White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

By Peggy McIntosh

Quotes: 

 "I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can

count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious.White privilege is
like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code-books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. "

What Peggy mean by this is most white people don't realize what they have unless they put themselves in someone else shoes. I was born white, so I was handed more privileges. Did I earn these privileges? No. People earn something by going out of their way to succeed in what ever it is they are looking to accomplish. i earned being on the Deans List, and I earned the money I make every week from working- but I did not earn special privileges by waking up and being white- they were simply handed to me, which is very unfair to someone ho is not white.

 "Men may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s"

Just like men are willing to help women get the privileges and whites they deserve, many whites are out there pushing to get colored people the same equal rights. But why can't we just lessen our rights until they are all equal? Many people would not agree to doing this, and I understand that, but if I can't get the same privilege as men, and colored people cant get the same privilege as whites, how are we ever going to live equally?

"My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make"

White people, especially white men don't really have much holding them back from the decisions and moves they want to make in life. Fr the most part, people aren't doing racial profiling and discrimination against us.

For the most part, in my opinion, women's rights are comparable to men's rights just as colored people's rights are comparable to white rights. They aren't completely equal because racism and segregation are still taking place. Profiling and judging is still in existence. Until we can somehow get the rest of the world to see comparing white people to colored people is like comparing apples to apples, it is going to be very hard to get everyone to share the same rights.

The picture above is a little definition on discrimination. Although many people aren't as vocal about their racism and discrimination as they were in the past, it is still going on in many peoples heads and portrayed through racial profiling and unequal rights.


http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4786

^ This article is a little inside on what is still happening today.