White Privilege

      In her article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," Peggy McIntosh discusses the existence of a certain "white privilege" in our society.  She compares it to a more familiar privilege: male privilege.  Males, she says, are raised in a way to be unaware of the advantages that they have as males.  Many men will acknowledge that women are disadvantaged, yet they won't also say that they themselves are particularly privileged.
     Similar to this situation is that of white privilege.  It is "denied" and "protected" so that whites are not aware of their advantages.  Because of this, whites are raised in a way that makes them unlikely to recognize that they are at an advantage.  She describes white privilege as "an invisible package of unearned assets," which is a unique - and quite true - way of putting it.  Often, she says, white women appear to be oppressive in the eyes of women of color, even though they are completely unaware of it.    
     She analyzes how white privilege (or lack thereof) plays into every day life.  For example, she mentions things such as acceptance from neighbors, shopping without harassment, and ability/freedom to criticize the government.  These are things that I would never think of as being advantages in my life because I am white, and this is exactly the point of her article.  We often do not recognize advantages and privileges that we have simply because of who we were born as (whether it be gender, race, religion, etc.).
     One of the most interesting things that McIntosh includes in her list is that she is "never asked to speak for all the people of [her] racial group."  This reminded me of a scene in the movie Freedom Writers in which a black female student talks about how she is often singled out in class and asked to speak on behalf of "her people."  White people are never asked to represent all white people, so why are African-Americans supposed to be representative of their entire race?  It just doesn't make sense.
      Lastly, I found it intriguing that many white students are under the impression that racism has no effect on them, because they do not even view "whiteness" as a racial identity.  This must have something to do with the way our society teaches and raises white children.  White children are indirectly taught to view themselves in a certain way, without even realizing it.  Because of this common belief that is embedded in white students, whites often appear to be oppressive, but they do not even realize that they are privileged.