06.25.08
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
one of the best articulations and eloquent disquisitions on white privilege. i ran across this a few years ago. it is one of my favorite pieces of writing …
http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”
Peggy McIntosh
Through work to bring materials from women’s studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to women’s statues, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.
Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there are most likely a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of while privilege that was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.
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. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks.
Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women’s studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, “having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?”
After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are just seen as oppressive, even when we don’t see ourselves that way. I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence.
My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”
interregnum…
i’ve been slacking.
thinking.
experiencing reveries.
analyzing.
contemplating.
in other words…
prepare for a deluge of posts.
i have much to release.
06.01.08
language lust.
in the time leading up to the trip, i was concerned about any possible language barriers. when someone inquired, my fears were assuaged with the explanation from one of the organizers who said (something to the effect) “don’t worry. most people speak english and dutch. plus the signs are in english” . “wonderful”, i thought, “no need to consume my already cramped time with an additional obligation of language classes”. the organizer stated a half truth. yes, most dutch people are bilingual. shoot, even trilingual. the kink is most written objects are in dutch. from the street signs to newspapers to restaurant menus to labels on grocery food items, and every other commonplace item. television programs are in dutch. american television programs are often dubbed into dutch. meaning even if could watch and comprehend, it’s now an impossibility for me. things would be smoother if i knew a *hint* of dutch.
i began learning spanish in 8th grade. i skipped it in 9th grade, but resumed the course from 10th to 12th. tacked on 2 additional years in college. current proficiency level? (i’ll be generous) 2nd grade level. i can read and write it much better than i can orally understand it. drop me in the middle of mexico, and i’d be clamoring for english. people in the netherlands can interchange both languages with remarkable ease. there is hardly a second breath in trying to use the correct word or phrase. of this, i am amazed and envious. i wish i possessed the lexicon of another language. their knowledge of both languages appears to heighten their vocabulary in english. they utilize words not often heard in colloquial settings. their speech seems to be more articulate and eloquent (i am not blinded by the accent).
i have much chagrin towards our attitude for language in the states. we are discouraged to learn a second language. even more tragically, we are dissuaded in expanding our knowledge of english. how many times have you been objurgated for using a “big word”? apparently they are reserved for standardized tests in this country.
all my spanish professors repeatedly stated, at times ad nauseaum, that to know and understand a language, you must use it. frequently. they are absolutely correct. the problem is the lack of encouragement from society. politicians have created copious laws and pieces of legislation to maintain ALL ENGLISH, ALL THE TIME. therefore, it is damn near impossible to learn another language. it is such an exclusionary notion. being bilingual illustrates that you are cognizant that you are within world, not above or apart from it.
somehow, someway, someday, i will become fluent in spanish. not to just enhance my native language, but to enhance my knowledge of language, other cultures, and the world.
