White privilege: Unpacking the Invisible knapsack – Peggy McIntosh

Summary

Peggy McIntosh unpacks the idea of white privilege as not only being an external manifestation (active form) of the trappings of privilege, but also as a hidden system (embedded form) that perpetuates white privilege. This system is hidden and indeed, suppressed from the ones perpetuating it and it therefore becomes an intrinsic and insidious part of their lives while at the same time being visible to the victims of white privilege. This distinction came about through Ms McIntosh’s drawing parallels with unacknowledged male privilege. She talks about moving the conversation from the disadvantage of the victims to acknowledgement of the advantage of the perpetrators. She points out that her upbringing as a white was such that she believed her values and norms were average. This resulted in the unacknowledged approach that helping disadvantaged people helped them to achieve what she considered was the norm.

By becoming aware of the problem, Ms McIntosh describes 50 aspects of her daily experience which show that she has white privilege and indicated that these confer on her not so much privilege but a power over disadvantaged groups. She draws the distinction between earned strength and unearned power and suggests that basic privilege should be available for all and points out that although positive advantages do exist, the negative advantages perpetuate the problematic hierarchies in society. She indicates that systematic change of white privilege (and she mentions other privileges too such as sexual and age privilege) is a lengthy process and wonders if the “arbitrarily awarded power” she has become aware of can be used to effect change to the unequal power systems.

Psychological concepts discussed

Concept	Discussion
denial	Denial protects privilege
racism	Related  to the concept of unearned power and takes the forms of active and embedded oppression
privilege	Earned or unearned power over others
unconciousness	Non-awareness
Confidence/unconfidence	Those in power have confidence. The oppressed do not.
alienation	What happens when one group is oblivious of aother group. The other group becomes alienated
empowerment	The act of having power over something
dominance	Also related to the concepts of power and empowerment
distress	Described as lacking among many males with respect to unfair male advantage
racism, sexism, and heterosexism	Described as separate  concepts related to the overarching concept of disadvantage and they cannot be seen in parallel according to Ms McIntosh as the disadvantages they confer differ.
Shared disadvantages	Despite the differing advantages as mentioned above, the concepts are related to each other
oppression	Described as active (visible) and embedded forms (hidden)
attitude	Ms McIntosh suggests that changing the attitude of whites is not enough when it comes to removing white privilege or even becoming aware of it

Related Psychological Concepts

Ms McIntosh touches on a number of psychological concepts, some of  which deal with cognitive psychology (awareness, unconsciousness, denial),  concepts of social psychology, power dynamics and dominance, racism and other “isms”. She takes a social constructivist view and I suggest that because she refers to herself and her own experiences throughout the article, it could be construed as autoethnographic.

Reflection

This article left quite an impression on me and introduced me to a way of thinking about racism and white privilege that I hadn’t thought of before. I have become very aware that I do have white privilege and I can see aspects of “age privilege” (I’d never heard that concept before) also coming to the fore. I have become aware that I do have certain privileges that others don’t have. I don’t feel though that it is fair for me to feel ashamed of it (other than on a level that it diminishes other people) as just as other people cannot choose what they were born as, so too it is impossible for me to change my past and my upbringing or even my age.  It is my story that is just as legitimate as other peoples’ stories. What does help is that I become aware of the situation of privilege I am in and that awareness helps me to become a better person.

Letter to Ms McIntosh

Dear Ms McIntosh
Your article has opened my eyes. I have now become very aware of what privileges I have (white privilege, age privilege and yes, gender privilege). I think you have highlighted a whole  different way of approaching the concept of privilege and I think your article should be compulsory reading for any adult. I do think though, that you are being very harsh on yourself in that your background and the ‘indoctrination’ you received was not of your choosing. It is part of you. You should use what you have learnt and move forward with it (though I agree, changing systems is a lengthy process and certainly won’t happen in our lifetime. The way forward is with  ‘Baby Steps’
Kind regards
Christine Bothma