So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of white privilege that was similarly denied and protected. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened or ended. Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages. They may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Through work to bring materials from Women’s Studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group. These articles may not be electronically posted except by the National SEED Project. McIntosh's lists must not be taken out of their autobiographical contexts. 10-12, a publication of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Philadelphia, PA.įor use in a bound volume there will be a copyright fee. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" first appeared in Peace and Freedom Magazine, July/August, 1989, pp. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
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