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…
She uses her observation of men’s attitude toward their privileges, and their unwillingness to accept that they are over privileged, as an analogy to introduce her claim that white privileges are alike to male privileges. By transferring the importance and the seriousness of the women’s rights movement to her topic of white privilege, she combines ethos and pathos to persuade the readers that this is an important issue in our…
Feminism in itself represented a strong sense of tension between the individual rights and societal claims. Women struggled to find the same respect that men did, both in the workplace and in society, and that’s a conflict which has continued into today. However, the rise of second wave feminism neglected to address the needs and concerns of women of color, sending multiracial feminism to the backburner. With black feminism specifically, white feminists claimed that the group already had liberation within their respective race, and that their need were different from that of white feminists. Hegemonic feminism served as the status quo, and major news outlets followed suit in how it reported on the topic. Between The New York Times and The Chicago Defender, it’s clear that what historians generally consider second wave feminism was simply hegemonic feminism, ignoring the needs of women of color in its movement. Black feminists were forced to create their own organizations and pioneer their own movements to find that sense of liberation that white feminists seemed to believe they already…
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.…
Feminism has been born through decades of ignorance and misguidance, a perception of a weaker sex, and a belief that equality is not truly meant for all. Because of this deprivation of equality and privileges that exist exclusively for men, decades of work have been put forth from the feminist movement to ensure that no woman will any longer be held back or have opportunities revoked simply for having the status of a “weaker” gender. Before taking this class, I was hesitant to ever label myself in such a manner and questioned those who had, but after reading Penny Weiss’ revealing piece “I am not a feminist, but …” I no longer have that same reluctance.…
Having a Unified women movement is, therefore, vital in championing the rights of women regardless of color, race and sexual orientation. Turning a blind eye to racist only serves to worsen the situation. A mere strategic focus on one sort of oppression at the expense of others can be a source of new injustices. For example, the white feminist disregards her black house help and assumes she takes good care of her and goes on championing the rights of industry clerks. This is selective championing of women rights while turning a blind eye on the issues facing black women. Development of intersectionality theory, therefore, serves to include all the societal ills facing women and tackle them accordingly without subjecting one group to injustices.…
Feminist issues are not and never will be “one size fits all.” What is important to the masses cannot be defined by the few of a common identity; the current hegemony of white feminists leading the movement has resulted in a cause solely concentrated on the challenges they find pressing. Minority feminist groups have felt marginalized from the progression of feminism, and often go undocumented for building a premise of racially tolerant political action groups. The phrase “multiracial feminism” is defined as feminism based on the examination of dominance through understanding social constructs of race, ethnicity, tradition, and culture (Thompson, 33). Moreover, each…
Peggy McIntosh is an American feminist and she is also an anti-racist activist of The United States of America. Peggy McIntosh is also the associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, a speaker and the founder and co-director of the National S.E.E.D. Project on Inclusive Curriculum which is basically the seeking of educational equity and diversity. Peggy McIntosh’s area of expertise is feminism and racism. She deals with equality in society and political world for women. She fights for the equal rights of women as the same rights as men. She also expertizes in the field of racism. According to Peggy McIntosh, whites are taught not to recognize the white privileges and that is why she started to ask what it was like to have these white privileges in life and then she started to write this article on her personal observations and experiences. The article, “White privilege and male privilege” is based on Peggy McIntosh’s daily experience within a particular circumstance.…
The methods they used were intended to bring about legal and policy alterations that would help women in the public and professional areas. A manifestation of these differences developed because mainstream media tended to overlook Black women's unique feminist ideas in favor of focusing on the civil rights movement as a whole, in turn, Black women activists' contributions were frequently ignored. Their individual hardships and efforts were not given enough attention as a result of their exclusion. On the other hand, white feminists were given greater media attention and their problems were frequently highlighted as the main concerns of the women's liberation movement. This corrupted public opinion by portraying feminism as primarily focused on the problems that white, middle-class women face.…
White privilege is a way of conceptualizing racial inequalities that focuses as much on the advantages that white people accrue from society as on the disadvantages that people of colour experience. This privilege is shown when a certain group of people aren’t allowed in this area or men are only approved in this club. Blatant exercise of perivalage definitely exists, but not in the way most people think. It is only the very top of the iceberg (Rothenberg, 2012, p. 110). Everyone is measured against whether they succeed or fail. This is the norm and anyone who isn’t the norm is an alternative (Rothenberg, 2012, p. 111).…
Cited: McIntosh, Peggy. "Daily effects of white privilege." White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, 1988. Tues. 19 Feb 2013. .…
The essay “White Privilege and Male Privilege” written by Peggy McIntosh was enlightening and controversial. It was enlightening because she shows you how certain groups of people can have privilege over other different groups, and be unaware or in denial over it. Peggy’s story was controversial because it talked about the privilege that very few have the courage to talk about. The white and male privilege and the fact that it is looming over our heads as a society. Throughout history there’s a superior and inferior race and sex. The superior race is the white race, opposed to the African Americans who are considered the inferior. Additionally men are the superior sex opposed to women.…
Sara Ahmed’s critique of white studies centered itself around the problems that arise when white people attempt to critically evaluate the role their own complacency has played in propagating white privilege. Ahmed points out, through her six declarations on whiteness, that the main issue associated with white studies is that, in its attempt to present itself as not self-serving, most of what actually results serves to reinforce the dominance of whiteness and prioritize the feelings of white individuals over those that the writer, whether deliberately or inadvertently, has deemed as “other”. Ahmed would have focused on the self serving elements of Peggy McIntosh’s piece, deconstructing McIntosh “unpacking of [the] invisible knapsack”. In doing so, Ahmed would seek to reveal that despite how commendable McIntosh’s intentions may have first appeared, her piece is actually far more beneficial for her than it beneficial for actually resolving the problems of white privilege.…
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…
Tim Wise, the author of White Like Me talks about how he explored racial identity and whiteness influence the lives of white Americans by investigating how they have impacted in his own life. He investigated on what it means to be white in a nation that’s created for the benefits of those who are white like him, and how privilege flows into every institutional arrangement from education to employment to justice system. Wise then talks about the ways that white privilege can finally harm its recipients in the long run and make progressive social change less likely. His personal stories makes the case that racial inequity and white privilege are real and persistent threats to personal and collective well-being that resistance to white supremacy…