Week 7: White Privilege

The article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack describes how being white in our American society automatically grants us things that minorities do not get to experience. Most of the advantages that are experienced by white Americans go unnoticed by them, mainly because they are so common for a majority population to experience. Some examples of things that are brought up in the article by Peggy McIntosh are the fact that white Americans can if they want arrange to be in the company of their own race and they can turn on the television and see their race widely represented. Another example is if a white American receives employment from an affirmative action employer, their coworkers will not assume they got the job only because of their race. I agree that most of the things brought up in the article are true. For several different reasons these attributes of being a minority in the predominately white American culture come true. A main reason is the fact that racism played a large part in founding our country and continues even today, although many people and organizations are making large strides in reducing it. This racism definitely comes into play with the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients. These treatments are expensive and in a society where most of the wealth lies with white Americans, it can be hard for minorities to afford medicines such as antiretrovirals.