White Privilege Essay Example for Free

White Privilege Essay In Peggy McIntosh’s article â€Å"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible backpack† we see detailed examples of how white people are extremely privileged in ways that people of other races may never understand. Even though sometimes we do not realize this is happening it has been seen to be true in many things throughout history and in the world today. One of the parts of this article that caught my eye and made me think a bit was the list of 26 white privileges that McIntosh wrote about in her article. This list was very eye opening and made me think what I could put towards myself on this list. Even though I was born in a little different time that McIntosh was I was relatively aware that as a white male I was born with a number of privileges that came with not only the color of my skin but also by my gender, however this list did make me realize and understand some of the advantages of my skin that I often times look over. A good example that I could use before, I can’t say it is so easy now, is number 17 I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. Before the election of Obama I could easily criticize my government and no one would really give me a second look about it, but I do have to say that now if I criticize my government I get called a racist, so now I kind of see better how those of a different race felt when they criticized our government and got called out about it. One thing for sure that I do have to say about this article is I could definitely tell that this article was written a good time ago. Many of the things stated in the list I felt were a little outdated especially the points that were talking about seeing mainly people of the white race in media or advertisements. Yes there was a point in time where this was very true but I feel like the world is doing a much better job at representing more than just one race when it comes to advertisements or media. In jean-Paul Sartre’s â€Å"Anti-Semite and the Jew we learn a lot about how he personally feels about Anti-Semites and what his description of an Anti-Semite is. Anti-Semitism is basically the hatred of someone who is Jewish. Sartre believes that is the Jew did not exist that the anti-Semite would invent him so they would have someone to hate. Anti-Semitism is something that was based more with the Nazi’s and Hitler. In my opinion I don’t really see it as much now but I can read plenty about it any many different books. In Sartre’s story he basically states that the anti-Semite had to have someone who he can feel superior to, which is why he states that is the Jew did not exist the anti-Semite would create him. He states that if by some miracle all of the Jews were exterminated as the anti- Semite wishes that the anti-Semite would be all alone, he would lose his sense of rights over the country because there would no longer be anyone to contest them. He states that the anti-Semite is in the unhappy position of having a vital need for the Jew he wishes to destroy. The anti- Semite is someone who needs a particular person to hate in order to feel superior to someone, and if all of the people that he hated were suddenly gone then he would no longer feel superior to anyone because he would then have no one to hate. In turn the anti-Semite would then have to create another thing to hate in order to bring back the feeling of superiority. This also was another one of those reading that you could tell was written a long time ago, because of the fact that we no longer see these things near as much as we see saw them in the past. Yes people do still tent to look down on Jews but it is still a particular group of people and not based on a race that has a significant hatred for another race. The anti-Semite can be looked at as a man that fears only himself and has to use that fear to create fear in the eyes of other in order to make he feel stronger and less powerless. How does Racism affect my life? I try not to let racism affect my life, in my everyday life I talk to and deal with all different kinds of races. Now I will say that as a white male I may have had a few doors open to me that other races might not have had, but on the other hand I chose to walk through the doors of the opportunities I had in order to better myself. People say that whites have had a lot more opportunity and a lot more doors open to them but I really don’t believe that it is as much true now as it was many years ago. I believe that we as a society try to make certain things out to be less opportunistic than they really are so we have something to talk, complain and or fight about, but in all actuality we all have certain doors open to us it is just a matter of whether we chose to step through the right door or not. People say that those of other races have had less opportunity than those who are white but let’s take a look into what is available now that benefits more of those in other races than the whites. There are major colleges that are race oriented, there are many scholarships for schools that are race based and only that race can receive that scholarship. As a white male yes I do have a lot of opportunities to gain work or gain money for school through scholarships but there is not one thing have seen that is specific to whites only when it comes to education. Now don’t get me wrong I know many years ago only whites could go to school here in the U. S. and it took some time to let other races into school but things have changed since then. So I would have to say that now, compared to if I was born many years ago, I do not believe racism or race plays a big factor in my life.