White Privelage - Peggy McIntosh

This article by Peggy McIntosh tries very hard to point out the lack of understanding of racial inequality. She plays on a fact that is known by most of the country but twists it around to say that racism is not based on disadvantaged minorities but more the unseen advantages that whites receive without even realizing it. She compares racism to sexism in that men don't tend to pay attention to the advantages that they get but at the same time they take advantage of these situations to benefit themselves.

I agree to a point with Peggy McIntosh. I don't think that it is ever a bad thing to try to understand more about racism to try to figure out a way to further our progress towards eaquality. I believe however that her article doesn't really say a whole lot. If it is trying to focus on whites being advantaged as opposed to minorities being disadvantaged it is the same thing. She talks about how whites see opportunities that say, black people, don't see. We all still understand that that is an advantage to the white person but at the same time the black person understands that they are not receiving that benefit so it is still the same kind of racism that people know is going on. I feel like a couple of the things she brought up in her 25 inequalities list like, " I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed." this is something that all americans should feel and I don't think that this is a factor of racism. I'd say if anything factors of harassment and things like that depend on where you are at and who is harassing as well. There are many of these that change a lot with where you are, geographically, and shouldn't be tolerated anywhere.

I think that when it comes to looking at HIV/AIDS just focus in our country, that race actually does play a part. You do see discrepancies in the STI rates in different minority groups. This is for several reasons one of the major ones is health care. You also have to look at differences in education and poverty in various areas of the country. Like when we watched that video we saw that one reason for having alot of sex is it is something that is fun to do and is free. When you look at the correlation of that and poverty in say the black community then you can see they have a relationship. That is not the only reason, government support in poor areas of the country really is not the best as well. When these already disadvantaged people are unable to get access to proper education and protection against STI's then obviously they will see increased rates of those STI's. I think that looking at these larger systems would be way more beneficial to try to turn around the rates of STI's that are linked to race and poverty. I think as for this article Peggy tends to point out some racism that she sees and understands which is good but I think that everyone needs to realize is that racism has been around for hundreds of years in our country so change will not come overnight. We are making huge strides and I think we will continue to grow and while I can never see a totally equal society I think that we can get pretty close in the future.