Week 3:
Recognizing Your Privilege
In our contemporary society, privilege has become something of a buzz word, so often used (and misused) that it has lost all meaning. This week we’ll not only get clarity on what privilege is (and is not), we’ll also continue to lay our foundation for becoming fearlessly anti-racist by doing more than just admitting that we hold white privilege. We’re going to learn how to identify and share our own privileges, and to put our privilege to work, in the service of dismantling white supremacy. And we’re going to begin the process of recognizing how our privilege invests us in supporting the very system we seek to disrupt.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Understand the sociological concept of privilege.
Distinguish white racial privilege from other forms of privilege.
Articulate your own, specific white privileges.
Connect your white privilege to your complicity in white supremacy.
Glossary
Privilege: Unasked for, unearned advantages that individuals receive on the basis of one or more salient identities.
Salient Identity: An identity that carries with it social — and often economic — consequences affecting an individual’s life chances (for example, race).
Complicity: Responsibility for the perpetuation of an unjust system — in our case, White Supremacy — based on an individual’s investment in the maintenance of that system, and benefits derived from that system.
Passive Racism: The act of doing nothing to interrupt the functioning of a racist society.
What is Privilege?
As we mentioned in the intro to this week’s lesson, privilege is a widely misunderstood term. In fact, misunderstanding the term is likely the most probable reason for white folks to deny that they have privilege.
When we say that, as a white person, you have privilege, we do not mean that you are privileged, in the sense of being born privileged, with a silver spoon in your mouth. Rather we mean that you enjoy some specific advantages that people of color do not. To be clear: We don’t even mean that you are more likely to be rich, successful, and influential. That’s true, but that’s not a privilege of being white — that’s just a case of white folks having better life chances than BIPOC. Many white people have more wealth than many black people, but not all. Privileges are advantages that all white people have, and all people of color do not.
Peggy McIntosh, who wrote the seminal article on white (and male) privilege, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack — which you’ll read in this lesson — lists dozens of examples of white privilege in her article, so we won’t reproduce them all here. But we did want to share at least one example, to illustrate what we mean. We’ll use an example that’s a little dated, but still holds up pretty well even today: White people have a much easier time finding Band-Aids that match their skin color than BIPOC. That’s not an economic or political advantage; it’s not going to make it easier to get into a good college or land a good job. But it does make life just a little bit easier for all white folks.
Now, to be clear, white privileges are not just a collection of seemingly-trivial advantages that make our lives just a little bit easier. While finding Band-Aids that match your skin color (more-or-less) on every first aid isle in every grocery store in America may not seem like a huge deal (and admittedly, it’s not that big a deal), that’s just one example of white privilege. The size of the advantages conferred gets considerably bigger. From rarely — or never — being the only member of your race in a room (and not having to deal with the anxiety that comes with that position), to being pretty sure that, when you ask to speak with the person in charge, you’ll be speaking to a member of your own race, your white racial privileges add up to a life of pretty significant advantages. That is not to say that your life is necessarily easy — just that you enjoy privileges as a white person that no person of color enjoys.
Because we think it’s pretty important that we all understand what privilege is before we start talking about what to do with it, we’re going to have you both read McIntosh’s article below, and watch Galen’s short lecture on privilege as well. After that we’ll dive into the intricacies of white privilege and its connection to our fearlessly anti-racist journey.
BEFORE going further, answer the reflection question below.
Reflection: What do you believe it means to have white privilege? What is an example of your white privilege?
What White Privilege is NOT
We want to stress that misunderstanding privilege can be almost as harmful as not recognizing it at all. White privilege is often mistaken for class privilege or improved life chances. But privilege is not either of these things.
