In the article from 1988 titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, the associate director of the Wellesley Center for Research on Women Peggy McIntosh argues about the white privilege in modern society and compares it to other forms of privilege in terms of race, gender and social status. She begins her article with stating that all of the privileges that occur in our society are of the same origin. By addressing the issue of gender and social status, she claims “Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women's disadvantages.” She goes on to say that these projections of privilege are often unnoticed, since people tend to accept them as normal aspects of human life.
The manifestations of privilege that concern McIntosh the most are those, which are left unnoticed. She uses the term “phenomenon” to describe the blindness with which people react to discussions about racism, xenophobia and privilege. She claims that even though white people are taught about racism, they still perceive these discussions as something that does not fully relate to them, since the society does not recognize it. In particular, McIntosh is worried that white people mask profound social or collective consciousness.
Jacob Bennett also brings up the issue of shifted consciousness in 2012, where he compares the moods in the modern society in regards to race and ethnicity in different periods of time. According to him, the most important problem in modern society is that even though people are aware of the different perception based on the race and gender, the issue lacks reflection in the everyday life.
After discussing effects of male privilege, McIntosh goes on to list the main privileges that she encountered in her life based on her ethnicity. She concludes the list by emphasizing that the privileges that she faced in her life are common to white people and are usually taken for granted. She calls her skin color “an asset” and insinuates that it was a decisive factor in some of her encounters. In further paragraphs she questions the term “privilege” and compares it to dominance and empowerment. She claims that while privilege is earned at birth, while dominance based on race or sex is earned throughout human life. According to her point of view, it is a person’s choice whether he decides to take merit from the privilege or not.
In the concluding paragraphs McIntosh goes back to say that white people seem to ignore the privileges and advantages that they gain at birth. She believes that people should reconsider their life values in order to allow everyone to be treated equally. She ends the narrative with a statement that raises discussion: “As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base.”
References
Bennett, J. (2012). White Privilege: A History of the Concept. Georgia State University: Scholar Works .
McIntosh, P. (1988). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies .
