Week 2 Blog Prompt: Reactions

Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” and Beverly Tatum’s “The Complexity of Identity: Who Am I?” are both truly eye-opening and necessary pieces to developing a sense of who you are in all senses. McIntosh delivered an eye-opening account of her realization of white privilege as something she had been taught to ignore growing up as a white female, but became more aware of her unfair skin privilege later in life. The list of 26 white privileges listed in her article made me realize several privileges that I have overlooked in my own life. Conversely, Beverly Tatum, a Black woman, gives a different perspective on the issue of White privilege. She suggests that in order to make any lasting change, for the human race to become free from such unjust racial oppression, we must embrace all of our identities—even the ones that are seen as “taboo” or may make us uncomfortable. As a white female myself, I am frustrated with the idea of unearned skin privilege, although as McIntosh states, disapproval is not enough to make a change, we have to work to acknowledge the hidden dimensions of our social systems in order to diminish racism.