White Privilege

White privilege is the condition of having a collection of benefits based on belonging to a group perceived to be white, when the same or similar benefits are denied to members of other groups, not because of one's individual accomplishments or actions. White privilege is about concrete benefits to resources, social rewards, and the power to shape the norms of society. Peggy Macintosh aptly calls this unpacking the invisible knapsack of privilege that white people carry with them because of their skin color. The “knapsack” contains the unearned assets that white people cash in on but about which, all too often, white people remain oblivious.

White privilege is racism's elusive counterpart. Racism asserts the superiority of one race over another, seeks to maintain dominance through a complex system of beliefs, behaviors, language, and policies, and racism ranges from the individual to the institutional to the societal. White privilege, though, isn't something that white people necessarily do or benefit from on purpose. It does provide advantages because it shapes the world in which we live.

Jennifer Holladay writes a clear example of her own white privilege in White Anti-Racist Activist: A Personal Roadmap. She writes about how she wanted a job at a certain civil rights organization and couldn't get an interview, so she phoned her white male mentor from her predominantly white college. Her mentor knew another white man who knew someone who worked at that organization, who also happened to be a white man. Her father, a white man, wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper, also a white man, who wrote a letter on her behalf to the founder of the organization she wanted a job at, who was also a white man. Holladay goes on and on about the trail of white men who opened up the door for her to interview for the job she wanted. She got the job. She was qualified for the job she got too, but through her narrative we see that she knows she didn't get it solely on her own merit. She unpacked the knapsack of her white privilege through the personal and professional connections that many people don't even think to deconstruct. If Holladay's narrative seems odd, it is because whiteness exists in the absence of any kind of definition. It's normative, so it's odd to hear a white person describing another person as white.

White privilege, or white skin privilege, involves an advantage, exemption, or immunity granted to white people beyond the common advantage extended to people of color. In this view, white privilege is the primary benefit of racism as expressed in preferential treatment within a society.