Of course, these are exit polls, and not academic studies, but the evidence of the election outcome shows why “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” is so very important. When education is the factor, the results are even more substantive, as shown in the graph to the right, also from the same website. White-privilege-in-action is evident in the election results, as can be seen in this link and the graph retrieved from: I see how entrenched this worldview is in the very fabric of the dominant culture. And I have come to see that most don’t want to “go there,” as though it is a place to visit, not the world in which we live… For me, as a white person of privilege, it is uncomfortable, but vital, to examine these things. And that is the key, I think, to this article. And also to note when I was feeling uncomfortable. And for the most part, that is what I did at the discussion session and it was beautiful to deeply listen to those around me and to note where and when my own experiences were similar or different. It is even more difficult to shut up and let those around me speak. It is a difficult process to discover these things, and to own them. Reading this article again, and joining in an event by the Diversity Workgroup to discuss it with other students, I am now able to see it on an even deeper level. Not ways of being… Now I can see how privileged and small that view of the world is. I also assumed all black people lived in urban areas, which on good days, my mom called the “ghetto.” I won’t repeat what she usually called black neighborhoods, and THAT was what I grew up thinking was racist. Having lived in a homogeneous world of white privilege for all my life, I took the “reality” of what the dominant culture was feeding me and assumed it was true and that racism was a relic from the 1960’s. What could be so hard about getting out of the ghetto? (I used that phrase on purpose, bear with me…) I had no idea that this was a privileged worldview, nor how racist it was at the heart of it. I had gone from high school dropout to college professor. It was what I had been taught, and it was what I had experienced. Until then, I thought we were all the same and equal. And it was terrible, and in its terribleness, I began to see that my pain, while real and legitimate for me, was nothing compared to the lives of those who live in oppression as a result of white privilege. It was truly eye opening and life changing. When I first encountered this article (“Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh) in Multicultural Perspectives in Art Therapy last year, I had no awareness of white privilege, or the extent to which I was a participant and oppressor. If you prefer to download and read the paper as a PDF, here is a link.īefore we start, if you don’t know about McIntosh’s article, here is a link to a Youtube version (gotta love technology!) (It is a college paper, and those tend to be a bit long-ish…) This post is a long read, so bear with me. This is my reflection on reading “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh for the Multicultural Portfolio at SWC. I was surprised that I have a history of being an oppressor as I look back over my life and I grapple with my own white privilege every day. Racism and oppression are as much “ways of being” as “words” that are said. Many people who consider themselves “not racist” act in ways that are still oppressive. White privilege is entrenched in our society, and not where it might be expected.
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