Saturday, September 22, 2007

Reaction to "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"

I thought that Peggy McIntosh did a good job presenting the idea of white privilege. I especially thought that the list of examples was not only interesting but informative. A lot of times in articles like this, the author will make all the arguments and give insight, but leave the reader with no examples they can relate to in their daily lives. White privilege (or any unearned privilege for that matter) is something that a lot of people might be aware exists, but they may not know where or how. I really appreciated that McIntosh left the readers with the opportunity to think about her list and also use those as a starting point to find more examples in their life. As she stated, a person can be against racism, want to lower white privilege, but if they don't see how it's connected with them it's harder to make any steps.
I, however, don't feel as though I was unaware of examples of that were mentioned or unaware white privilege existed. In this case it's hard for me to tell whether the article is just outdated, or if it's something else. I grew up in a very liberal, very diverse community. Therefore a lot of things that seem normal to me, or that everyone is aware of, I've found since I've come to college have been not the case. Because of this, I'm extremely interested to hear from other students in the class about their reaction and thoughts after reading the article. I'm by no means implying that where I grew up was perfect and had no racial issues-sadly I think that that would be near impossible; or that I already know everything there is to know about racism and white privilege. I'm simply interested to see what people's experiences were growing up someone else and what their background expose to the issue is.

1 comment:

Paula said...

This is a "friendly comment" (to all contributors I guess)...from Down Under in Oz!

Mmm! Yes, the all-pervading sea of personal perspective in which we all swim so unwittingly! Good post, good questions!

Wow! Speaking of seas, or should that be life-giving waters (?), I've been avidly trawling through all your student posts and lecturer's comments, as well as the Emory site...

You (I better not slip up and say "guys" or that will require "unpacking" won't it?!) are very, very privileged to be participating in such a wonderful, wide-ranging, challenging and obviously enriching course of studies. Particularly in these unfortunate times. I am envious and am actually inspired to seek out (as a...oh! my god! mature-age student!) a similar course here.

Be like whales and open wide and suck it all in like plankton! Your questions are great. And you know, don't you, that to be able to ask questions is far and away more valuable - and utterly, utterly vital - than to have answers.

Thankyou for sharing your blog with me and allowing me to make these few comments. Paula, a fellow traveller.