I think the most powerful aspect of McIntosh's argument is its self-reflexivity: point 8 on her list mentions that if she wants, she can easily get her articles on these topics published. The idea that people in academia are not immune to white privilege is an important one, and McIntosh describes her realization that it plays out on her "own turf" and how she could now control this turf. This ties in with point 22 - about how taking a job with an affirmative action employer for white people never suggests that they were chosen based on race. White people, according to this argument, are chosen for their skill - or published because their arguments seem sound - and the same privilege is not always given to people without this privilege. The specificity of this type of white privilege is important for people to realize and discuss, because if we are pretending to live in a society based on meritocracy, then how do these assumptions still exist?
Thursday, February 7, 2008
McIntosh and White Privilege
In such a short article, Peggy McIntosh achieves so much. Her argument begins by discussing the privilege of males and how she sees so many men resist the idea that they are in any way "overprivileged," but then she proceeds to see this same scenario play out in racial issues. Her list of 26 ways in which white privilege plays out is fascinating first, because of how much white people have learned to take for granted and second, because of the wide scale that white privilege encompasses. From the color of band-aids all the way to the ability to speak out against the government, white privilege is so firmly entrenched within our society, and yet remains invisible - or at least a topic too underdiscussed.
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2 comments:
I agree that McIntosh's strongest tool in making this article so powerful is her use of self-reflection. I love her very candid way of approaching a subject that we instinctively overlook in our everyday lives. The list that she makes in the middle of her article is the most compelling piece in this whole article. As I thought about these points, I tried to picture myself in the shoes of different races in the same scenarios. I would feel more proud to see someone that looks like me on things that encompass my everyday life. I was surprised to see how much I accepted the white privilege that I have lived with almost my whole entire life. The system that the western world lives in has its roots in the white men that first founded that world. Purposefully or inadvertently, they have given themselves the advantage. If we wanted to get rid of the white privilege that defines our society, everything from the roots up must change. That kind of change is really hard. Currently, we try and use euphemism to cover the presence of racism but this won't make things go away. We need a change that is really dramatic that it might just change the definition of the western world if white privilege is do dissappear.
As I mentioned in my post as well, I really enjoyed McIntosh's candid writing style. I agree, too, that the list of 26 things in the middle of her piece was the strongest part of the entire article. Had McIntosh not included this very diversified and compelling list, it may have been difficult for the reader to understand exactly what the invisible backpack is. She lists things that many take for granted on a daily basis and forces us to rethink our place in contemporary society. Are we really as good as we have grown to believe? I also liked her references to privilege as its appear in the workplace. Privileges exist in a variety of forms in the workplace, and they are always entirely unfair. We want them to go away, but they just don't.
Similarly to Moi, I tried to place myself in each of the situations that McIntosh listed as white privilege. Although I did not feel exactly the same about all of them, I did understand the author's point of view and discourse on the subject. Despite race or sex, we all tend to grow up feeling somewhat privileged in certain ways because of our parents. Parents are so loving and nurturing, but how many times do you hear someone commenting on the ability or skills of their own child? I think that the problem largely surfaces at such a young age that it will be hard to diminish the importance of privilege in our society.
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