"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" is a 1989 essay written by American feminist scholar and anti-racist activist Peggy McIntosh. [1] [2] [3] It covers 50 examples, or hidden benefits, [4] from her perspective, of the privilege white people experience in everyday life. [5]
McIntosh outlines "invisible systems" at work, [1] as well as the main theme of an "invisible package of unearned assets", examined in the form of a metaphorical knapsack. The essay features 50 of her insights into experiential white privilege, listed numerically. These have been described as "small benefits that white Americans enjoy every day". [6]
The Atlantic has written that the intention behind the essay was to inspire "self-reflection, enhancing their capacity for empathy and compassion". [7] It has been described by Vice as one of the most authoritative texts on the subject of white privilege, [8] and The Harvard Gazette have called it a "groundbreaking article" and the most important of McIntosh's academic career. [9] It has been cited as responsible for the mainstreaming of discussion of white privilege, [10] becoming a "staple of discussions about bias" in society. [11] In 2018, artwork and studies inspired by the essay had become popular in social justice sections of social media, such as Tumblr. [12]
The essay has become one of the key teaching resources in the study of white privilege in the United States and Canada. [13] [8] In 2016, some New York City public schools assigned the essay to high school students. [4] In 2017, a high school in Caledon, Ontario incorporated the essay in an 11th grade anthropology class. [13] Conor Friedersdorf recommended including the essay in college curricula. [14]
McIntosh's essay inspired "Privilege Walks", workshops, and other activities to help students identify their privileges. [15]
The origin of Privilege Walks (initially known as "Power Shuffles" [16] ) is often attributed to McIntosh in the 1990s. Although her essay inspired them, in 2021, McIntosh denied any association with such practices and emphatically discouraged engaging in them:
I did not invent the exercises... and in fact I urge people not to undertake such exercises. They are too simple for complex experiences relating to power and privilege. I don’t know where they originated. They seem to answer a craving for instant one-size-fits-all awakenings. I think they are counterproductive. [16]
The Invisible Man is an 1897 science fiction novel by British writer H. G. Wells. Originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and who invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light. He carries out this procedure on himself and renders himself invisible, but fails in his attempt to reverse it. A practitioner of random and irresponsible violence, Griffin has become an iconic character in horror fiction.
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953.
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial grouping of current and former women's colleges in the northeastern United States.
Audre Lorde was an American writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet" who dedicated her life and talents to confronting different forms of injustice, as she believed there could be "no hierarchy of oppressions" among "those who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children."
Whiteness studies is the study of the structures that produce white privilege, the examination of what whiteness is when analyzed as a race, a culture, and a source of systemic racism, and the exploration of other social phenomena generated by the societal compositions, perceptions and group behaviors of white people. It is an interdisciplinary arena of inquiry that has developed beginning in the United States from white trash studies and critical race studies, particularly since the late 20th century. It is focused on what proponents describe as the cultural, historical and sociological aspects of people identified as white, and the social construction of "whiteness" as an ideology tied to social status.
Sarah Frances Whiting was an American physicist and astronomer. She was the first professor of physics and astronomy at Wellesley College, where she taught for over 30 years. At Wellesley College, Whiting instructed several notable astronomers and physicists, including Annie Jump Cannon. Whiting was one of the founders and the first director of the Whitin Observatory.
George School is a private Quaker boarding and day high school located on a rural campus in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It has been at that site since its founding in 1893, and has grown from a single building to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings. Besides the usual college preparatory courses, including an International Baccalaureate program, the school features several distinct programs deriving from its Quaker heritage. These include community service requirements, an emphasis on social justice and environmental concerns, required art courses, and community-based decisionmaking.
White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With roots in European colonialism and imperialism, and the Atlantic slave trade, white privilege has developed in circumstances that have broadly sought to protect white racial privileges, various national citizenships, and other rights or special benefits.
Male privilege is the system of advantages or rights that are available to men on the basis of their sex. A man's access to these benefits may vary depending on how closely they match their society's ideal masculine norm.
Peggy McIntosh is an American feminist, anti-racism activist, scholar, speaker, and senior research scientist of the Wellesley Centers for Women. She is the founder of the National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum. She and Emily Style co-directed SEED for its first twenty-five years. She has written on curricular revision, feelings of fraudulence, hierarchies in education and society, and professional development of teachers.
Gabriel Mac is an American author and journalist. From 2007 to 2012, he was a staff reporter at Mother Jones, eventually in the position of human rights reporter. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and other publications.
Social privilege is an advantage or entitlement that benefits individuals belonging to certain groups, often to the detriment of others. Privileged groups can be advantaged based on social class, wealth, education, caste, age, height, skin color, physical fitness, nationality, geographic location, cultural differences, ethnic or racial category, gender, gender identity, neurodiversity, physical disability, sexual orientation, religion, and other differentiating factors. Individuals can be privileged in one area, such as education, and not privileged in another area, such as health. The amount of privilege any individual has may change over time, such as when a person becomes disabled, or when a child becomes a young adult.
Conor Renier Friedersdorf is an American journalist and a staff writer at The Atlantic, known for his civil libertarian perspectives.
Fourth-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began around the early 2010s and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women, the use of internet tools, and intersectionality. The fourth wave seeks greater gender equality by focusing on gendered norms and the marginalization of women in society.
Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race is a 2014 non-fiction book about the subject of white privilege written by Debby Irving.
Brittany N. Packnett Cunningham is an American activist and the co-founder of Campaign Zero. She served as executive director for Teach for America in St. Louis, Missouri, then as a member of President Barack Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Jonathan McIntosh is an American producer, writer, artist, feminist, and cultural critic. He is the creator of the Pop Culture Detective Agency video series examining intersections of politics, masculinity, and entertainment. He was also a producer and co-writer on the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games YouTube video series.
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is a 2018 book written by Robin DiAngelo about race relations in the United States. An academic with experience in diversity training, DiAngelo coined the term "white fragility" in 2011 to describe what she views as any defensive instincts or reactions that a white person experiences when questioned about race or made to consider their own race. In White Fragility, DiAngelo views racism in the United States as systemic and often perpetuated subconsciously by individuals. She recommends against viewing racism as committed intentionally by "bad people".
Lauren Michele Jackson is an American culture critic and assistant professor of English and African American studies at Northwestern University. Her first book, White Negroes (2019), is a nonfiction collection of essays that explores cultural appropriation.
White privilege is a societal privilege based on skin lightness.
This exercise, inspired by Peggy McIntosh's (1989) "White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack," helps learners locate themselves within a spectrum of environmental privilege, centering the roles of socio-economic class, race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, and global disparities in environmental experience.