Gina Crosley-Corcoran grew up in the type of poverty Americans like to pretend doesn’t exist, so it was hard for her to believe she had any privilege.
–
–
Years ago, some feminist on the internet told me I was “Privileged.”
“THE F*CK!?!?” I said.
I came from the kind of Poor that people don’t want to believe still exists in this country. Have you ever spent a frigid northern Illinois winter without heat or running water? I have. At twelve years old, were you making ramen noodles in a coffee maker with water you fetched from a public bathroom? I was. Have you ever lived in a camper year round and used a random relative’s apartment as your mailing address? We did. Did you attend so many different elementary schools that you can only remember a quarter of their names? Welcome to my childhood.
So when that feminist told me I had “white privilege,” I told her that my white skin didn’t do shit to prevent me from experiencing poverty. Then, like any good, educated feminist would, she directed me to Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 now-famous piece, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”
After one reads McIntosh’s powerful essay, it’s impossible to deny that being born with white skin in America affords people certain unearned privileges in life that people of another skin color simple are not afforded. For example:
“I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.”
“When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.”
“If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.”
“I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.”
If you read through the rest of the list, you can see how white people and people of color experience the world in two very different ways. BUT LISTEN: This is not said to make white people feel guilty about their privilege. It’s not your fault you were born with white skin and experience these privileges. BUT, whether you realize it or not, you DO benefit from it, and it IS your fault if you don’t maintain awareness of that fact.
I do understand McIntosh’s essay may rub some people the wrong way. There are several points on the list that I felt spoke more to the author’s status as a Middle Class person than a White Person. For example:
“If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area, which I can afford and in which I would want to live.”
“I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.”
“I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.”
“If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.”
And there are so many more points in the essay where the word “race” could be substituted for the word “class” which would ultimately paint a very different picture. That is why I had such a hard time identifying with this essay for so long. When I first wrote about White Privilege years ago, I demanded to know why this White Woman felt that my experiences were the same as hers when no, my family most certainly could not rent housing “in an area which we could afford and want to live.”
And no, I couldn’t go shopping without fear in our low income neighborhoods.
The idea that any ol’ white person can find a publisher for a piece is most certainly a symptom of class privilege. Having come from a family of people who didn’t even graduate high school, who knew not a single academic or intellectual person, it would never occur to me to assume that I could be published. It is an absolute freak anomaly that I’m in graduate school considering not one person on either side of my family has a college degree. And it took me until my thirties to ever believe that someone from my stock could achieve such a thing. Poverty colors nearly everything about your perspective on opportunities for advancement in life. Middle class, educated people assume that anyone can achieve their goals if they work hard enough. Folks steeped in poverty rarely see a life past working at the gas station, making the rent on their trailer, and self-medicating with cigarettes and prescription drugs until they die of a heart attack. (I’ve just described one whole side of my family and the life I assumed I’d be living before I lucked out of it.)
|
…recognizing Privilege doesn’t mean suffering guilt or shame for your lot in life.
|
I, maybe more than most people, can completely understand why broke white folks get pissed when the word “Privilege” is thrown around. As a child, I was constantly discriminated against because of my poverty and those wounds still run very deep. But luckily my college education introduced me to a more nuanced concept of Privilege; the term Intersectionality. The concept of Intersectionality recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and definitely not privileged in others. There are many different types of privilege, not just skin color privilege, that impact the way people can move through the world or are discriminated against. These are all things you are born into, not things you earned, that afford you opportunities others may not have. For example:
Citizenship – Simply being born in this country affords you certain privileges non-citizens will never access.
Class – Being born into a financially stable family can help guarantee your health, happiness, safety, education, intelligence, and future opportunities.
Sexual Orientation – By being born straight, every state in this country affords you privileges that non-straight folks have to fight the Supreme Court for.
Sex – By being born male, you can assume that you can walk through a parking garage without worrying you’ll be raped and that a defense attorney will then blame it on what you were wearing.
Ability – By being born able bodied, you probably don’t have to plan your life around handicap access, braille, or other special needs.
Gender – By being born cisgendered, you aren’t worried that the restroom or locker room you use will invoke public outrage.
♦◊♦
As you can see, belonging to one or more category of Privilege, especially being a Straight White Middle Class Able-Bodied Male, can be like winning a lottery you didn’t even know you were playing. But this is not to imply that any form of privilege is exactly the same as another or that people lacking in one area of privilege understand what it’s like to be lacking in other areas. Race discrimination is not equal to Sex Discrimination and so forth.
And listen, recognizing Privilege doesn’t mean suffering guilt or shame for your lot in life. Nobody’s saying that Straight White Middle Class Able-Bodied Males are all a bunch of assholes who don’t work hard for what they have. Recognizing Privilege simply means being aware that some people have to work much harder just to experience the things you take for granted (if they ever can experience them at all.)
I know now that I AM Privileged in many ways. I am Privileged as a natural born white citizen. I am privileged as a cis-gendered woman. I am privileged as an able-bodied person. I am privileged that my first language is also our national language, and that I was born with an intellect and ambition that pulled me out of the poverty I was otherwise destined for. I was privileged to be able to marry my way “up” by partnering with a Privileged middle-class educated male who fully expected me to earn a college degree.
There are a million ways I experience Privilege and some that I certainly don’t. But thankfully, Intersectionality allows us to examine these varying dimensions and degrees of discrimination while raising awareness of the results of multiple systems of oppression at work.
