Scholar and author Peggy McIntosh wrote an article in 1989 about white privilege, where she introduced an activity called "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." She created a list of 50 conditions that white folks can consistently count on, and asked that readers use this to assess their unearned racial privilege. I've read this article several times and I thought I had it cased; got it - I have privilege.
However, as I was working my way through the "Decolonizing Educational Relationships" book I decided to look at the list again and really think about it deeply. I downloaded the PDF and set about the task of highlighting each condition that *didn't* apply to me so I could get a more nuanced and concrete understanding of my privilege. So, anything highlighted would indicate a condition where I did not have unearned privilege as a white person.
Even though it takes up a lot of screen space I thought it worthwhile to share my results here:
You'll notice that nothing is highlighted. These are 50 conditions that I can count on wholly, through no effort or merit of my own; my skin color is the only-precondition required. Additionally, these are not small things. Like, I don't have to educate my kids to be aware of systemic racism in order to ensure their daily safety. Like, I am never asked to speak on behalf of all the white people. Like, I don't have to worry about my tenure and promotion processes being influenced by my skin color. When I saw the completely white pages in front of me, my own whiteness took me by surprise for a moment, even though I have read this work before and thought about it a great deal. Why? How could I still be ignorant of the breadth and depth of my racial privilege, if even for a moment?
I think it's particularly important to sit with McIntosh's work for a long while. It made me realize how insidious white privilege is, and began to shed more light on the ways I am racist without knowing it. Before anyone gets their back up about this, let's consider Oxford's definition of racist: "a person who is prejudiced against...people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group." I do exhibit prejudice. If I look at my groups of friends, for example, there is some racial diversity but not much. I allow white to be the default race in my life. I have a white partner and white children. I live in a predominantly white community in my city. I engage in hobbies alongside mostly white folks. I live in whiteness and continue to benefit implicitly from the outcomes of racism even as I rally against it.
It's clear that I--and we all--have been brainwashed into believing the hype about whiteness. McIntosh suggests that one thing we do to start countering this is to identify society's stereotypes about people of color and assume you've been influenced by them. Since this is a blog about decolonizing and I'm working from a Canadian context, I'll start with the prevalent stereotypes about Indigenous people:
- Indigenous people have more problems with addictions, unemployment, and crime than other people
- Indigenous people are not as capable or competent as white people
- Indigenous people are lazy and have no work ethic
- Indigenous people get a "free ride" - they don't pay taxes and they get free university education and free housing
- Harms done against Indigenous people are all in the past - they should get over it
- Indigenous people cause their own problems so they should stop getting "handouts"
- Indigenous people are savage and have nothing to teach white people
- Indigenous people are super angry and should just calm down
I don't like saying these out loud or writing them down because I viscerally feel the harm in them. I have done enough learning to know that none of these things are true, and to understand the bigger picture of the colonial project. However, this doesn't mean that I automatically cease to be influenced by stereotypes. In order for that to happen I have to both recognize when the influence is happening and then consciously change my internal narrative.
To be continued...
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