talking point #1

Peggy McIntosh - White Privilege

1. "I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. " pg. 2

I feel like this quote is completely true for a white person. Sometimes when black people go into a store they are followed and are asked to check their bags. It is very rare that the same situation happens to a white person. The owners of store can be very raciest against black people and have a stereotype that black people steal. I think it is wrong for this to still happen in our society today. Sadly it happens to people that would never think of stealing in their lives. The raciest store owners are so worried about the black people stealing when they could have a white person stealing right in front of them. They wouldn't think twice about watching them while they were in the store because they were white.

2."many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own." pg. 4

Many times white people will get a job offer before a black person will. The white person could quite possibly be less qualified than the black person is. This is how our society runs today unfortunately. The color of your skin decides things for you. Not even in the work field but all over does this happen. White people are usually offered things before anyone else. It's not even black people that are put down, it's everyone who is not white.

3. "they do not see "whiteness" as a racial identity." pg. 5

Usually when people think about race and racial identities they think about every other race other than white. The white people think that they are the normal ones and everyone else is part of a racial identity. Since there is a white majority, people don't think anything of it. This is sad because white is a race also. White people should be included and not be put into their own category like they are more important than everyone else. Everyone is more or less equal no matter what their skin color is.

I really enjoyed reading White Privilege. It was an easy read compared to the other readings we have done so far. I am still not too sure if she supports equality or thinks that it will never happen. Some of her points shows me that she doesn't agree with white people being looked at as superior to the other races. Other times it seems like she just wants to give up and says that this is how it is and that we cannot change it.