Week 3

These two pieces were very interesting to compare to one another because they were so diverse in format and language.  Peggy McIntosh’s article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” speaks to the specific privileges that people have, specifically white privilege and male privilege.  This text really challenged my positions on white and male privilege.  Before reading this article I didn’t really think about how this double standard not only puts others down, but raises up those who are privileged.  Personally, I already knew that being white and a male comes with privileges that others do not have, but I never really thought about it as me having an advantage while also others having a disadvantage.  This has really changed my thinking about privilege as a whole as well as myself personally.  Furthermore, in Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s article, “Introduction to Dangerous Border Crossers” he talks about his experiences of being an “outsider” who performs for people.  His article also changed some assumption that I had about migrants and “outsiders”.  The major assumption being that “outsiders”, like Gómez-Peña, couldn’t make a living based off of their identity, but clearly they can and he has shown that.