Peggy McIntosh

"I think whites are carefully taught to not recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day , but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks." ( McIntosh, 2)

Peggy McIntosh, a well-known American feminist and anti-racist, speaks in her widely embraced work, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" about the unseen "white privilege" that surrounds us each and every day. She is well known for her work in feminist movements and is extremely sharp at pointing out what exactly white privilege is. While her stance on issues of gender and race may give readers the impression that she would appear as a "middle aged, ruthless African American woman", she is actually a white woman of European descent who has spent long years working to persuade others of her theories. Her idea of "white privilege" is not only unavoidable, but it is also undeniable. In the American classroom, everything: income, family life, race, gender, and lifestyle, all play a core role in proving the accuracy of "white privilege".

McIntosh explores how it is an unseen complex that white children are unknowingly held at a higher standard than children of color in a given American classroom. In things such as hand-raising, group assignments, and even the clique creations at recess in elementary schools, whites are not taught to see or look for the privilege they are given in American society. Take an average suburban school in Whoville, RI, for example; the community will likely behold their own prejudices over any neighbors who do not happen to be white. Chances are also high that the middle-class school will have classrooms where the few children of color will be sitting closely with all of the white children, unless forced. There is bound to be a clique problem within the school where the non-white students are grouped together and are looked at in a more negative stereotype by teachers and administrators alike. Everything from posters to ads, to sports photographs throughout the school will likely prove that "whiteness" has been vastly spread throughout this school.