About White Privilege

Objective: To reflect on racial privilege.

Duration: 45 minutes / 1 hour

Materials: A quiet space where you can reflect on the whole text: “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy Mcintosh (in Peace and Freedom, July/August 1989), available online 

Development

We invite you to carefully read the online text “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” and to reflect (mentally or in writing, if you need to) on the phrases below.

  1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
  2. If I have to move, I can be quite sure that I will be able to rent or buy a house in an area where I can afford to live and want to live.
  3. I can be very sure that my new neighbours will be neutral or nice to me.
  4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, very confident that no one will follow or harass me.
  5. I can turn on the TV or unfold the front page of the newspaper and see that people of my race are widely represented.
  6. When they talk to me about our national heritage or “civilisation,” they show me that people of my colour made it what it is today.
  7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular material which reveals the existence of their race.
  8. If I want to, I can find a publisher who will publish this article on white privilege.
  9. I can walk into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented; into a supermarket and count on finding the staples that fit my cultural traditions; into a barber shop and count on finding someone to cut my hair.
  10. Whether I use cheques, credit cards, or cash, I am confident that the colour of my skin will not have a negative effect on the chance of financial solvency.
  11. I can take steps to protect my children, most of the time, from people they might not like.
  12. I can curse, or wear second-hand clothes, or not answer letters, without attributing these decisions to the bad moral principles, poverty, or ignorance of my race.
  13. I can speak in public to a group of powerful people without putting my race to the test.
  14. I can act well in a difficult situation without being said to be a pride to my race.

References/resources for further work on the subject

  • hooks bell (2013). Writing beyond race: living theory and practice (1st ed.). Routledge.
  • Audre Lorde (1981). “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding po Racism”. Keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Storrs, Connecticut. 
  • Robin DiAngelo (2011). White Fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 3 (3) pp 54-70. 
  • [in Spanish] To read more about privilege click here