White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack Analysis

We are always trying to figure out where we are in this world, or how we got where we are today. Obviously you have no choice of parents or where your born and these are two major contributing factors of who am I today. Being born white and a male society has immediately granted social advantages or white privileges. But, how privileged was I really? Being born in a highly populated city to first generations Americans without high school diplomas. I did have some advantages and I realized them growing up around my non-white friends. But compared to other white people I didn’t see my self privileged in many ways.

For my critical thinking assignment I was asked, what privileges do I have, that I don’t give much thought to. I have many privileges I don’t give much thought to, such as having a home with comfortable furnishings, having food to eat and never going hungry. I also have a car that gets me to and from places I need to be. I always have clean clothes that are weather appropriate. It’s a privilege of mine to walk, see, hear, and speak; also to have the freedom to be who I want to be. A privilege that is so meaningful, that I often take for granted is spending time with my family and friends. Another privilege I take for granted is being able to attend a diverse college and be able to have relationships with people of

The author of the "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D., is an American feminist and anti-racist activist, the associate director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, and a speaker, founder, and co-director of the National S.E.E.D. Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity). The text appeared in 1988, as a part of Peggy McIntosh’s essay "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies", and was written for High school students, college students, and beyond. She thinks that whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privileges, and as one who writes about having white privilege, she must ask: “what will I do to lessen or end it?” McIntosh wants to encourage white people to start recognizing situations in which they are privileged because of their skin color. That way would be more people to help lessen this problem, and make changes in our social system.

According to “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh; she feels that there are various advantages every white person gets, without even realizing it.

-She writes that white privilege is invisible because as a white person some don't realize all the privileges they have.

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

This week’s readings, podcast, and videos were very interesting to learn about white privilege. The term white privilege means the systematic advantages of being white (Tatum Racism: Can We Talk?). The topic white privilege is an exceptionally difficult to discuss for the reason that many white people don’t feel influential or identify they have privileges compared to other individuals in society may not feel differently about white privilege. For example in the article White Privilege Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy McIntosh, a white feminist scholar identified of society privileges that she received simply because she is White (Tatum Racism: Can We Talk? p 8). Therefore when each individual learns about his or her own privileges there

As an individual with an eclectic variety of European descent, I have experienced white privilege. White privilege, prevalent in Western countries like the United States, is a societal structure that puts those who are non-white at a political and sometimes economic disadvantage. Many who do not face these negative experiences are not made aware of the effects white privilege has on their life, unfortunately. Having grown up in Los Angeles, I naively thought I was well versed in racial injustice. It wasn't until I met my partner, and made a deep connection with an individual whose life is negatively affected by the same privilege that benefits me that I began to understand. By sharing their experiences as a non-white citizen of this country,

In 1988, Peggy McIntosh wrote an article in the book Things Are Not What They Seem: Readings in Sociology entitled “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies”. Such a long title seems humorously unnecessary, is spite of the serious nature of its subject matter. In short, when McIntosh refers to “white privilege” she means that being of white decent allows her a set of assets at birth that people of color are not afforded, simply due to the light color of her skin. McIntosh proposes that white privilege is invisible to most Caucasians because they are not taught by their parents, teachers, or society that they are any better than other people. This is a double-edged sword because, while it allows some individuals to remain humble and socially compassionate, it blinds them to the fact the being white allows to a myriad of benefits not given to those of a darker skin tone. Of the unconscious benefits of being Caucasian that McIntosh listed, the two that I found most interesting were number seventeen (“I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color”) and number forty-six (“I can choose blemish cover or bandages in ‘flesh’ color and have them more or less match my skin”). The former interested me the most because I do not associate basic table manners with someone’s racial background. If a person eats sloppily I normally put it down to them simply lacking essential etiquette

According to McIntosh, 1988; White Privilege is defined as an expression of power and social dominance of white European Americans over racial and ethnic minorities through the attainment of unearned immunities and benefits. These benefits are individual experiences, institutional benefits, and using things representative to the culture and being able to disregard culture contributions of other groups by racial and ethnic. According to McIntosh 1988; racial privileges are like having “invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, emergency gear, and blank checks (p.77). Racial privileges are benefits that are not earned based but received because someone is white. Having benefits that are unearned

Whether intentional or not, white privilege often affords white people opportunities that are not made available to those of other races. This is especially true of educational and economic opportunity. One cannot underestimate the legacy of racial oppression in the United States as it contributes to this idea of white privilege. Historically, even after the abolition of slavery, social

After reading the article by McIntosh I was in complete agreement. I feel it is uncommon for the privileged group to recognize their own privilege. I know I have had conversations with my peers about white privilege and those conversations have not lead to the agreement that there is white privilege. I think you really need to do as the author did and list things that you would otherwise take for granted, find what is in our knapsacks. I find that I am always checking myself when it comes to my interactions with others. Did I act a certain way due to the race of the people I am around? From the article by Bronson, it is discussed how children differentiate on their own. Our brains are wired to find the similarities and relate to those. It makes

White privilege is not taught to whites as the disadvantages are taught to the minority by the white race from birth. When a white person walks into a store they are looked upon with respect and it is assumed that they are not there to steal or vandalize property, they are automatically trusted as a quality citizen. The white race is unaware of their privilege because they have never had to experience the glares, or being followed around the store, automatically assuming they are there to steal or harm someone. White=good in every aspect of society because it is the norm, it is an unconscious advantage that is used in the conscious mind of all whites. These cultural mechanisms lead white people to be seen as trustworthy, honest, overall decent

They fought for their freedom, to not be slaves; they fought for their freedom to be an equal. But yet they are still paid lower and thought of as “problem people”. How is white privilege still seen today? White privileges are still happening today in our non-segregated era, we are thought to be equal but there are still imbalances with our social and economical ways. In this paper, I will discuss how white privilege was seen in the past history, and in the present with social and economical ways.

Male privilege has existed for centuries, but it was not widely discussed until around 1988 when Peggy McIntosh, a scholar working for Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, wrote a paper titled, “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies,”. The paper takes a look both at white and male privilege, with a long list of 46 examples of McIntosh’s own, self-recognized privilege as a white woman. The paper sparked a massive controversy and extremely opposing opinions on privilege. David Horowitz, an American writer with deep conservative views and values, deemed McIntosh one of “America’s ten wackiest feminists”.