Talking Points #1

White Privilege:  Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Peggy McIntosh

Quotes:
1.  "Through work to bring materials from Women's Studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed that men's unwillingness to grant that they are over privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged.  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."  Every one is privileged or under privileged in some ways.  Men are privileged and are turned to for a lot of things.  This quite reminds me of my own experience.  At my old job, my boss would send a male to help me set up stuff or do something when I didn't even ask for the help.  He assumed that because I am a female I couldn't do it on my own without the help of a male. 

2.  "I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege...White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."  This is a very interesting way to look at this subject matter.  A lot of the time we will say we do not have any privilege over others and as a white, over a black, but we do.  If we were on the other side and felt under privileged, I'm sure we would see just how much whites are more privileged than blacks for really bad reasons. 

3.  "4. I can go shopping along most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed."  I am pretty much addicted to shopping and I have never thought about this.  I can go into stores without having this thought that I am being stared at and having a stereotype used against me.  My old boss would always follow everyone that wasn't white and any person that was younger than 30.  He used this stereotype all of the time in his store and would follow people he didn't trust and I never really thought about it until now.

White privilege is existent whether or not we like to admit it.  The person with the power will usually be the stereotypical heterosexual, white, male.  As a white female, I can notice how I am both privileged and under privileged.  I do agree with Peggy McIntosh that white people are privileged, I just never really noticed it...maybe I didn't want to admit it because I feel that we should all be treated equally.  I know that I feel awful when someone judges me about something because I am a female, so I can understand how blacks feel when people use stereotypes against them.  The stereotypes that have been around forever is what's preventing all humans to be treated equally.  Just because I can't carry 500 pounds doesn't mean I can only carry 10 pounds because I am a female.  And just because someone has dark skin, does not mean they need to be followed around a store and not trusted.