Scholarly Article #2: White Privilege

“9. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.”

McIntosh, P. (1990). White privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack. Independent School, 49(2) 31-36.

Lateness without association to race is a white privilege? Of all the privileges Peggy McIntosh mentions under her “daily effects of white privilege” list, the above item stands out over the others for being a pointed example of exactly how white privilege permeates everyday activities. The idea that an act as simple as arriving late to an appointment can be connected to one’s race may seem absurd to some, but for those that have come up short on white privilege, it is very real. This reviewer cannot count how many times she has heard someone was late because they were running on (insert minority group here) time. So-and-so is late because they run on Black time. Samoan time. Filipino time. Try inserting “white” into that phrase. It does not work as well.

Welcome to McIntosh’s white privilege, a set of advantages that are largely denied, protected, and unacknowledged by whites. To better understand white privilege, the author compares white privilege to the not-so-different male privilege, in the sense that it is an advantage that is denied, unacknowledged, and for the most part, unconscious. For example, men will readily agree that yes, women are disadvantaged, while simultaneously refusing to recognize their own advantage of male privilege. It is a convenient sort of protection – as long as the privilege goes unacknowledged, there are no ways to end it.

Just as males are trained to ignore their own privileges, so are whites taught not to recognize white privilege. From a white perspective, it is easy to see minority groups at a disadvantage due to racism. According to McIntosh, however easy it is for whites to acknowledge racism putting others at a disadvantage, it is equally difficult to admit that white privilege exists and gives whites an advantage that they unconsciously enjoy on a daily basis. The author turns to her own schooling to explain why these advantages are unconscious: as the dominant social norm, whites are taught that they are the norm, that racism is an individual act.

In order to work toward ending white privilege, McIntosh penned a list of white privileges in her daily life. It is an attempt to firstly describe and identify white privilege, and secondly, once accountable for white privilege, find a way to reduce the unfair advantages. McIntosh prefaces her list of white privileges with the observation that while she can count on these privileges in her day-to-day life, her African-American acquaintances cannot. The list itself is exhaustive, and it is depressing to find that much of the list constitutes privileges that should be the norm in society.

McIntosh firmly believes that acknowledging and identifying the many benefits of white skin will change the social power system in a way that changing attitudes about racism will not – calling out the disadvantages of other social groups but not the advantages of other groups protects the ones in power. This article, originally published in 1988, notes that systematic change takes decades, and 22 years later, how far has acknowledgement of white privilege gone? For those in the LIS profession, there is much emphasis on multicultural services, diversity, and the like.; after reading McIntosh, one must wonder if there is a place for discussions about recognizing white privilege and how acknowledgement can lead to its end.