Blog 6 McIntosh and Muwakkil

The name of the text for this blog is: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh. I want to start by saying that this article was a little more difficult than some of the previous, I will try to explain what I believe McIntosh means in her writing. McIntosh is arguing that white privilege is known to whites in a subconscious manner and when studied and introduced to people of privilege they believe it is nonsense so they won't have to deal with it. I think she speaks of this on page 6 when she states "To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silence and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool here." S.C.W.A.A.M.P immediately comes to mind here as the big elephant in the room that no one will address. What also helped me understand the article was the 26 conditions of "white privilege" that McIntosh wrote about. I find empathy to be one of my greatest qualities and from reading her list it is amazing how many of the conditions of white privilege I take for granted. It would be extremely difficult for me to put myself in someone else's shoes for all of these conditions. Number 14 was especially eye opening for me because I have witnessed this situation before. Number 14 states: " I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race." I have heard this said by white America and the person of color on the receiving end takes this as a compliment not knowing it is viewed as a struggle of their race. I found the part of earned strength and unearned power a little bit tough to follow but I think her mission is to educate the SCWAAMP on why systematic change in our culture is needed. I found her views on the subject eye-opening and informative. McIntosh definitely challenges the way of thinking I am accustomed too. And if people in the "white privilege class" need any more evidence of how oppressive our culture is they should read the article by Salim Muwakkil. I think the poll that was conducted was a genius way to open up the eyes of those with white power. The part of the article that made me believe in white bias was the paragraph about whites and blacks in the job market. In Milwaukee, a study showed that "white applicants with prison records were still more likely to be hired than black men without them." In my opinion this is consciously being racist and using power to hold a person of color from getting ahead in our country and goes against the fundamental right of being an American. If it is true that we would prefer to have more white criminals in the job market than black non-criminals, this country is worse off than I though before I took this class.