This essay attests to Peggy McIntosh’s idea that White people have white privilege that manifests as an entitlement to a “knapsack” of “assets” they were born with. In my understanding of her essay, one way Whites exhibit White privilege is in their microaggressions towards those who are not white, or whom they assume not to be white. In this presentation, I will consider microaggressions that are stereotypical and those that categorize non-whites as unique.
The first category is displayed in Whites making hasty generalizations to ascribe negative or positive stereotypes to people of other colors. My reading of McIntosh is that concerned Whites hurry to pass judgments about those in these categories seemingly because they are conditioned to think of them as deserving lesser rights, not belonging, ignorant, uneducated, poor, or dirty and so forth. In addition to these labels they assign those who are different from them, they profile the others as exotic items, much like the Elephant Man was in his entertainment of royalty. Similarly, a black person is singled out for congratulations if educated and typically told that they are a blessing to their race.…show more content… I was expressing my concern that our activist work would increase the value of homes in our community where I rent before I could afford to buy one. We were standing in her doorway, one of the largest homes in our community. Made me feel the same way I felt when she told me how articulate I
