...White men are commonly the most targeted group in terms of being privileged and are often times offended, but maybe the reason is not because it is false. The idea of white privilege is something whites seldom realize and colored people will never experience. It is the preference of one race over the other that exists in the many dimensions of society and it still exists today. People of color are at more risk of injustices due to this concept. The need to constantly be aware of one’s surroundings at all times can be found in some racial groups more than others. Peggy McIntosh wrote an essay called “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” in 1989 where she boldly brought to the attention of Americans this societal phenomenon. She refers to herself and indirectly mentions hardships faced by colored people in...
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...social phenomenon of 'white privilege' is defined in various ways from different scholars. White privilege is defined as having unearned benefits, rights and advantages that one receives because of one's race. Peggy McIntosh understands the privileges that are appointed to her simply because she is white. (White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, McIntosh, 1988) The thesis of McIntosh's article is that white privilege is burdensome to people who have or have not encountered white privilege. / To those who have or have not encountered white privilege, it is burdensome. Mcintosh identifies herself for having white privilege. In the article she analyzed how having white privilege in her daily life affected her. McIntosh encountered situations such as not getting questions when discussing matters of race or being able to go to most places and finding those of her own skin, even being able to find bandages that will more than likely match her skin tone. Different scholars have distinct meanings for white privilege. The social phenomenon of white privilege is complex. Different scholars have a different say of what white privilege means. Naomi Zack, a professor of...
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...Peggy McIntosh sees white privilege as “an invisible package of unearned assets which she can count on cashing in each day.” Prior to her acknowledgement of the advantages of being a white woman, she was under the impression that remaining neutral when it comes to race is ideal. Although McIntosh’s comparison of white privilege as an invisible knapsack is a wonderful description of special provisions that she enjoys, the naivety and failure to recognize this privileged is harmful to those without it. She recognizes that her life as a white woman has had the benefit of having doors opened for her even if she has no other defining characteristic value. White privilege systemically places those who are not white at a disadvantage as they strive...
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...the dominant, Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” explores the special circumstances and benefits she experiences as a white person, which she outlines to be often analogous to the unearned advantage of men in the patriarchal system. These societal advantages were not earned but were given on the basis of skin colour, which are often denied and protected by those experiencing white privilege, despite creating a very real influence on society. These notions of a disadvantage for one race and an advantage for another are developed and backed by different sociological studies throughout the paper. The race to which someone...
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...Hao Ha 11/18/13 Education 305 White Privilege This week’s reading by Peggy McIntosh’s, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack really resonated with me. It forced me to think about how being white grants a person a set of positive privileges that others don’t have. Because of this, I felt compelled to write a response. I will start with her argument, make a comparison to another reading, provide the context for her article, and lastly issue some of my own opinions on the topic. Argument McIntosh’s argument is based on the idea of how a white person is taught that racism is something that puts others at a disadvantage, but never seeing it in the perspective of how being white puts a person at an advantage. She discusses how it is like having “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day “. She compares the situation to how males don’t recognize their male privileges. They are oppressing people in ways that are unconscious to them. To demonstrate her ideas, she creates a list with twenty six items, which showcase white privilege. Comparison In McIntosh’s article, she talks about how white people unconsciously oppress others of different races. They have a set of privileges and conditions that set them apart from others in a beneficial way, which “confers dominance”. This is something that happens subconsciously once they are born, a result of society’s hidden bias towards the white race. This made me think about David...
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...the same way manifest destiny- god wanted white people to take all the land in the US away from those who once held it white moral superiority- whites are so good white racelessness- whites don’t have a race, we’re “normal’ and race means other than white white privilege- system of advantages based on race- more trusted, empowered, rewarded-unearned advantages of being white- no shame blame guilt or anger for being white- privileges- school promotes success, dr’s treat you, nobody thinks you’re stealing system is unjust such relief in trust we didn’t create the systems but we can change the way we view race base how you feel about race and other systems of your life- taught not to see systems blame shame guilt or anger if you feel about race rather than use your own life to allow you to make your own mind up Peggy McIntosh is the associate director for the Wellesley Centers for Women and a very passionate anti-racism activist. McIntosh has a lot of knowledge and wisdom in the fields of race and gender, and does a great job of exemplifying this in the video. McIntosh speaks of several myths about race, unearned advantages that the white race has, and also speaks on the different thoughts and emotions felt by society in regards to race. The first myth, meritocracy, states that everybody simply gets what they deserve. The second is manifest destiny. Manifest destiny is the myth stating God wants white people to take all the land in the United States...
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...This article examines different ways that people experience the world based on privileges gained at birth such as race, gender identity, class, citizenship, and ability. The author shows that these factors can lead to inequality or privileges. The author examines Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 piece, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” in which she claims that being born white in America provides individuals with privileges that other races are denied. The author claims that although there are privileges associated with being born white, his skin color did not prevent his suffering from poverty. This author claims that race is just one factor that could lend to privileges at birth. Intersectionality is the concept that “recognizes...
