The Argument of McIntosh

Alright, so.....

Now that that's out of the way...

The first article I'll be writing about is "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh.

In this article, McIntosh writes about all of the "invisible" (invisible to the people who have them, at least) privileges that white people take for granted. In listing the various "skin privileges" and assumptions, many of which someone such as myself never even thinks about, one can slowly piece together the daily trials, tribulations, and hardships that people who aren't white have to go through while navigating our current American society.

However, McIntosh didn't write this article simply to list the unearned power of white people. McIntosh's primary argument is that to change and ultimately remove white privilege, we first need to acknowledge how colossal and dominating of a force it is. She wants us to start talking less about "colored disadvantage" and more about "white advantage." We need to tackle the tendency of white people to be oblivious to their own unearned power rather than try to lift others up to that same level of power. McIntosh is essentially arguing for a reduction in the power in white privilege to level the playing field, sort of like taking away an army's guns and forcing them to use their fists like everyone else.

Personally, I agree with McIntosh. While yes, there are things that both sides can do to help alleviate this issue, the vast majority of work needs to be in bringing white people to acknowledge the simple fact that, under the current institutions of this country, they have many "inherent" benefits simply because they are white. Once we get enough people to acknowledge these facts, we can then create truly impartial systems and institutions that are fair and balanced for all.

How we get to that point is certainly far from certain, but if we don't try, we'll never get there. However, there are certainly many people who are trying (unfaircampaign.org).

Hopefully, if we all work together to get to the point of fair and balanced competition for all, we can stop using the term "white privilege."

Perhaps, one day, we can start saying...

Human Privilege