Male and White Privilege

Although I found all three of the assigned articles informational and interesting, the one by Peggy McIntosh was the most thought provoking.  She touches on two ideas that are applicable to my lifestyle: white privilege and male privilege.  Both are ideas that I’ve previously considered, but never in a particularly intense way. 

Growing up, I was almost always in a setting dominated by whites, although not entirely.  My school made a point of making a big deal out of MLK day and black history month, while promoting diversity etc.  At one point, I ended up being invited to a diversity conference, which put me in a position I’d never been in: being the minority.  I was one of perhaps 5-7 whites at the conference of 40 or so, which was quite the learning experience for me.  I had the chance to have at least a similar feeling as many other races do on a daily basis, and it was very different than my everyday lifestyle.  I felt resented on several levels, mostly because of what I represented, not me personally.  All in all, it was a very interesting experience for me that let me learn a lot and experience some new things I likely wouldn’t have otherwise. 

As for male privilege, I can’t say I’ve ever had an experience where I would ever have had the chance to see the other side of male privilege, but after some of our readings, I am better equipped to think about it.  The McIntosh reading was interesting to me in this way, even though it mostly talked about white privilege.  The whole idea of men working from a “base of unacknowledged privilege” was interesting, mostly because I guess it’s truer than I would have thought.  I never gave it a lot of thought because I went to a single sex school in high school, but I suppose it is more accurate that I would have said.  I also found it interesting how she connected it throughout the article to white privilege, which I thought made for an accurate connection.