In Marilyn Frye’s “Oppression”, Frye explains how a birdcage symbolizes the systematic oppression of women. Frye explains that if you look at a single wire in a birdcage, you can’t understand why the bird can’t just fly around the wire and be free. But if you step back and look at the cage as a whole system of entwined cables, you realize that the bird has no chance of escaping because of all the barriers in its way (Frye). It is exactly the same with women. When someone tries to see the oppression of women. they only look at a problem women face, refuse to step back and see that there is no reason for their oppression. If they instead looked at all the obstacles women face at once, they would ultimately see that women cannot escape oppression without the continued efforts of everyone involved in oppression, including sexist women and men who oppress.The article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” was written to educate the reader about white privilege and male privilege. He argues that men don’t necessarily realize they have an advantage over women, just as white people don’t always realize they are more privileged than black people. Author Peggy McIntosh painstakingly describes that just by being born white, you automatically have an advantage over someone who was not born white. She also explains that men actually recognize the status of women in the world and will do certain things to improve it. However, they are not willing to do anything to diminish their own privilege. The article provides a list where all statements are conditions in which spaces are kept. In today’s society I feel that there are fewer male privileges than before. Women can now pursue careers previously denied them, such as politics. Although they can pursue such careers, there is still a big difference between the salaries of women and men. When it comes to white privilege, I agree and disagree with a few points McIntosh made in the article. Personally, I have never seen myself as an unfairly advantaged person or an oppressor.

I honestly never read anything like the book, “White Privilege: unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy Mclntosh before. I didn’t think there were white people that thought this way at all. She compares white privilege to men’s privilege. In fact, in many ways they are similar to each other. I never noticed that men don’t have to work twice as hard as women do for anything. Whether it is at a job, school, sports,etc. Men don’t have to think “what if” or prove that they can get the job done without assistance. Women have to take everything into accountability. The type of clothing which might draw unwanted attention to them. We refrain from wearing certain clothes, because it makes us feel uncomfortable in our own clothes. Men never acknowledge how hard we have to work to get equal status as them. Same goes for white privilege, a lot of black people have to worry about certain things that white people haven’t even begun to understand. For instance, wearing a hat or a hoodie in the presence of a police officer, trying to get a job in an all white firm, or if you are going to see your mom again after being pulled over by police. Peggy McIntosh realized the different perspectives of what it means to be black and white. It’s like a picture was painted of one black angry violent person and that defines the rest of us. Black people are sometimes way nicer than white people are. To be quite frank two individuals could be the same.  Live the same lifestyle, listen to the same music, have a nice family, good respect and manners. The only thing that will be a little different is their skin tone. Hypotencially speaking, the white individual might look innocent while the non-white individual looks guilty. I also think racism occurs because black people are described to be mean, dark, scary, ugly or trouble. Whereas the color white is seen as nice, warm, safe, and beautiful. Therefore society defines a person based on their race, which is just a color. The privilege to be white means you are never a target.