White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"

By: Peggy Mclntosh

Quotes Prompt

     "I was taught to see racism as only in individual acts of meanness, 
not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group."

     The above quote is what the author starts the article off with. By this quote she is setting up her main point which is that white people have an unwritten dominance over any other race. The word "conferring" is a very appropriate term for what she is portraying. Conferring is the transfer of information; whether or not this information is being push upon something, or given to. Mclntosh explains how the race barrier can also be seen from male to female in the same race. Men tend to have an advantage over women; however they are less apt to admit that than they are that women are at a disadvantage. People in power are more willing to acknowledge others struggles rather than their own privilege. 

"I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, 

as males are taught not to recognize male privilege."

     An article written by Tanya Somander explores the value of a dollar between men and women. The study shows that for every one American dollar earned by a man, a woman will receive $0.78. Although this article was posted over a year ago, the study still stands true. They then compared the pay of women who are non-hispanic black will make $0.64 and hispanic women will make $0.56. A hispanic woman makes almost half the amount of a white male who is equally qualified and experienced. This helps strengthen Mclntoshe's point that the correlation between white privilege and male privilege isn't that far off. 

"When I am told about our national heritage or 'civilization,'

I am shown that people of my color made it what it is."

      This is taken from the "white privilege" list in the article. There are countless examples of how whiteness is subconsciously valued in everyday encounters. Mclntoshe explains that white children will be taught that people of the same race were the most progressive when establishing "civilization." While children who are of color will not have this relation as much. This can also be affiliated between man and women. Although there are many progressive women that are taught in schools, the majority of history is about white men paving the way for everyone else.

Questions-Comments-Points to share:

I really liked Mclntosh's relation between the race gap as well as the gender gap. I think that this relates to the idea of "tapping the glass" that we talked about in class. In today's society maleness and whiteness is valued in our society as uncovered by our SCHWAAMP activity. Our ideology is based around people being white, straight, male's and anything that challenges this is often shut down. Mclntosh challenges this idea by talking about the social norms that favor white culture. She doesn't blame this ideology on any one person; but she presents the idea that people push this idea onto white's as well as white's bestowing their culture on the world. 

I also found the initial quote along the same lines of Delpit's "rules of power." "If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that power makes acquiring power easier." People who are in power don't seem to want to recognize it; but those who do not have power seem much more aware of it.