Sunday, February 13, 2011

White Privilege by Macintosh

After reading McIntosh's article i totally agree with her. Basically the article talks a lot about what she calls "white Privilege" which is how white people are born with all of these extra advantages just because of their skin color.
quote 1
 "White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. " This quote basically talks about how white people have an advantage just because of their skin color. To me this is very interesting because i have never really thought about all the advantages white people have. however do other races also have advantages? i know that white people are born with much more privileges, but i believe that other races have advantages as well. the question is how many advantages do other races have. However i do not disagree with McIntosh when she talks about white privilege. she lists a lot of advantages in the article that most people take for granted and don't even realize.  


quote 2
"In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth." this quote is basically saying that she grew up thinking racism was only talking negatively or acting meanly toward another race. however this is not the case. if white people take advantage of what she calls "white privilege" that is just as bad as being racist. it's not right that white people get these advantages just based on the color of their skin. everyone should have to work for what they want, and no one should have any more advantage than anyone else. but if you look at the daily advantages that occur for white people i'm sure everyone can find one thing on that list that they are guilty of. however the common thought about how racism is only based on meanness is such a common misconception, and i thought the same exact thing until i read this article. most people are blind to "white privilege". 


quote 3
"Although systemic change takes many decades, there are pressing questions for me and, I imagine, for some others like 
me if we raise our daily consciousness on the perquisites of being light-skinned." this quote os basically saying that if we can change the problems what will happen. i find this quote interesting because how can we change something so big like this. i completely agree with McIntosh and i don't believe that it is right that white people get these undeserved advantages just because of their skin, but what steps can be taken to change it. is it just changing it yourself and hoping people follow? i just feel like this is a very difficult topic to change, but if we can then by all means it needs to be changed because it is so unfair that based on a persons skin they have an advantage. it should be changed but i just cant see how we can change something so big.





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