more than likely going to get followed at a store, and I am bound to do worse in school compared to someone of the white race. There are many more I can name but I won’t because there are just too many. In her article a little later she lists numerous things that are in-favor of white race in our society and I completely agree with her. I believe that white people are less aware of this issue people of color go through because they have never been exposed to this kind of life. Having being exposed to a life like mine I feel like they would then be more aware of White privilege. I mean I’m not saying I live a terrible life because of this issue but if society was in favor of not white privilege but in favor of everyone I feel like maybe it would help to decrease the number of colored people who label white people as racist. While reading through the class blogs I found something that one of my classmate said in her writing about the same piece and that is that “In the world today all races need to be equal from the minute they are born, not just one race" (Greenman). I agree with her, people should look at each other as equals because after all we as humans are all striving for many of the same things in life.