White Privilege

In the article White Privilege, Peggy McIntosh describes an idea that Caucasians have an unfair advantage in society because of having white skin, she refers to this idea as 'white privilege'.  These advantages are unconscious and we are taught not to recognize the privilege. McIntosh goes on to list multiple examples of how she feels white privilege affects her in her everyday life.   For example, she mentions that when you turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper that you will see someone of our race widely represented.  

I was taught the same definition of racism as McIntosh, "to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group."  After reading, I realized that racism is much more then most people realize.  It IS the subconscious actions that happen day-to-day, that we as caucasians don't even notice.  Like going to a store and not having a problem finding a band aid that matches our skin tone.  There are so many things I'm sure that we just can't point out.   This article made me wonder what life would be like if I was not white.  

Though there are many parts of this paper that I am in complete and total agreeance with, there are other parts in which I am not.  I think most of what I disagree with is just because of when this was written.  I believe times have changed since 1988 and the world is becoming more aware of the race situation as a whole.  I want hard not to believe that we are being trained to not recognize white privilege.  I know that in some parts of the country racism is still a major problem, but why would we as a whole not want to try to eliminate the problems? 

"I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me."  This is one of the daily situations that McIntosh mentioned and this is one that could affect the spread of HIV/AIDS.  If a person of a different race is refused service at a clinic then he/she could never know that they have contracted the virus.  Therefore, going on with their life and spreading HIV to multiple peole