If blacks are disadvantaged, then whites are ... advantaged?

Back in 1990 Peggy McIntosh published an essay on White Privilege. While whites are taught to see blacks as disadvantaged, they rarely look at the reverse -- being white has advantages. Most of us whites just assume that's how the world works. She gives 50 examples of how whites are privileged over other races in America. Here are some of them:

* I can go shopping alone and be assured I won't be followed or harassed.
* I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own protection.
* I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
* I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
* I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
* I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

B. Deutsch followed McIntosh's list with ways in which men are privileged. Some examples:

* The odds of my encountering sexual harassment on the job are so low as to be negligible.
* If I have children and provide primary care for them, I'll be praised for extraordinary parenting if I'm even marginally competent.
* If I'm careless with my driving it won't be attributed to my sex.
* Most major religions argue that I should be the head of my household, while my wife and children should be subservient to me.
* If I have a wife or girlfriend, chances are we'll divide up household chores so that she does most of the labor, and in particular the most repetitive and unrewarding tasks.

There is also a corresponding list for straight privilege (written by a college student).

* I can be pretty sure that my roommate, hallmates and classmates will be comfortable with my sexual orientation.
* I do not have to fear that if my family or friends find out about my sexual orientation there will be economic, emotional, physical or psychological consequences.
* I am not identified by my sexual orientation.
* I can walk in public with my significant other and not have people double-take or stare.
* My individual behavior does not reflect on people who identity as heterosexual.
* Nobody calls me straight with maliciousness.