It is NOT class privilege
Privilege is a catchall term for the benefits that accrue to the dominant group for any given salient identity (think “The Big Eight”). So just as there is white privilege, there is also able-bodied privilege, male privilege, straight privilege, etc. And folks in the middle-to-upper classes have class (economic) privilege. It is a common mistake to conflate white privilege with class privilege. Many white folks assume, for example, that because they are poor, or relatively powerless, that they do not benefit from white privilege. In reality, they DO still benefit from white privilege, even if they do not benefit from class privilege. Returning to our Band-Aid example, no matter how poor I am, being white still means I’m more likely to easily find Band-Aids that match my skin color than any black person (regardless of their class position). Chelsie shares her own struggles with this juxtaposition below.
Reflection: When did you first realize you have white privilege? How did it make you feel?
It is NOT life chances
Related to the above misconception, it is important to clarify that white privilege does not mean that your specific, individual life is better, easier, or more self-actualized than all (or even most) people of color. For that matter, white privilege doesn’t even make it likely for that statement to be true. Systemic, organizational, and individual racism combine to create the circumstances in which white folks’ life chances are (much) better than those of black folks. But this phenomenon of improved life chances — whites are more likely to earn professional degrees, less likely to be arrested, more likely to become politicians and CEOs, less likely to be unemployed, etc. — is not the same as white privilege.
The Many Dimensions of Privilege
Privilege can be a difficult concept to grasp, so in addition to McIntosh’s article, Galen provides a video presentation of some of the concepts below. In addition to reviewing McIntosh’s article, we’ll also explore some of the nuances and complexities of privilege — like how it benefits groups, not individuals — and tackle some of the reasons why it is so difficult to extricate ourselves from our own privilege.
Galen explains how privilege works, and why it persists.
Let’s Own Our Privileges
While it’s not enough to simply acknowledge our many privileges as white folks, doing so is still an important first step. Without reflecting on concrete, specific examples of the privileges we hold in our life, it becomes easy to just say “I have privilege” and leave it at that. Being able to declare, “I have white privilege!” is seen as the end point (I have arrived! I’m woke!) rather than the stepping stone to “And am therefore complicit in white supremacy.” Worse, when we ‘recognize’ our white privilege as a joke or normalize it so that it no longer matters (e.g., “First world problems”) we avoid taking responsibility for our complicity in white supremacy. Recognizing our privilege can actually serve as a very effective defense mechanism, in response to our own white fragility — following the logic of, “If I own my privilege, then it can’t be used against me.”
For this reason, it is important for us to fully acknowledge the actual, discrete privileges each of us hold as white people. Peggy McIntosh has already provided us with a great starting list, and you can find others with a quick Google search of “white privilege list” (or just check out this article, or this one). After collecting those, however, we’d like you to reflect on what specific white privileges you’ve seen manifest in your own life, and refine the list accordingly. Though many of you may have other types of privilege as well, remember to focus only on your white privileges. Then, after you are finished making a list of these privileges, we’d like you to say them out loud. Just to yourself or a pet, if you’d like. Or into a mirror if you’re feeling gutsy. Or record yourself and post the video or audio file to our Facebook group if you’re ready to be really vulnerable! Or even to another, live person if you’re up to the challenge! Again, push yourself to the end of your comfort zone.
The goal of this activity is to move us beyond, “Yes, I know, I know, I get it — I have privilege,” and to hear yourself proclaim your privileges out loud. Taking it one step further, we’d like you to reflect on how you can take the privileges that you have as a white person and use those to change the system and start conversations with your family and friends. In order for us to become fearlessly anti-racist we cannot just recognize our privilege, pat ourselves on the back, and rid ourselves of the responsibility that our privileges saddle us with. We must find ways to use our privilege to disrupt the system of white supremacy, not abuse it by simply acknowledging it, while continuing to benefit from it. Or put more succinctly: Use it, don’t abuse it!
HOMEWORK CHALLENGE
Having clearly identified and stated aloud some of the specific privileges that you hold, as a white person, let’s see if we can take that activity one step further.
This week, find a way to interrupt your privilege. If possible, call out what you are doing to those around you (though you don’t have to literally state that you are interrupting your white privilege).
