The Readings White Privilege : Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack, By Peggy Mcintosh, White Women, Race Matters

The intended audience for this article is people of Caucasian descent. “Yes, we all have unconscious biases, but white people 's biases support a racist system”(Blake, 4). In America, the Civil Rights movement was about freedom of people of color from white supremacy. While people of color are able to enjoy freedoms that they were not able to enjoy in previous centuries, there are still remnants of racial prejudices that exist. The author argues that while everyone stereotypes, racism continues to persist because of the stereotypes of prominent white persons.

To begin, the first pivotal revelation is the concept of white privilege. White Privilege, as Peggy McIntosh specifies in her essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, is a set of unearned assets which a white person in America can count on cashing in each day yet they remain oblivious to. This theme resonates as prior to this course, though aware of certain advantages as a seemingly “white” person in society, I was unaware of its official terminology. Also, as a person with one quarter American Indian blood I’m classified as a minority, however, I’m

In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh argues that racism can be found imbedded into the culture of society; conferring and denying certain privileges on some rather than all. This is a dangerous cultivation; endowing a strong expectation that white privileges are naturally deserving. Furthermore, making the cornerstone of McIntosh’s main argument; that white privilege is just a less aggressive synonym for dominance. When you receive privileges for looking a certain type of way, the recipient becomes immune; often not being able to acknowledge their advantages. As a result, this creates a cultural divide, between racial groups.

There are many issues with varying amount of prevalence that need to be discussed in our world currently. Privilege is one of those issues. Jeremy Dowsett opens discussion on white privilege with his essay What My Bike Has Taught Me about White Privilege in which he speaks being a cyclist trying to navigate the road and stay safe. Jeremy Dowsett uses an extended analogy on the implications of living as a person of color in an infrastructure designed to benefit white people.

Yet, the most significant flaw in this essay can be seen through the author’s simplistic view of the scope of racial injustice. Remarkably, the author only refers to white privilege in terms of its impact on what she calls “the problems facing Black America.” She fails to acknowledge or perhaps has no insight that white privilege involves the preference for ‘whiteness’ over all persons of color. Every non-white group is impacted by individual and institutional racism. Every non-white group grows up with the knowledge that their white peers have certain automatic privileges. Every child of color has to learn to navigate through the floodwaters of racism

Peggy McIntosh, chapter on “White Privilege, color, and crime,” encourages readers to think about the world in the framework of race, class, and gender on a “White privilege” perspective. McIntosh

Peddy McIntosh highlighted various unearned white privileges in her autobiographical article “White Privilege, Color and Crime: A Personal Account.” She illustrated the white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that one white person could count on cashing in each day. White people have these privileges given to them by the society in which they live in. The same society taught them to be ignorant and unawareness of these privileges. This system of unearned privileges established by white individuals made people of color feel oppressed. In this system being white is a norm and dominant power. Caucasians, who benefit most from the white privilege system in the United States, are more likely to

Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” addresses the issue of acknowledging whites’ unaware privileges, thus weakening the systems of advantage to reconstruct power systems in the society from 1989 to the present. For instance, men are unconscious about their privileges in a patriarchal society while women are oppressed in the society. White people are unaware of the privileges which they take for granted while non-white communities are discriminated against repeatedly. McIntosh identities her privileges from daily life, which she also relates the patterns of white privilege and assumptions that passed down.

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”. It is a taboo that creates feelings of guilt, hostility and anger, but it must be addressed and understood in order to be eradicated. It is necessary for white people to acknowledge their part in maintaining and benefiting from a society that has thrived on racial hierarchy and white supremacy for centuries. White privilege is essentially the flip side of racism; racism does not only disadvantage people of colour, but grants white people power and dominance in our so-called “post-racial” society (McKintosh, 1). In this essay, I will argue that positive and widespread representation and implied acceptance are the most important features of white privilege. Widespread representation is the most important feature of white privilege because we live in an age where the media not only reflects, but also controls our real worldviews and attitudes. The second most important feature of white privilege is adequate housing opportunities and implied acceptance and respect. It is necessary to eliminate this system that puts people in power based on their skin tone and these two aspects are crucial in order to reach that.

Dowsett begins his essay with the topic of white privilege and the difficulty in discussing the topic amongst others, consequently translating poorly. To clarify the definition of white privilege, he writes that white privilege is not about placing blame or racism on white people. White privilege is the systematic imbalance in society geared to be in favor of white people. Using his bicyclist analogy, he hopes that it serves as an “a-ha” moment for those who struggle to accept that

In this spellbinding lecture, the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son offers a unique, inside-out view of race and racism in America. Expertly overcoming the defensiveness that often surrounds these issues, Wise provides a non-confrontational explanation of white privilege and the damage it does not only to people of color, but to white people as well. This is an invaluable classroom resource: an ideal introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new tool for exploring the often invoked – but seldom explained – concept of white privilege.

This essay will address key aspects of white privilege and pick the two most important aspects with explanations signifying the reasons for their choosing. An explicit aspect of white privilege is the fact that it is an automatic add-on to anybody satisfying the definition of “whiteness”. Whiteness is defined by Frankenberg (1993) as a concept/identity historically, socially, politically, and culturally produced involving systems of domination (p. 40) thereby privileging anyone who satisfies this definition. Another notable aspect of white privilege is the fact that white people are taught not to recognize their privilege (McIntosh, 2002, p. 33). On a more subtle level, white privilege is an ongoing, institutionalized remnant of colonization. Another aspect of white privilege is its ability in creating dichotomies with PoC. For example, whiteness is associated with “innocence” and “goodness” while blackness is associated with “evil” and “badness” (hooks, 1992, p. 49).

The article “The Great White Way” by Debra J. Dickerson attempts to show her readers that “Race is an arbitrary system for establishing hierarchy and privilege” (68) in America. In her article, Dickerson questions how “whiteness” leads America in our culture and society and how all the other races are defined in America. She also explains how history has divided whites from non-whites in America. The intended audience that Dickerson’s essay gravitated towards are political or liberal Americans. In her article “The Great White Way”. Debra J. Dickerson powerfully argues that race is an overall way to establish social classes and who and what get special privileges because of their certain race or skin color. Dickerson argues that “Race is

There are two prominent writer/scholars who have taken the issue of white privilege to heart and have shared their expert analysis on the subject; these authors/writer-scholars are Peggy McIntosh, a white feminist, and Beverly Tatum, an African American Psychologist. McIntosh, in her article "Coming to See Correspondences," makes excellent observations about the privilege that she has experienced just by being a white female in America. The two most significant points made by McIntosh

Wise’s examination of the inconspicuous character of racism 2.0 dovetails fittingly with our course’s recurring theme of institutionalized racism. In class lectures we have defined institutionalized racism as the discriminatory practices that have become regularized and routinized by state agencies, organizations, industries, or anywhere else in society. Although such practices might not be intentionally racist, they end up being racist nevertheless as consequence of the systematized and unspoken biases that have become increasingly convoluted and entrenched within society over time. It also doesn’t help white people to recognize these discriminatory practices considering they have been unconsciously tailored to be consistent with white perspective and mentality. In her article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh examines not only how white folks often consider themselves to be a normative figure within society, but also how they are carefully taught not to recognize the advantages they gain from the disadvantages that impair people of color. In the article, McIntosh acknowledges the reality of her own white privilege and expresses, “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” (McIntosh 4). In fact, even if white folks do not believe themselves to