White Privilege Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy McIntosh
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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible
KnapsackBy Peggy McIntosh
Through work to bring materials from Women’s Studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened or ended.
Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of white privilege that was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.
I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.
Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in Women’s Studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about white privilege must ask, “Having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?”
After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive.
I began to understand why we are justly seen as oppressive, even when we don’t see ourselves that way. I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence.
I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.
I think this is a very important statement because sometimes people perceive racism as just one answer, but there are so many aspects to racism that are unknown like systemic racism and I think it is important for people to understand that racism is so much more than an individuals prejudice. I highlighted this statement because it manifests the idea that racism is systemic issue.
Minji, this is a great point. We will actually dedicate one class period to talking about institutional racism and another to individual racism. I hope that we will have good conversations about both!
My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow “them” to be more like “us.”
I think this is an important statement in recognizing white privilege. Moreso, because this notion has a direct affect on the identity of marginalized groups in that they feel that they need to liken themselves to fit the “ideal,normal” whiteness. You see this for example, in the early 2000s it was a huge deal in the black community for black women to straighten their hair to appear more “professional” because the blackness in the natural hairstyle is deemed "unruly or unprofessional.
Sociology definitely gives us some tools to think about how white privilege is taught. For example, we might think back to our conversations about primary and secondary socialization and consider how we are socialized into racial categories.
I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions which I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can see, my African American co- workers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and line of work cannot count on most of these conditions.
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I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
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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.
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I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
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Oct 11This condition of white privilege reminded me of the play “A Raisin in the Sun”, which discusses the sobering reality of housing discrimination (which still occurs today) and how unwelcome the Younger family was in their new neighborhood.
Oct 11Glory, this is a great connection. One interesting thing to think about is what this looks like today. As you mentioned, it definitely still occurs. It would be interesting to consider if the ways in which it happens are still the same.
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I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
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Oct 11I feel that anyone regardless of race is not safe all the time mainly women
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : Annie - good point that some of this privilege could also be seen through the lens of social class, gender, sexuality, etc. It is important to see the similarities but also to not lose sight of race by just lumping everything together. -
I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
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When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
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I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
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If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
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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 that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who
can cut my hair.
10. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
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No paragraph-level conversations. Start one.12. 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.
13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
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Oct 11The author brings up an important point that is all too familiar for people of color. It is white privilege to be able to live life without worrying if their actions or the actions of others would have negative consequences to how people view their race as a whole. People of color are seen as representatives of their race rather than individuals in their everyday lives.
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : Yes...I am hopeful that we can avoid this in our conversations! It is a common challenge in conversations about race and many other identities.16. 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.
17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
18. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my race.
19. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been
singled out because of my race.
20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.
21. 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.
22. Icantakeajobwithan affirmative action employer without having co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.
23. I can choose public accommodations without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
24. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
25. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.
26. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more less match my skin.
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No paragraph-level conversations. Start one.I repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it down. For me, white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are
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Oct 11This sentence is important because very often white people forget their privilege and this can cause issues for people who do not have the same privilege. We shouldn’t constantly be forgetting these privileges we have because it makes us less likely to help decrease white privilege in the future.
Oct 11Sidney, this is a good point and something we will discuss in class on Monday. So often when we talk about race and racism we talk about the experiences of people who aren’t white and the disadvantages they have experienced. While this is a very important aspect of the conversation, we also need to consider what role whiteness plays in this dynamic.
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Oct 10Bryce Clapp Bryce Clapp : I think this is a short list compared to all of the things that come with white privilege. I think that the list is infinite and can't be completely comprehended.
Oct 11Good point Bryce. The full article actually has MANY more and numerous other scholars and practitioners have added on to her list.
true, this is not such a free country; one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.
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Oct 9Amy Karns Amy Karns : I highlighted this as important because I thought it related to the book Outliers. It relates to the idea that our success can come from outside factors besides our own merit, including our privilege.In unpacking this invisible knapsack of white privilege, I have listed conditions of daily experience that I once took for granted. Nor did I think of any of these perquisites as bad for the holder. I now think that we need a more finely differentiated taxonomy of privilege, for some of these varieties are only what one would want for everyone in a just society, and others give license to be ignorant, oblivious, arrogant and destructive.
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Oct 11Constance Smith Constance Smith : I really liked the metaphor of the paragraph. I also think it's great that the author painted privilege in a much clearer picture.Paragraph 42, Sentence 1 0
Oct 10Bryce Clapp Bryce Clapp : I like the comparison to an invisible knapsack because white privilege isn't always seen but it's always there to weigh us down.
