While McIntosh explicitly discusses white privilege and Bonilla-Silva draws the readers attention towards structures built to maintain said privilege, the two pieces appear to have a parallel in their recognition of the rationally paradoxical. Bonilla-Silva speaks at length on perception of current racist constructs, thoroughly disentangling racial colorblindness from the ideology it claims to support. Those who claim to be colorblind insofar as race is concerned actually perpetuate racism by refusing to acknowledge and address the issue at hand. Insisting upon colorblindness and the apparent dissolution of racism is in itself a racist act because it reinforces power and dominance of its proponents.
Following that train of thought, McIntosh examines the ignorance of whites toward their own privilege, or “conferred dominance”, believing them to be entirely unaware not only of their privilege but of resulting oppression inflicted upon excluded groups. While researching materials on gender inequality, McIntosh immediately recognized similarities between the two social constructs and resultant power distribution. As long as those placed towards the upper echelons of the racial/gender hierarchy remain ignorant of their privilege and power, the system will perpetuate itself and will not merely disappear if some highly advantaged individual decides it does not exist. Recognizing such similarities, McIntosh likely understands that she does not only maintain privilege with respect to her whiteness, but also within the context of female whiteness; that is to say she holds a similar superiority over other females that men hold over women as a general group.
This draws my attention towards the rarely recognized ideology inherent in White Feminism: a particular brand of feminism directed towards the equality of men and white women. The idiosyncrasies of modern feminism explicitly exclude women of color and those who do not fit within the traditional gender binary. Feminism has evolved to mimic the paradox present within colorblindness; as it plays out, feminism is inherently sexist and will remain so for as long as proponents exclude all who do not fall into the “white female” box and remain ignorant of the contradiction found therein. As a system, modern feminism seems to fortify stratification of forces running through the racial/gender divide. There needs to be a reawakening, a deliberate recognition of all that one benefits from a system at the expense of others, in order to exact necessary change supposedly sought by aforementioned systems.