Anyone who has taken graduate courses in the social sciences
(and even those undergraduates who have had great teachers) has likely read
Peggy McIntosh’s work on White Privilege.
If not, I highly recommend that you do so, no matter who you are or
where you come from or what ‘race’ you identify with, her work is powerful and
eye-opening. {I have included a link to one of her most well-known pieces
below, and I strongly encourage you to read it}
I shall preface this by saying I don’t believe in race. Skin color, a phenotypic characteristic of an
organism, in no way determines ‘race.’ In fact, it has been scientifically
proven that race has absolutely no biological basis, race is not part of our
genes or our DNA; race is not real.
Rather, race is a social construction.
Race is a notion created by society.
But just because race may not be real,
the consequences of society’s perception of it as so are very real. So while I acknowledge that I am not, in
fact, a ‘white’ person, I will refer to myself as such within this post,
because society’s perception of me as a ‘white’ individual has very real consequences
in the world we live in.
I have been fortunate enough to experience my white
privilege from a multitude of perspectives in a variety of cultures. I say fortunate not because of what I have
been able to materially gain from these experiences, but I have been fortunate in
regards to the struggle to gain wisdom as a human belonging to a multi-faceted,
diverse, and interconnected world of beings. I grew up in the United States, a
country still haunted by racism whether or not we wish to admit it. As a white member of society, I enjoy a
number of ‘invisible’ privileges that are not enjoyed by those who are not white
(see Peggy McIntosh’s article below for some great examples). I have lived in
Tanzania, where people constantly came to me in search of help and/or money,
because I am white. I now live in China where I am offered far more money than
the locals and am given various things for free, because I am white. In Tanzania, people wished (and in most
cases, needed) to gain something material from their association with me; in
China, people wish to bestow something material upon me. In both cases, this
occurs because I am white.
For the most part, those of us in positions of privilege are
unaware of that privilege. Even if we do acknowledge it, we are afforded privileges
on a daily basis which go unrecognized. Most people in America are taught to
believe that they get where they are because they worked hard to get there.
Wrong. Most people in America are where they are because someone else worked
hard to get there, and you were born into a position of privilege which has
allowed you to live the life you live because of someone else’s hard work. I
know that I never could have led such an amazing life if I had had to really do everything on my own. I am
where I am and I have had the experiences I have had because of the hard work
of others and because of the support of those people as well. I don’t mean to
say I have never worked hard, because I have (relatively speaking for a person
of my position). But, can I call the work I’ve done ‘hard’ when I see the
Mexican immigrant in my father’s restaurant who works 3 jobs at all hours of
the day and night just to feed his son? Can I call the work I’ve done ‘hard’
when women in Tanzania spend 10 hours a day breaking stones into gravel by hand
in the blistering sun? Can I call the work I’ve done ‘hard’ when one of my
Tanzanian students worked 4 hours in the fields every morning, came to school,
left school to go back to the fields until dark, and couldn’t even afford the
10 cent bread at lunch each day?
Recognizing our privilege can have many effects; it can be
eye-opening, thought-provoking, guilt-inducing, but best of all, it can be
humbling. That is where I have found the greatest reward in recognizing my
privilege, in being humbled. Being humbled allows compassion to grow inside of
us, and compassion opens the door for feelings of love toward other people. And
there is no greater thing in this world than to live in love. Gandhi once said,
“Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest
imaginable." The greatest thing we can do with our life is to live in
love; the greatest force which exists in this world is love, love that comes
from the process of being humbled, love that is itself humble. Once we rid
ourselves of the desire to yield power in the forms of position, wealth, fame, and
superiority, and instead choose to yield power in the form of compassion and
love, recognizing every one among us as one of us, only then can we create a
world of unity and peace.
Peggy McIntosh- Unpacking the Knapsack of White Privilege
Great writing, Lena! I have always thought there was but one race: the Human Race. I filled-out a government form recently and it caused me to pause and wonder: why is there a place for race on the form? How are we to rise above separation when we still seek it out? Thank-you!
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