tighty white-ee's

In a sense most of McIntosh's points apply to me. Why? Because though I may only be half white, most people just pass me off for white anyway (I'm half Vietnamese). While I was reading the article, I couldn't help but wonder if the concept was concieved by a teetering-on-idle mind, one that had a little too much time to draw these sorts of connections and concieve these privileges that ONLY white people enjoy. My global politics class has been discussing the subject of intersectionality and with what timing! Intersectionality refers to the idea that though peoples will be organized into generalized groups, in this case race, there are a multitude of categories that everyone falls into. Though someone may be white, they may fall under the poverty line, they may have mental/physical issues that debilitate them, they may even be criminals. McIntosh seems to disregard this notion that not everyone is simply divided up into groups based on race and jumps to the conclusion that some sort of "unseen" privileges exist for only white people. Though I agree that in some cases, races other than "whites" will experience opression and prejudice, it is hasty to claim that these privileges are given only to whites. I mean think about it, what would happen if a white guy moved in between two black families, who's the minority now? I often see albums that appeal to a multitude of races at music stores and I most definately would not cry about the fact that band-aids are more or less fair colored, for God's sake isn't there such thing as dinosaur themed band-aids!?


-Patrick