White Privilege and All Lives Matter.

White privilege has been a topic of debate for a few of my classes but it has never truly made me realize just how significant it really is. The article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by McIntosh has showed me just how much white privilege has a role in our daily lives. 

In the beginning of the article she compares white privilege with male privilege. Both privileges are talked about, but not much is really done to fully understand what they mean. McIntosh explained that these issues are misunderstood so in the end these privileges are either denied or protected. One factor of white privilege that does get brought up a lot is how its unearned.

She then goes into all the different ways how privilege is given to white people on a daily basis without them realizing it. My three favorite points are:

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

I wanted to point out these three points because they gave me a different perspective than before reading the article. I knew that privilege was an issue but I was blinded to all the different ways white people have advantages. I knew there were issues about the safety of black people but I never really thought about the idea of growing up constantly worrying about my safety. I picked the last one because this is something that was brought in class before. The 27th point related a lot to the reading The Silenced Dialogue by Delpit of how many educators felt unheard because of their skin color. 

Continuing on with being unheard and not being understood, the All Lives Matter article talks about the issue of how the Black Lives Matter movement is very misunderstood. Before reading this article I knew what the black lives matter movement was about. But I'll admit I did not understand what the response "all lives matter" meant. Personally, I thought it was common sense that everyone matters, but I did not understand why that was the response to the movement because that's not what the movement was about. Now after reading both of these articles I feel as though that the "all lives matter" is just a factor of both denying the issue and not being completely educated of what any of it means. 

Question: What example of white privilege came most surprising to you?