"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"

Kimberly Boghossian
FNED Talking Points #1
September 25, 2007
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, by Peggy McIntosh, is about the issue of white privilege. McIntosh is normally involved in women’s issues, and she compares white privilege with male privilege as working much the same way. Men are willing to say that women are disadvantaged and will even admit men have more advantages. The problem is that men are not willing to give up any of their advantages to help the women’s cause. McIntosh says that the same exact thing happens with racism of skin color.
McIntosh says that, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks” (1). McIntosh asks herself, “What will I do to lessen or end it” (1)? She is saying the same thing as Allan Johnson said in his book, Privilege, Power, and Difference. Both McIntosh and Allan said that the privileged group first needs to realize that they are privileged to be able to decrease racism. White people are taught to think of their lives as being normal and average. They do not see as being white as an identity. McIntosh gives a list of privileges that whites have that they are not even aware of and take for granted. One example is that if a white moves into a new neighborhood, the neighbors will be friendly, and the whites do not need to worry about being arrested. She failed to say that it is a white neighborhood. If a white moved into a black neighborhood, people would wonder why, which is also sad. It should not matter at all who is moving into what kind of neighborhood. Everyone should be welcomed. The privileges that McIntosh lists can almost be seen as a Bill of Rights for groups of color. “Many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own” (4). Being privileged tends to be thought of as a good thing but it also means that it can put down and dominate another person because of their race or gender.
Universal change takes many decades. McIntosh was taught to see racism only within an individual doing a mean act. But now she realizes that racism is part of the system of dominance of whites over other groups. Ending the denials about dominance and privilege is key to making the change. Are people willing to see how they are privileged and to let go this power of being privileged to help others?

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