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...According to the author Peggy McIntosh privilege is like an “invisible, weightless knapsack” she writes that white men are oblivious to their privileges. That white men walk around in denial and although white men acknowledge the disadvantages of women – men will not support the idea of lessening their privilege’s. I ask why they should lessen their privileges? I know I wouldn’t - anyone in their right mind would not. Instead of taking away they can help the disadvantaged. What privileges would you add to this list when examining your own experiences? What privileges would I add to Peggy McIntosh’s list? – I cannot think of anything to add. I can disagree with what is on the list. I don’t think that I could live anywhere I wanted to and be accepted. I do think men and women are judged by their body size, type, smell and appearance. I do think that if a person no matter what race, or gender talking with their mouth full of food is just plan...
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...In the excerpt, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, the author commences the paper with her current work on women’s studies. McIntosh enlightens us on her findings on how men are over privileged and are reluctant to admit so. They are aware of their current advantage over women, but rather than acknowledging they are privileged, men simply indicate their support towards fighting for a better-quality status for women. Yet, they will never support the reduction of their standing. This incident approached McIntosh’s awareness to a similar occurrence with the idea of white privilege. She began to realize that just as men acknowledge their advantage over women, whites acknowledge their benefits over people of...
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...experience is seen by white people, but what white people do not see is how they are less likely to experience the same inequalities. When the idea of white privilege is brought up to white people, they often come off as defensive and contend that “you people” are the ones bringing it upon yourselves. The system is set up to empower white people since they are the majority and the ones holding most of the power. Peggy McIntosh’s article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, exposes the problematic issue of white privilege, the daily struggles minority groups face, and how the United States must fix the system to truly bring equality for all....
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...In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh describes the conditions that her white privilege provides for her on a daily basis. McIntosh explains white privilege as a transparent backpack of sorts, full of objects that would make life somewhat easier, such as maps, passports, and blank checks. She lists fifty items that she could often find true in her own life, but not true for African Americans she knew in the 1980s. These fifty things are powerful and most whites, such as myself, never even sat down and thought about how many advantages their skin color gets them, let alone wrote them down on paper. McIntosh notes that on multiple occasions she forgot the points on her list until she began to write them all down. The advantages of white people are oblivious to white people, and that is what shocked me the most. Knowing that this paper was written in relation to McIntosh and...
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...standard of American lifestyle, while being invisible to those who possess the privileges and benefits of meeting its requirements. Communication must be done with a level sense of purpose and reason; conversely, the mindset of Blacks and Whites is not necessarily “Black and White”. a) In Peggy McIntosh’s work “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, she emphasizes the effort Whites must take to simply comprehend and acknowledge that their lives, in general, are not the same as those of color. (McIntosh, YEAR???) The article continues to express White privilege as a force of supremacy and dominance that is underlined by a large array of benefits and favors packaged together in an “invisible knapsack”. Much like male privilege, rather than release some of the power of being White, the actions taken are often to raise the glass ceiling of non-Whites to a higher level. What this does, consequently, is maintain the White superiority and...
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...White privilege is an advantage in society that is unmerited. Though it is practiced in every day life (whether it’s subtle or not), the majority views it as “absurd” and “non-existent”. Whiteness and white privilege are taboos that create feelings of guilt, hostility and anger whenever discussed by people of colour (hooks, 339), but it must be addressed and understood in order to be eradicated. Racism shapes the lives of white people, not only the lives of people of colour (Frankenberg, 1). When white privilege is ignored, white people are able to maintain power and dominance in our “post-racial” society. (Mcintosh, 33). In this essay, I will argue that widespread media representation and housing opportunities are the most important features of white privilege, using ideas from Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, bell hooks’ Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination and Ruth Frankenberg’s Introduction: Points of Origin, Points of Departure. Widespread representation is the most important feature of white privilege because we live in an age where the media not only reflects our real worldviews and attitudes, but also controls them. The second most important feature of white privilege is adequate housing opportunities. It is necessary for white people to acknowledge their part in benefiting from a society that has thrived on racial hierarchy and white supremacy for centuries and these two aspects are key in reaching that. Firstly, white...
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...The Invisible/Visible Lens It wasn’t until more recent years that I became aware of two aspects of my identity that I never noticed but others clearly saw when they looked at me. Those two aspects are my race and my gender. Of course I have always known that I am a female and I am white, but I never knew that those two labels could possibly define my value to the world around me. In this paper I plan to discuss how being a female impacts my life in different ways then it could others and how the color of my skin alters the path I will take in life. First, I would like to draw on the article by Betsy Lucal, What It Takes To Be Gendered Me. She mentions how gender has been socially constructed into our everyday lives and how we “do” gender....
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...Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack illustrates this trending tendency for whites to self-guilt themselves for the sake of validate themselves as “not racists.” McIntosh, a white woman, lists off what she believes to be privileges in her favor but against any colored person simply because they are colored. However, these privileges she lists off can be worked around to work for any other ethnicity. One such privilege listed reads, “I can go into a music shop and count on finding music of my race represented…” (McIntosh 98). This “privilege” that she is supposedly granted for being white is flawed because it can work for any race. A music store does not simply carry one genre of music that represents only one race but rather all types of music from all kinds of backgrounds and origins. Chances are, the majority of races can be represented in some way in a music store through the origins of its music. This trend of self-guilt does nothing for the advancement of anti-racism, rather it creates new racism only this time against...
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