racial bias and while privilege

Before this class i never really thought of myself as being priveleged or 'overpowering' because the statistics and facts werent put infront of me like they are throught these two articles. "fifty five percent of whites polled sais yes," to the question asking if minorities in this country have equal job opportunities.
The articles kind of controdict each other in their stance on priveleged people vs. overpowering, but have the same type of purpose, to show that racial bias still exists is many ways. Salim Muwakkil says, "...applicantswith white sounding names were 50 percent more likely to get called for an initial interview than applicants with black sounding names."
also, "white aplicants with prison records were still more likely to be hired than black men without them. Though these statistics are incredibly eye opening and scary, i am not as surprised as i feel i should be. the names Lakisha and Jamal, though they are perfectly normal and good names, at first, to me sounded unproffessional and silly because they are such steriotypical names like a white person being Bob or Betsy. i suppose that it is because i was raised around people named kevin and rabecca. i dont like that that was my initial reaction but it was.
Peggy McIntosh also brings up many good points, though she doesnt state much statistical data, the images and conditions that she talks about are just as eye opening. There are four points in particular that she mentions that got to me.
7. "i can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existance of their race."
Looking back at the history classes i took in my younger years, there were few if any black people mentioned up until we learned about Martin Luthar King.
15. " i am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group."
now, this one really hit home and is funny for me because i have seen this happen before, where a minority is asked a question like, "what do black people think about..." and its like... how would they know how black people think..they know how they think but they cant speak for all black people."
17. "i can critisize our government and talk about how much i fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider."
this reminded me of the movie we watched in class and how joe's mother didnt want to say anything bad about the school or America on camera.
26. "i can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color that more or less matches my skin."
This one speaks for itself but i know that i would feel uncomfortable if everything labeled flesh color were completely different than my skin.
Some of Peggy's words reminded me of Kozols work. For example, "ones life is not what one makes of it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own." This quote reminded me of the cycle we talked about in class from Kozols piece. If you are born in a bad area and have to take care of your sick grandmother, is that your fault? no, but you probably wont have the same opportunities as someone born on the upper east side whos parents are wealthy.