White individuals, she asserts, might believe people of color live under a disadvantage in our society, but do not see themselves as privileged because of their whiteness. The author lists twenty-six ways she sees white people as having privileges that people of color do not enjoy. These differences range from white individuals able to shop without being followed or harassed, to people of color struggling to be accepted as “qualified” in their job if the position is an affirmative action one. She allows the word “privilege” is misleading, since when confronted with the term, most white people think of “privilege” as something like a favored state conferred by birth or luck. Ms .McIntosh also mentions in her writings that we, as a society, also need to examine the daily experiences of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Seh sums up by stating that white advantage is kept strongly inculturated in the United States by the myth of …show more content…
McIntosh’s colleague Elizabeth Minnich pointed out to her that “whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, also ideal,sso that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which allow them to be more like us.” McIntosh uses an academic style of writing in this article published at the University of Michigan.
Peggy McIntosh has great credibility and structured logic to her audience. Although. She did not have many statistics, she did however have personal experiences. The author gave a list of twenty-six daily effects of white privilege in her life. The list ranges from conditions of being able to go shopping alone and not being followed or harassed to being pulled over for a traffic stop and not being singled out for her race.
Words like fear, neglect, hostility, distress and violence, and most importantly, privilege bring emotion to the readers of this article. The author states that the word “privilege” to be “misleading”. McIntosh says “such privilege simply confers dominance because of one’s race or