White Privilege

White Privilege:  Talking Points #1
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by: Peggy McIntosh

Quotes:

"White Privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks." (Pg. 1)
What I think this means is that all white people have privileges that others don't.  What McIntosh means by this is, black people don't have these privileges, and white people didn't have to do anything to earn them.  Also, I think it will be hard for black people to ever get the same privileges.  This ties in with the article because of the 26 conditions that are easier for white people to count on than they are for black people. 

"If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford and in which I would want to live."(Pg. 2)
This is one of the 26 conditions McIntosh lists in the article.  It means if she or another white person wanted to move she could move wherever she wanted without worrying if she had to afford it or not.  Also, the thing that is being implied that African Americans do not have this privilege like white people do.  They can't just get up and move where they want to.  They do have to worry about affording a place to live, so they have to live where they can afford to, so most of the time they do not have a choice.  McIntosh again is showing how white people have more privilege. 

"Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit, in turn, upon people of color." (Pg. 4)
When I first read this quote the first thing that came to my mind was "SCWAAMP."  Whiteness is the "W" in SCWAAMP.  Whiteness has more, power and privilege over any other race according to McIntosh and many other people in our world.  Whiteness protected her from all sorts of hostility and violence because they have more privilege than anyone else. That is what this whole article is about white people have so much privilege, and they don't even realize it.  They should not take these things for granted.

One point that I would like to bring up is where it said, "most students in the United States do not see Whiteness as a racial identity."  I never thought of it as a racial identity either until I read this article.  It definitely is a racial identity that has more privilege than any other race, but it shouldn't be that way.  When I thought of racism I always thought of how people where racist against black people or other races.  Whether it was the segregation or how poorly black people were treated back in the day.  Now I agree Whiteness is definitely a racial identity just like any other.  Most white people think that racism doesn't affect them because they are not people of color.  Racism does affect them because white people get judged just like any other race does because of all their privileges.  Each race has their own privileges, and according to McIntosh, whiteness has more privileges than any other race, and a lot of the time they don't even realize it! The link I put there is an article by Audrey Thompson about Whiteness Theory, and I thought it was interesting to read, and had to do with what we read for class.