Response to Maria's Summary Post 9/23

Reading Peggy McIntosh's article on white privilege really forced me to look at my life with a new perspective. So many of the items on her list of everyday privileges that white people have completely opened my mind to how I am daily reminded of my position of power in society, a power that I have been born with simply because of the color of my skin. McIntos also points out that "whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average". I have to admit that I don't wake up every morning and think about how my race might affect my daily routine.

I thought that McIntosh's article has a direct relationship to Johnson's article that we read for last class. Not only does Peggy point out that whites are taught not to recognize white privilege as males are taught not to recognize male privilege, but she also discusses how racism is all encompassing of society. Similarly, as we discussed, Johnson described sexism as inherent to our current "system" and therefore needs to be changed by altering society. Also, as we discussed in class, most of us tended to give more credibility to Johnson's article than we might to a woman's article because of his stature as a man as well as his somewhat third-party perspective on the issue (meaning that he is not a woman claiming that she is being inherently discriminated against). Similarly, Peggy says that, "being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely", meaning that Peggy's opinions on racism are likely to be taken more seriously since she is not a part of the oppressed group. She talks about how disapproving of the current system will not be enough to change it, an idea very similar to Johnson's.