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : I agree - it is a good analogy. White people have these things in their knapsacks that they can pull out whenever they want. And they are always with them.Paragraph 42, Sentence 3 0
Oct 10Morgan Roberts Morgan Roberts : I agree with the idea that we need to define the various forms of privilege versus simplifying it into one idea. By doing so we can highlight what we would want in a more just society and help others acknowledge their privilege.
Oct 11Caroline Crumpler Caroline Crumpler : I thought this was important because it shows how many of us are living with privileges we don't even think about. When we don't recognize our privilege, we don't help the inequality gap that keeps getting larger
Oct 11White privilege is so embedded in our society that simply trying to level the playing field is a huge task that needs to be broken up into a more specific plan. White privilege is almost a vague term nowadays, since many people only think of it superficially and do not think of it nearly as in depth as McIntosh did here.
Oct 11I think this is a really interesting point. We’ll talk a little about some of the reactions that people have when they hear the words “white privilege.” We’ll talk a little about how it is important to define it. Some of these words and phrases do lose their meaning.
I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions that were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turf, and I was among those who could control the turf.My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.
In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made inconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit, in turn,
upon people of color.
For this reason, the word “privilege” now seems to me misleading. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to overempower certain groups. Such privilege simply confers dominancebecause of one’s race or sex.
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Oct 10I think this is interesting. A lot of people I know do not believe in privilege or refuse to recognize it. I think just starting to recognize your birth or luck plays a huge role in how you are treated.
Oct 11Are you starting to get a better understanding of why we started the semester reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell? :)
I want, then, to distinguish between earned strength and unearned
power conferred systemically. Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate. But not all of the privileges on my list are inevitably damaging. Some, like the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you, or that your race will not count against you in court, should be the norm in a just society. Others, like the privilege to ignore less powerful people, distort the humanity of the holders as well as the ignored groups.Paragraph 47 0
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Oct 9This statement really helped me understand the true meaning of privilege even more because I think there is a common misconception of privilege, but now I know that privilege is more unearned advantages rather than being favored.
Oct 11I am so glad that you picked up on this Minji. We’ll talk about this a little more in class. This article isn’t suggesting that some white people don’t work hard or deserve success. It is, as you point out, revealing that being white provides different resources and opportunities than other racial categories.
Oct 11I really like this statement because it shows how the privileges the middle/upper middle classes have were not usually earned. We view people of higher social classes to be harder working and stronger, when in reality the people in lower classes are working even harder to get by.
Oct 11Caroline, this is a great insight. Sociologists view social class and race (and gender too!) as relational. It isn’t just that some people have more money than others or have a different skin color, etc. it is that having one characteristic comes at the expense of other groups. It is the relationship that is problematic. It’s like there is an “in group” and an “out group.” And, as we are learning, you have very little control over which one you are in.
We might at least start by distinguishing between positive advantages, which we can work to spread, and negative types of advantage, which unless rejected will always reinforce our present hierarchies. For example, the feeling that one belongs within the human circle, as Native Americans say, should not be seen as privilege for a few. Ideally it is an unearned entitlement. At present, since only a few have it, it is an unearned advantage for them. This paper results from a process of coming to
see that some of the power that I originally saw as attendant on being a human being in the United States consisted in unearned advantage and conferred dominance.
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Oct 7Matthew Baker Matthew Baker : What is the American Dream today? Is it only possible for select individuals because they take advantage of others disadvantages? Is our idea of America being a privileged country shortsighted?
Oct 11The question is: “Having described white privilege, what will I do to end it?
I have met very few men who are truly distressed about systemic, unearned male advantage and conferred dominance. And so one question for me and others like me is whether we will be like them, or whether we will get truly distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred dominance, and, if so, what will we do to lessen them. In any case, we need to do more work in identifying how they actually affect our daily lives. Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the U.S. think that racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color, they do not see “whiteness” as a racial identity. In addition, since race and sex are not the only advantaging systems at work, we need similarly to examine the daily experience of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion, or sexual orientation.
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Oct 11Although this may have been full true a few years ago, recent increase sin social media reliance have quickly brought attention tot he ongoing racial injustice acts made by those of higher authority. Bringing awareness to this issue on the numerous popular platforms has allowed for those considered more “sheltered” to have the curtain pulled on realities faced by non-white individuals in our society.
Oct 11Paige, these are good points. It will be interesting to think more about whether we think the Black Lives Matter movement and other current events are bringing more attention to white privilege. The role of social media is indeed an important part of this conversation.
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Oct 10Morgan Roberts Morgan Roberts : I think the author is definitely using her sense of sociological mindfulness by acknowledging various advantages that are at work. One that I hadn't thought of before was the advantages associated with physical ability.
