In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, McIntosh explains how she was never taught to see her race, or even think of Whiteness as a race. She talks about how privilege towards specific groups of people can be destructive when it's ignored by the people enjoying that privilege.
I thought that her list of ways in which she is privileged solely because of the color of her skin was interesting. I also think that they are all true. Things that white people don't have to think much about. McIntosh thinks that “whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” and she also says "I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group." I think both those things are true, because racism has always meant to me the action of discrimination based on a person's race. McIntosh recognizes that there is racism in more than just people's actions, and White people probably don't recognize that kind of racism very much at all.
"I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race."
I think this says a lot. It's the easiest way to see the truth about these privileges. When you go into a super market or even a department store you can see the absence of diversity. When you go down the toy isle, even though there are a couple black dolls, where are the Asian dolls? Where are the Native American dolls? Where are the Latino dolls? I don't see any much of the time, and if there is one, then that's usually it. There's one non white doll for every ten white dolls. America isn't made up of White people. It's not as if we live in a country that is almost completely white. So there's no excuse for that.
I understand what she's saying, I just don't know what can be done about it. We've read a lot about how we should recognize our race and how we should realize that some people are born with certain privileges that other people aren't, but what can we DO about it? Besides write about it, and discussing it, can anything be done? That's something that I'm interested in hearing other people's opinion's about. How do we give up privilege so that the less privileged can be treated equally? It just seems like such a big issue, where do you start?
In the article “Data show racial bias persists in America” by Salim Muwakkil, one aspect of the invisible knapsack is really focused on. The privilege of employment. In the article, a study where job applications with black and white names are sent out to employers is done, and in that study “applicants with white names were 50 percent more likely to get called for an initial interview than applicants with black names”.
If this isn't proof that such an invisible knapsack exists, then I don't really know what is. When two people with identical resumes are considered for the same position, and the deciding factor comes down to how White their name's sound, that's not fair.
The fact that “white applicants with prison records were still more likely to be hired than black men without them” is another sad thing. Something that I just don't understand. Or maybe I do understand, and the truth is just so ugly to look at. There is no such thing as equal opportunity employment. Not for the most part, anyways. Hopefully some day.
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