White Privilege

I found the article on White Privilege to actually be one of my favorite articles of the semester. Like the previous article that we read for today, I had heard of a similar article to this one however, what set this article apart was that it was written by a white woman. Peggy McIntosh, first went out to research male privilege in our society, but then realized that there was an addition secret privilege, and that was white privilege. In the article she wrote a list of conditions that she has come across in her life that had to ultimately deal with race, and racial representation. Although I found all of them to be very explicit and detailed, the one that I found the most interesting would be number 16,  "I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion". Although I can not sympathize with any of her realizations at all...I found this one to be interesting because not only is it true, but in America it seems to be a standard for everyone. I'm sure by now everyone has heard the phrase "This is America and we speak American" (or some variation of that), but yet no one criticizes us. Its almost like we are expected to live in a country where cultural ignorance is bliss, but we are not afraid to state that we are among the world's most diverse nations. This article (although it was focused on race) made me think deeper, and apple what McIntosh was saying more into this new idea of the American vs Hispanics (or rather illegal immigrant) sentiment, and how it has really changed many laws that exist in our country today.