Understanding Privilege
from Bikini Kill: A Color and Activity Book (Issue #1)



HELLO:

Peggy McIntosh, the Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, through her work to bring diverse materials and perspectives into the curriculum, noticed the men's unwillingness to acknowledge that there are advantages gained from women's disadvantages. As she began to think more clearly through what specifically these might be, McIntosh realized that she was a participant in perpetuating the same lack of insight around white privilege. She writes, "As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism, which puts others at a disadvantage, but had never been taught to see its other side, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage." So what she did was to sit down and make a list of the daily effects of white privilege, a list which is not earned, but rather given to her (and all white people) by virtue of being born white. The list is specific more to color privilege than class or ethnicity, but I would like to make it clear that race, class, gender, and sexual practices are all identities affecting each other.

I am a white woman too. An African-American sister gave me this list during the summer. I thought it a really important and timely reminder to enable folks to concretely point to and understand what exactly is white privilege. I have misplaced part of the list, maybe this is a sort of blessing in that you can sit down with friends and try to think of what's missing.

PLEASE XEROX THE LIST AND A LETTER OF YOUR OWN TO GIVE TO FAMILY, FRIENDS, STRANGERS ON THE BUS. PHOTOCOPYING IS A CHEAP WAY TO SHARE INFORMATION. FIGHT THE POWER THROUGH STRENGTH, KNOWLEDGE, AND A CLEAR MIND. DON'T FORGET TO QUESTION.



  1. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.
  2. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.
  3. I can go home from most meetings of the organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied-in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, feared, or hated.
  4. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
  5. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
  6. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn’t a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
  1. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences or any of these choices.
  2. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the opinions of women and men who are not of my race.
  3. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing, or body odor will be taken as a reflection of my race.
  4. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
  5. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
  6. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me or advise me about my next steps, professionally.
  7. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative, or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
  8. I can expect to find in the grocery store staple foods which fit in with my cultural traditions.
  9. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
  10. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated.
  11. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
  12. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
  13. If I have low credibility as a leader in the dominant society, I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
  14. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

*USE YOUR PRIVILEGE WISELY, tell other members of your group
what "non-privileged" persons have told you.




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