McIntosh, White Privilege- Reflection

This piece was a real eye opener.  The points that McIntosh made about white privilege being invisible are so true.   I never really thought of myself being privileged for being white.  She really made me think about my life and how me being a white individual has given me more opportunities to things.  I can relate to what she is saying.  I have witnessed with my own eyes some of these exact examples from the essay.  For example, I used to work in the bakery section of a high end, gourmet supermarket, if a customer came in that was black and not dressed in a suite and tie, the manager would secretly follow them around the store making sure they didn’t steal anything.  When I noticed this for the first time it upset me.  It upset me because that just because the color of their skin is different doesn’t mea they should be judged.  Also because I noticed that he noticed the manager keeping an eye on him and I was able to see the frustration on his face and the tone of voice he spoke in when ordering his deli items.  In my opinion I would be more concerned with some of the white folks that came into the store than the black ones.  If a white person came in dressed in sweats and a hoodie no one would seem to care but when it’s a black folk everyone gets all nervous and worried.  There was also this one time where my coworker, who is black, and I both got in trouble at my job.  I found out later in the week that she got into a lot more trouble than I did and we both made the same mistake that we got in trouble for.  

Comments/Points to share

My question is why do we focus so much on race and the color of peoples skin? It get's me so frustrated that people judge and react differently towards others based off the color of their skin.  WHy cant we all just live our lives equally?