Blog post #5

The two articles about white privilege really struck me. This topic has come up in some of my other courses before, so it was not a completely novel subject. However, I really enjoyed chapter one of Silent Racism by Barbara Trepagnier. The differences of the definitions of racism between white people and black people were new to me. White people have two categories for racism: racist or not racist. Whereas, black people and other people of color define racism as “permeating the institutions of society, producing racial inequality in employment, education, housing, and justice” (Trepagnier, 2006, pg. 4). These two definitions greatly differ and serve as evidence that privilege is inherent to white people because they do not see racism in terms of institutional and structural inequality. White people never have to consider that their race is the reason as to why they did not get a job, why they got pulled over by a policeman, why their kids are not getting the best education, etc. Peggy McIntosh referred to whiteness as an invisible knapsack in an article she wrote about white privilege. This analogy refers to the fact that white people carry their race without knowing it because it is the  accepted race in the U.S. McIntosh encourages white people to unpack their knapsack in order to work towards social change.

Trepagnier raises the question about whether all white people are racist. She wrote that one study found that “white people generally are racist” (pg. 6). Other theorists have concluded that not all white people are racist. As much as I’d like to say that a majority of white people and I are 100 percent not racist, I believe that everyone possesses a degree of racism. Going back to the invisible knapsack analogy, white people unknowingly carry privilege with them without questioning or acknowledging its presence. Of course there might be some white people who are constantly aware of their white privilege knapsack. But I think most people are not, meaning that they are using their white privilege to their advantage in an unconscious, innocent manner.

The articles were very academic and educational, however, I wish that the authors provided solutions. They pointed out that white people inherently carry this privilege around, but we can we do about it? It would have been nice if they would have made suggestions about what people can do to share their privilege.