I can't express what it means to know that the color of flesh is determined by someone whose privilege allows them that power. Now my pack contains 23 statements that begin 'I can't,' 2 that say 'I'm not,' and one that begins 'I need to.' For example, I cannot remain unschooled in the language, customs, heroes, holidays, laws, rules, styles, values, religion, educational models, marriage rituals, birthing techniques, burial practices, gods, afterlife, heaven or hell of persons who dominate my world. I begin by placing McIntosh's positive statements in their opposite terms. Metaphor: McIntosh argues that White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes. As McIntosh unpacks her knapsack, I pack mine. For white people, one element of growing this understanding is to acknowledge experiences of unearned advantage simply because of whiteness. Of the 26 items in her knapsack, 23 contain the phrase 'I can,' 2 contain 'I am' and one contains the phrase 'I need not.' For example, she 'can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority,' and she can do so without penalty. McIntosh lists her privileges, all expressed in terms of what she and people like her can do. In the same way, people are socially conditioned not to recognize all the unearned disadvantages stuffed into the invisible knapsack carried by people of color. This document lists personal examples of unearned advantage and encourages individuals.

McIntosh’s work outlined a reflective list of unearned assets that white people in the United States inherently own because of the color of their. Published in 1989, the year our founder, Kristina Ashley Williams, was born. Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. White Privilege Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh. Unpacking is named after anti-racist educator Peggy McIntosh’s famed article, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. McIntosh rightly observed that white persons - indeed, everyone in American society - are 'conditioned into oblivion' about the existence of privilege in the United States. White privilege is li ke an invisible weightless backpack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group DAILY EFFECTS OF WHITE PRIVILEGE I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life.

Unpack the knapsack