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.
- I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
- 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.
- I can be very sure that my new neighbours will be neutral or nice to me.
- I can go shopping alone most of the time, very confident that no one will follow or harass me.
- I can turn on the TV or unfold the front page of the newspaper and see that people of my race are widely represented.
- 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.
- I can be sure that my children will be given curricular material which reveals the existence of their race.
- If I want to, I can find a publisher who will publish this article on white privilege.
- 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.
- 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.
- I can take steps to protect my children, most of the time, from people they might not like.
- 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.
- I can speak in public to a group of powerful people without putting my race to the test.
- 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