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : Good point! Sociologists are increasingly studying inequality due to physical ability.
Oct 11Everybody has more “hidden” advantages and disadvantages than we may think and it is important to learn to recognize these specific traits in order for any real change to happen.
Oct 11Hopefully, by the end of the semester you will see many of the different ways that these advantages and disadvantages appear.
Difficulties and dangers surrounding the task of finding parallels are many. Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantages
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Oct 12This makes me think a lot about the intersectionality of many sociological issues that I’ve learned about in sociology and WGS classes. You can’t look at a situation of discrimination without looking at all the factors affecting it. A great example of this is looking at the American experience of being both a woman and Black.
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Oct 11I think racism, sexism and heterosexism are sometimes clumped together because there is a group/groups that are disadvantaged. Typically they need to call on other groups in order to get the support they need to dismantle the oppression. While they should not be thought of as the same thing, I think they are because they call on voices in other disadvantaged groups to gain more power.
Oct 11Sidney, good points. I would agree that there are some similarities and also some differences. In our class we look at them separately…it is often easier for people to get a basic understanding this way first. But most sociologists today look at the impact of race, class, gender and other important social categories together. As you might imagine, the discrimination that a Black, heterosexual woman might face could be very different than a Black, heterosexual man.
associated with them should not be seen as the same. In addition, it is hard to disentangle aspects of unearned advantage which rest more on social class, economic class, race, religion, sex, and ethnic identity than on other factors. Still, all of the oppressions are interlocking, as the Combahee River Collective Statement of 1977 continues to remind us eloquently.
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Oct 11I did further research on the Combahee River Statement written in 1977, which was founded by an organization of Black feminists. I wouldn’t have known anything about and continued reading through this article. Although this organization is valid as a method to discuss issues formulated against Black feminists, in backfires on the point made in this claim of interlocking oppressions. The specifics of this reference may not be useful to defend all forms of oppression that are present in society.
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : Looking forward to talking about this topic more! I am glad that you were so intrigued that you did a little additional reading.One factor seems clear about all of the interlocking oppressions. They take both active forms, which we can see, and embedded forms, which as a member of the dominant group one is taught not to see. In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.
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Oct 9Amy Karns Amy Karns : I think this statement is important because it is true for a lot of us. At least in my own experience, systemic racism was not talked about or explained by teachers or other adults. Only individual racist acts or remarks were ever recognized.
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : Fascinating! This is interesting to hear. We will definitely talk about both.
Oct 11This statement reminded me of when recently I was talking to someone who was trying to tell me that racism was not systemic. It was like talking to a wall because he could not see how this could be true; he never experienced it and he ultimately benefited from the system. I remember how frustrating the conversation was but also I understood that this was not something that we were taught growing up, so it may have been hard to grasp, as Amy mentioned.
Oct 11Yes, these conversations can be frustrating. I’m hopeful that we will uncover enough sociological evidence for people to see the important role that institutional racism continues to play in our society.
Disapproving of the systems won’t be enough to change them. I was taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitudes. But a “white” skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. Individual acts can palliate, but cannot end, these problems.
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Oct 10I think especially now it seems that when there is a big issue there is temporary outrage for a few weeks at most, but then something else takes the spotlight. Is this new or has this always happened?
Oct 11I hope we will get to talk about this one a little in class. Will be interesting to hear your thoughts and those of others. As you know, sociologists study many things. One of those things is social change and social movements. Towards the end of the semester we will talk even more about how change happens and the nature of social movements.
To redesign social systems, we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool
here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these taboo subjects. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.
It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.
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Oct 11It’s not enough to acknowledge the privileged in many shapes and forms are present in society. This has been made clear for decades. I highlighted this paragraph because makes a good point about the few who stay with the most money and power, and the kids and those of the same class have unearned privilege which should be used to reduce the pressures of those without racial or gender privledge.
Oct 11Stacy Bluth Stacy Bluth : Good point - does it remind you a little of Malcolm Gladwell and Outliers?Paragraph 58, Sentence 1 0
Oct 7Matthew Baker Matthew Baker : A testament to the importance of education, and that the group that controls education controls how people view things. How different would America be if our teachers taught differently? [Edited]
Oct 11You are asking one of my favorite questions. I think it is an important one. Hoping that we get to talk about this one a little! I would imagine that we could think about some of the things we have talked about with identity, culture and primary and secondary socialization to help us answer your question.
Although systemic change takes many decades, there are pressing questions for me and I imagine for some others like me if we raise our daily consciousness on the perquisites of being light- skinned. What will we do with such knowledge? As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden systems of advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base.
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