Look at the “Daily Effects of White Privilege” List...

a) I most take for granted:
1. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
2. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
3. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
4. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
5. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern other's attitudes toward their race.

         It seems to me that effects that relate to hypothetical children surprise me the most. It is the idea of my children being negatively affected by prejudices of their race that scares me. Obviously, since kids seem so far away from the present day, it is not something I had given any thought to, and so I had previously taken it entirely for granted. It does make me wonder, though, if my own parents had given any thought to this or if they've taken for granted as well that they are raising white kids in a white community where we are the majority.
         Initially, I included #3 (If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.) in my list of five white privileges I take for granted. However, as I continued reading, I realized that I take many others things for granted much more so than being able to move to a place I would want to live should I have to move. Once I really think about it, I don't take things like my family's money or my cultural experience being able to live abroad for granted. I can easily appreciate these things and feel so incredibly lucky. However, before this course, I never really considered my race that much when thinking about things I know I shouldn't take for granted.
          For #23 (I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.) as well as #27 (I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.) among a few others, I feel I do not take for granted. Having lived in Hong Kong for ten months, I very much felt like I was a cultural outsider. Now, living back in London, and in the future, living in the United States, I am very appreciative of the fact that, though perhaps I am not as culturally "with it" as someone who isn't a third culture kid, I am not a cultural outsider. I did not necessarily feel unheard because of my race, but I definitely felt out-of-place and outnumbered in many situations, considered 95% of students at my school were non-whites and of that almost 90% were Hong Kong Chinese. Obviously, my experiences in Hong Kong are not the same as many minorities all over the world, but I feel I have had a taste of what this must feel like, and so I try not to take it for granted now that I am back as a majority where everyone speaks the same language as me.

b) I would be willing to give up:
1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
3. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
4. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
5. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

          For the most part, it seems like the things I am willing to give up are instances where my race is not the majority and not exposed to society regularly. Much of this is guilt because my race is prominently featured in newspapers, hold high level positions excessively, and most available in my city.