Peggy McIntosh on white privilege

I recently stumbled upon a fascinating read on feminism. Peggy McIntosh writes an essay on white privilege that draws on parallels between racial imbalance and gender imbalance in society that, while drawing from one to explain the other, clarifies both male privilege and white privilege—gender and race—in a crisp and academically stalwartly manner. I hope to read this and other works in an attempt to retune my understanding of feminism in the coming weeks. For now, here’s the quote from the linked essay:

After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are just seen as oppressive, even when we don't see ourselves that way.

Dr McIntosh goes on to make an incredible list of everyday privileges white people enjoy without consciously realising they do. It was quite eye-opening in that I had myself never realised quite a few of these.