Example: Having finished your shopping at the grocery store, you are cheerfully waved through to the exit by the receipt-checker — the employee who stands at the exit and checks [some people’s] receipts against the actual items in their cart — without checking your cart. (One privilege of being white is not being treated with suspicion in stores.)
You: Actually, I’d appreciate it if you’d check my receipt against the items in my cart. It just seems more fair if you check everyone. Thanks.
Reflection: What sort of privilege did you attempt to interrupt? Was your attempt successful? What barrier or challenges, if any, did you face attempting to interrupt and call out your privilege? How did you handle them? What did you learn from your experience that might help you in the future?
Does Privilege Equal Complicity in White Supremacy?
You may have noticed that much of this program has been framed in the first person plural (i.e., “We”). That has been intentional, and meant to drive home the reminder that we white folks are all in this together. All of us have grown up in a racist society, and have internalized many of those racist messages. All of us need to work on developing our white racial identity. And all of us have white privilege. But now we’re shifting the focus a bit, and getting a little more personal. We’ve asked you to consider (and to state aloud) the ways in which you personally benefit from white privilege. This has also been intentional, and meant to drive home the reminder that you (yes, you) are ultimately the person on the hook here. It’s one thing to recognize that, as a white person, you benefit from privilege. It’s another to recognize that you personally can be late to a meeting without having your tardiness reflect poorly on your race.
Recognizing your privilege as a white person means, at most, recognizing that white folks, as a group have the responsibility for disrupting and ultimately dismantling white supremacy, since that group is directly benefiting from the unfair, destructive system of white supremacy, at the expense of BIPOC. But as psychology informs us, assigning responsibility to a group is a great way to let yourself off the hook — it’s called diffusion of responsibility. After all, there are millions if not billions of white people in the world. Why should you specifically be the one to take responsibility? (See the video below for a quick synopsis of this phenomenon.)
Why diffusion of responsibility keeps us from acting.
As Robin DiAngelo sagely observes, for some reason we white folks feel that we should be judged by our intention, rather than by the effects of our behavior. That may be why, for so many of us, we are unwilling to acknowledge that our unearned and unasked for privilege makes us in some way complicit in the system that created and maintains that privilege. After all, doesn’t complicity require intent? And none of us intend to uphold the system of white supremacy by, for example, cheerfully passing by the receipt-checker at Wal*Mart with nothing more than a smile and a “Have a good day!” while the black families ahead of us and behind us are stopped, their purchases carefully scrutinized before being sent on their way. But that is, nonetheless, what our privilege is doing — especially when we do not acknowledge and interrupt it in the moment.
The reason we’ve spent this entire week establishing the specific, concrete ways in which you personally benefit from white supremacy is to set up what is perhaps the most important — and possibly the most difficult — step that you need to take on your journey to becoming fearlessly anti-racist. And that is to accept your individual complicity in white supremacy. When we don’t act against racism in a racist society, we are engaging in passive racism. And that is what we are doing when we benefit from white privilege even if we don’t want to. We understand that’s a lot to process, so for now, it is enough to simply accept your personal responsibility to take action to dismantle white supremacy, since you are personally, individually benefiting from this destructive system. We’ll dive deep on complicity next week.
We’re going to make a generalization about well-intentioned white people (like ourselves): We want to fix things. We want to take action. And in the case of white privilege, we want to get rid of it. And that’s probably a good thing. Except in the case of white privilege, we can’t get rid of it. If we were exceptionally observant and astute all the time, we could possibly get to a place where we could notice, announce, and interrupt some of our privileges, some of the time. But even then we can’t outright reject our privilege. It doesn’t work that way. And that is because our privilege is inextricably tied to the system of white supremacy. Until we get rid of white supremacy, we cannot get rid of our privilege. It’s not fair, but neither is systemic racism. As long as white supremacy exists, we’re going to benefit from white privilege.
The only way to rid ourselves of our privilege is to dismantle the system that grants it to us.
The only way out is through.