-The writer is a white woman, so she’s writing from experience. I always find it interesting when white people really “find out” about white privilege and not just chalk it up as a “well I’m not racist, so white privilege doesn’t apply to me” but rather see it as a pre-programmed systematic whole, set up against people of color. It’s always nice seeing them accept their own privilege and understand that they can actually use it to help the greater good. It’s also hilarious how McIntosh began to call white men out for being “over privileged”. It’s hilarious because when white people find out about it, their first instinct is to immediately call out other whites because they almost feel like they’ve got a bit of an upper hand. When my mom found out about her own it was definitely a lot of fights at first, and now she talks my ear off about how her coworkers don’t understand and how she’s taken the roll to educate, so I always make sure to let her know I’m proud of her (haha.)
-#24 “I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.” I think even being able to ASK to speak to the manager has a little bit of privilege rooted in it. For example, most times I’ve seen this exchange is a white woman telling a POC employee that she needs to speak to their manager or “person in charge” because the current employee is not sufficing or she does not respect them. However there are occasions when an employee is out of line, but more often than not we see the impatient white woman asking to speak to the manager. (So much so that there is literally a haircut named after this transaction). I have also seen a black customer asking a white employee to speak to the authority and the white employee refused. There’s definitely some holes in this list.
- #28 “I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.” I am SO happy she included this. Unless the white person in the situation is being out-of-line racist and/or violent, it’s always the black/POC person who is dealing with the repercussions of the situation. The fact that she recognized this made me very happy.
-I wanted to point out on her list, when she spoke about having the privilege of always being comfortable in spaces, being able to travel or be the only white person in the room and still be heard. There’s a little bit of flaw in that just because I feel like if she’s in a room with all black women, no one is going to drop everything to hear what she’s about to say, nor do I think she’s going to feel totally comfortable walking through the hood. I do appreciate her understanding that obviously in most spaces she will be catered too, but in an all POC space, I don’t think she would be considered the priority (that type of thinking alone could also be considered a privilege.)
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