Invisible Knapsacks?

In Peggy McIntosh's article, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," she describes and lists her "unearned" advantages/privileges that come with having white-skin. Peggy goes on to discuss how all groups, such as men or white populations, are brought up in our society to be oblivious to their white-advantages. She argues that those with the upper-hand must either work to decrease the differences in power between all groups by increasing their advantages (and thereby bringing them "up to par" with those that are more privileged). I think that she's onto something here, but I'm not quite sure how that can be accomplished or even if it can be...

As Peggy said, privilege is so far ingrained within our society that it won't be an easy task to simply increase other minority group's advantages. Take for example our education: "I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race," says Peggy. I do agree that there does seem to be a particular focus on white history, although I think that some classes (like the Humanities) do well in covering a good variety of ethnic groups and races. However, it's tough to decide how much to teach because there are so many different populations in the US--so when will everyone be satisfied? In other words, how is this idea of equality going to be played out when there are already so many groups that are way underprivileged or unrepresented and when there are multiple facets of society that work to increase advantages for some and not at all for others?

In regards to HIV/AIDS, I believe that privilege is like another system of oppression that holds back certain groups of individuals; it puts them at a higher risk of infection and increases the chances that these groups will not recieve the treatment or education they need in order to lead healthier lives. It's similar to how ageism works, like we discussed in class with guest speaker Jennifer Jabson. For this example, think of the elderly as minority groups. They grew up in a different culture (and time) than we (the younger generations, AKA "the majority groups") did, and because of the widespread belief that "younger is better," the elderly (minority groups) are missing out on a lot of privileges/advantages. This is one of the reasons why I think addressing larger systems of oppression (such as heterosexism; see below) is vital in issues of sexual health. It may seem like they are entirely different subjects, but each system inarguably has some sort of effect--positive or negative--on various populations, which would of course influence their way of life as well as their health.