Quotes: McIntosh Article

Peggy McIntosh
 White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.

1. "I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious."

In this quote she explains how males have male privilege but do not realize it because they are males. Since she is a white woman she does not realize what white privilige is because she was never faced with critical situations where she had to think twice about her privileges because she was born with her "knapsnack." When she describes her white privilege as an "invisible package of unearned assets" because she never had to work for it as hard as a woman of color who was not as fortunate to have a knapsack.

2. "Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the United States think that racism doesn't affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see "whiteness" as a racial identity. In addition, since race and sex are not the only advantaging systems at work, we need similarly to examine the daily experience of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion, or sexual orientation."

 
McIntosh initates how racism is seen in the United States. Racism still exists today but others do not notice it because they are above others. Same goes for those who are of a different sexual orientation or physical ability because they do not notice anyone else below them. I like how she says white students in the United States, racism is not an issue for them because they only know whiteness as a form of racism.

3. "For this reason, the word "privilege" now seems to me misleading. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned of conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to overempower certain groups."

Peggy in this last quote describes that her view on privilege is misleading because most of us who do not have privilge think it is favored to the ones who have never experienced it on our own terms. Most of us who do not have privilege is because only the upper class or white people are only allowed to have it. In reality, some of us do not realize the difference because we do not think of ourselves as different where in this life. Everyone is equal. According to Peggy, she begs to differ where there is such a thing as white privilege and a handy knapsack.