Though the article carried too much academic jargon, I enjoyed Peggy McIntosh's article about privilege. I tick all the boxes. White, check. Male, check. Old, check. Cis, check. Wealthy, check. It was really interesting to be exposed to the things that I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ...
As McIntosh stated in 1990: The pressure to avoid [examining privilege] is great, for in facing
it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true,
this is not such a free country; one's life is not what one makes it;
many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.
I have known that I have advantages -- privileges -- but I haven't often paused to consider what they HAVEN'T caused me to feel (discomforts, lack of access to housing or medical care). It's amazing how little has changed in the 30 years since her article was published.
The IAT exercises were interesting too... I was surprised that so many people still associate positively with white and euro paradigms.
When everything around from childhood on emphasizes white as the norm in subtle and not so subtle ways, it is not surprising that so many of us still associate positivity with whiteness. As a white Middle Eastern woman, I always felt that labeling myself white took away the importance of my cultural experience. I never realized that is exactly what it was supposed to do. White is supposed to be a homogenous group that does not have a lot of identifying cultural markers. I always put "other" on forms because I did not feel like I belonged in the "white" category. It is only now that I am seeing just how much my whiteness has privileged me.