Peggy's My Girl

“White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks.”

This is one of the many gems in Peggy McIntosh’s article about white privilege and male privilege. In it, she describes her own realization that she has an unearned advantage in life because of her race. She relates this privilege to that which is experienced by men, which she has been frustrated with for many years. In an effort to start the process of recognizing and reforming her white privilege, she composed a list of special conditions she experiences which were unearned, but were taught to be experienced because of her birth, her citizenship, and because she was a “conscientious law-abiding ‘normal’ person of goodwill.”

I’d like to make my own list as well (maybe not as extensive):
1) I grew up in a safe neighborhood
2) I am assumed to be smart
3) I can listen to any type of music without being judged
4) I could probably talk my way out of a ticket
5) In general, I blend in with the crowd
6) I was encouraged to accept diversity rather than understand other cultures
7) I can apply for just about any job or internship without obstacle
8) Transportation is rarely ever an issue
9) Access to the foods I like and need is rarely an issue
10) My skin doesn’t speak for me