Peggy McIntosh describes her view of the “white privilege” in her essay, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. In the beginning of her essay, McIntosh explains why she became interested in the topic: in her pursuit of bringing materials from Women’s’ Studies into the curriculum she noticed that many men thought what she was asking was over-privileged; although they supported the idea that women are at disadvantages. She realized that there are hierarchies in our society, therefore a phenomenon of white privilege must exist and is being denied and protected. McIntosh identifies and listed many daily effects of white privilege in her life. By listing her daily white privileges, she was able to identify that such privileges were given to her upon her birth. She compares her ethnic group to others, emphasizing how much advantage her ethnic group has.
Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack was very compelling to me. The privileges she had pointed out were things that I also think are given to her ethnic group. By voicing her opinion about white privileges, I do not think that McIntosh is trying to provoke outrage from members of her ethnic group; I believe she is trying to point out what she believes is injustice towards others and trying to get other people to see her point of view.
Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person by Gina Crosley-Corcoran is Crosley-Corcoran’s view about Peggy McIntosh’s essay, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Crosley-Cororan disagrees with McIntosh’s view of the white privilege due to her experience growing up poor. Crosley-Cororan begins her argument with a description of her poverty-stricken childhood. She explains that she does understand that as a member of the white ethnic group, there are certain privileges granted to her. However, she justifies the white privileges with the reasoning that you cannot choose to be born with white skin and privileges. She uses the word intersectionality to explain that people may be privileged in some ways and not privileged in others. Crosley-Cororan also emphasizes the hardships she had to go through and the differences between McIntosh’s and her experiences.
Reading Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person by Gina Crosley-Corcoran was also very interesting to me. Her argument especially caught my attention when she used the term intersectionality and defined it. I can see why she disagreed with Peggy McIntosh’s view in the White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. I think that what I found most intriguing about these two texts is that although both of the authors were from the same ethnic group, they both thought differently due to their personal experiences. It proves that even though people come from the same ethnic groups, they all are different due to their own thoughts/opinions.