McIntosh: White Privilege Quotes

“I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (1). 

I agree with this quote 100%. This quote also reminds me of one of Delpit’s five aspects of power, which is those who are in power are least aware of its existence. Those of the white population and males are not aware of their privilege because it is their daily life. For example a student in our class said that he did not get a job because he had long hair. In this situation people who had short hair are privileged. His competitors were not aware that they were getting the job because they had short hair and he did not. He then inferred that the reason he was not receiving jobs was because he had long hair. Once he cut his hair, he acquired a job right away. Though this is not an example of race or gender, it qualifies under the recognition of privilege.

“19. If a traffic cop pulls me over, or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race” (3).

This was pulled out of the list of things that white people have that people of color do not have. This particular item on the list reminded me of a video that I saw on the internet. White people do not have to worry when they are driving that a police officer is going to stop them and harass them, or really be anything but help to them. People of color do not have that luxury or privilege of driving down the street at night, or even during the day, without that fear. This video angered me, because growing up I did not notice how much of a racial divide we have in this country. I did not know that darker skinned people were targeted as much as they are. This article is very eye opening.

"Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantages associated with them should not be seen as the same" (5).
I agree with this quote as well. What McIntosh is saying here is since all of these issues are from totally different ends of the spectrum, they can not be resolved in the same way. It is going to take a long time to change the outlook in society and the privileges people receive. These problems need to be tackles separately, but with the same amount of force, because they are all equally important. Racism should not be changed in the same manor that heterosexism should be changed. There are so many factors that go into changing the way society functions. It reminds me of "can't we all just get along?" in the Johnson piece we read a couple of weeks ago. It really is not as simple as it sounds, there are so many different reasons why we unfortunately cannot (or will not) do that.

Point to bring up in class: It really bothers me when people say society is messed up. I agree, it totally is. But the thing is: WE ARE SOCIETY. People really need to use their voices so the ignorant people who believe that privilege is okay are overridden. It's easy to say "oh that's so wrong that should change" but it's another thing to do something about it!