White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy Mcintosh illustrates an image of white superiority over other colored people. Peggy knapsack is lecturer and associate director at the Wellesley College Center where she does her research. Specifically focusing on women, gender equality and multi culture. Her legitimacy derives out of being some of the firsts scholars to examine whites to be measured in racial categories. Beginning with one of her first arguments, the author states that much like men having hierarchy over women, white colored people have immunities that people of colored skin do not. Just as she said “Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women’s studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men…
In this Tim Wise discusses how the so called white privilege came about in the United States and how it was a big joke. He talks about how especially back during the Civil War that the world was off balance. White people were clearly more privileged and they may not have realized it until slavery came about. He mentions that the middle class people were fooled by those of the Elite class. The Elite class made them feel as though they were more important than there servants, which were normally African Americans, even though, the Elite did not care what everyone thought, they just wanted to stay on top. They felt that to stay on top they must create a class system. Elite was better than the Middle and Lower class, the Middle class was better than the Lower class, and if you were in the lower class you were nothing. Whites tended to be in both the Elite class and the Middle class while the African Americans fell in the Lower class, thus creating privilege.…
I appreciate and thought the essays were illuminating. Peggy McIntosh’s piece was the most persuasive because it goes into specifics that allows readers to make personal and thus stronger connections. In closing, a point, I would like to raise about white privilege is that there is definitely individual variation in experience. Some European Americans have had it easier than others, most likely because they came from wealthy families that gave them even more privilege that just being white. Some European Americans have had it tougher than others because they came from families with less means.…
Peggy McIntosh and Tim Wise talks about white privilege; Peggy McIntosh explains how she enjoyed the white privilege through her life experience. She mentions how she always feels comfortable in public places when she uses credit card and checks or even browses in stores. She will never notice any shadowed or suspicious looks from security guards. Not only that, Peggy talks about how white privilege makes her life easier as a parent. In the Same way Tim Wise shows in his lecture that white men will be less likely to be stopped by authorities to search his car, unlike Latino and black African. In other hand, Peggy McIntosh explains how white person action doesn’t reflect on his race. Tim Wise agreed with her when he talks about white people…
white people deny such a privilege, and what the conditions of this privilege does for…
|White privilege |Is a belief that a white person has an advantage over non-white people because of the color of their |…
These White Privilege readings engage popular culture by defining white privilege through concrete evidence. Texts such as “White Privilege: Unpacking the Knapsack” ask the reader is to view a list of items that define white privilege. The reader is then asked to confirm whether or not the privileges are applicable to how he or she lives. As most white people realize just how applicable white privileges are to them, they can see that the problem is not just skin deep. The privileges white people have today are because of the white privileges available throughout history. In “The History of White People” the author unveils that most of what we study is a white man’s version of history, and therefore discredits other race’s contribution to history.…
In White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh provides vivid examples on how "white privilege" is considered to be unapparent for many white individuals and negatively affects people of color. White privilege is an “unearned advantage” given to Caucasian individuals, as it “confers dominance” by establishing that the is white race is superior (McIntosh, 1990). With white privilege, white individuals are protected from the “hostility, distress, and violence,” which is often associated with individuals of color (McIntosh, p. 332). White privilege gives these individuals the opportunity to receive vital educational, political, and social resources that may possibly be inaccessible for people of color. By providing awareness on how white privilege works and how it can be detrimental in the attempt to gain racial equity for individuals of color, this concept can work to improve racial equity by establishing educational programs that inform individuals on white privilege and ending political policies that serve as a measure to oppress individuals of color.…
In result, it is difficult for them to see the struggles of non-white people. McIntosh acknowledges this fact and was able to isolate herself from the community in order to look closely at the gap between the white people and the non-white people. Her tone was very neutral, she was not trying to be in favor to neither groups. I also appreciate the fact that she mentioned how she would forget these inequalities if she did not record them down in writing. It shows that she actually performed an observation to to be able to perceive the actual problems in the community, not making up a fake information to support her claims. In addition, her struggle to memorize the white privilege also support her earlier statement about the white people's inability to distinguish the intangible…
Racism: although an ongoing and prevalent issue, it is a foreign topic for many who do not experience the full effects of it on a daily basis or are sheltered from it due to their race. However, through novels, films, and social media, some hope to highlight and end the occurrence of racism. In the novel Citizen by Claudia Rankine, for example, Rankine offers an insightful view of the ongoing racism towards African Americans through descriptions of recent events and personal experiences involving racism. She specifically writes in the second person, allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in the situations that African Americans face in a white-favored society and understand the frustration many African Americans…
Many white people fail to realize that this nation was manufactured for them, on the labor and bodies of minorities. With the slave work of Africans, to the dangerous work in mines and on railroads by Asians, to the genocide of the Native Americans, this country was established for the benefit of white people, on the labor of those they hate the most. Still, white privilege is rampant and prevalent in so many areas of this country, from governmental to economical fields. Living in a colorblind society, where all the history of race relations in this country are magically disregarded, continues the perpetuation of white privilege, which in the end, only benefits white…
This has been the case in America with White Privilege. It started when whites first immigrated to other countries besides Europe and began taking land and enslaving people. They enslaved many people among these people were Africans. People were not able to defend against these foreigners for they were better equipped and had the only guns. When the White immigrants came to America they conducted mass genocide to the natives and conquered the land there for when they decided it was time to write history then they wrote it to make them seem a favorable is possible and also established laws only benefiting the White man and white women alike although at the time women were still subordinates to White men.…
White Privilege is the privilege that is given to white skin or light skin people. They do not earn it, it is given to them due to their skin tone. White privilege is unfair for people of color, this is unfair by Caucasians getting better treatment, and this has been going on for generations. The majority of the time a person of color has the chance to earn privilege, a white person comes in and takes the chance the person of color had. People of color are told, they are considered “equal”, yet it is never shown as the old quote has been said before “actions speak louder than words”. The government has always said look past skin color and look at the individual’s personality, yet when shown in action there us hate shown based upon skin color.…
In Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible backpack” we see detailed examples of how white people are extremely privileged in ways that people of other races may never understand. Even though sometimes we do not realize this is happening it has been seen to be true in many things throughout history and in the world today.…
The beginning of this article discusses how men exhibit privilege in society over women, and either fail to admit to the privilege, or fail to actually do anything about it. The reason being is that men would have to disadvantage themselves, in a sense. McIntosh discusses both topics of male privilege and white privilege, stating that white people have been trained to be blind to see white privilege, but wholly benefit from the phenomenon known as white privilege. McIntosh then outlines 26 different ways in which she benefits from white privilege each day. McIntosh calls white privilege an “invisible knapsack” because most people are taught recognize it and do not…