Tell me, are you a White Person made uncomfortable by the term “White Privilege?” Does a more nuanced approach help you see your own Privilege more clearly?
—
Originally appeared at TheFeministBreeder.com, reprinted courtesy of the author.
Follow Gina on Facebook and Twitter @feministbreeder
—
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
 |
 |
 |
 |
—
RSVP to join weekly calls on Conscious Intersectionality
—
What’s your take on what you just read? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
◊♦◊
Get the best stories from The Good Men Project delivered straight to your inbox, here.
◊♦◊
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
♦◊♦
We have pioneered the largest worldwide conversation about what it means to be a good man in the 21st century. Your support of our work is inspiring and invaluable.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all-access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class, and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group, and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo: iStock
It’s never really bothered me. Actually, while a lot of white dudes act like it’s this absurdist concept totally incoherent to any rational or scientific worldview, I credit my understanding of science with why it’s so easy to grasp. If you really know how science works, then you know that it requires accepting that subgroups can be described by averages, as a matter of course. Nobody tries to claim that the concept of seasons is nonsense because sometimes there are days in fall that are warmer than spring, or that because you can’t make predictions based on climate accurate to… Read more »
If privilege doesn’t exist, then the only other explanation for why poor people stay poor is because it is in their blood.
if privilege doesn’t exist, then the only other explanation for why black people are disproportionately incarcerated is because their dark skin makes them violent and criminal.
Really?
You know what’s funny/sad, Asians do better in every aspect in America over white people. Everything people say white people have privilege for Asians typically have more of it (arrested less, shot less, make 15% more per capita, have more scholarships, etc)
So who has the real privilege? or maybe this whole crap about privilege is made up and is used as an excuse by under-performers and mediocrities as an excuse for their own failures. Or maybe it’s made up to change the conversation from rich/poor to white/black.
The biggest steaming pile of crap I ever read. I’m white, can’t go into any black neighborhood, can’t dress like a thug bitch in bev hills either. I had condoms full of rocks thrown at me as a kindergartner for being white in a black town. Give me a break. The only privilege I EVER had was hot chick privilege (which knows no colors).
There is no “White Privilege”. Try an article about black or female privilege. The reaction would be the same as others’ about supposed “White Privilege”.
If white men are privileged, then explain to me why before the Great Depression, the overwhelming number of white men were poor, barely 50% of them graduated from high school, and only 10% ever went to college? It wasn’ until the Great Depression and the GI Bill, that the poor white man ever got a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor until Reagan came along and eneded it.
Excellent article. One point that you made is very telling: “This is not said to make white people feel guilty about their privilege.” Far too many times people that say others need to “check” their privilege are saying so exactly to make the other class feel guilty. Being aware of advantages that you may hold simply because of how you were born is one thing. Having that same accident of birth thrown in your face as a insult or as a means to shut down debate is quite another.
I agree with your comment.
This is a great article. The problem I have with the current use of white privilege and male privilege is the assumption that it trumps all other forms of privilege and disadvantage. If someone is black, but was raised in an upper class household with university educated parents are they more or less privileged that someone like yourself? I’d suggest that they are probably more privileged but if I said that at a Sociology conference, I’d be ostracised. Similarly, I have observed cases where people who are privileged in many ways (race, class, family status, etc) blame all of their… Read more »
White privilege is almost always getting the benefit of the doubt in most all social and economic situations and thinking that you’re oppressed on the rare occasion when you don’t.
This whole “privilege” meme is pretty much on its last legs. It is just not getting traction in mainstream American society as a really useful idea. The uselessness of it is easily seen when it comes to the sublimely idiotic idea of intersectionality. Since all of us fall into multiple social categories, and each category gives us more or less privilege, we end up with a true Gordian knot that simply cannot be untangled. Here’s a good hypothetical example: Joe is male. He comes from an upper class family. He is a doctor. He is black. Bill is male. He… Read more »
“Ultimately, we are each and all responsible for making the best of our own life, despite the mixture of pluses and minuses we deal with personally.” Sums it up perfectly
actually, figuring out the social advantages and disadvantages along several different common metrics such as race, religion, class, gender, and disability are exactly how we make a working science out of this.
We are responsible for making the best of our own life, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t face social obstacles because of our place in society.
I am a white American and have lived in Japan over 30 years. I live at the edge of a town pop 70K. I have none of the privileges mentioned in this essay. “I can (not) turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.” “When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization, I am (not) shown that people of my color made it what it is.” etc. Socially and in many functions, I am always the person who isn’t Japanese and am often expected… Read more »
And do you think that black people in America should feel the same? The difference is black Americans are AMERICANS not expatriates.
He’s making a larger point. Read it again.
no one is protesting privilege. they are only protesting people who say the privilege doesn’t exist and instead say that it is your fault for being, on average, less successful. There is definitely Japanese privilege in Japan. If the Japanese think white people are lazy by nature, that is racism, and it is caused by thinking that social privilege isn’t a thing that helps Japanese succeed in Japan over whites in Japan.
Hey, everyone! Life isn’t fair. Plain and simple. EVERYONE (if they look for it) can find a reason why, “it’s not my fault, it’s someone or something else.” You simply have to figure out what you CAN do and then either overcome or avoid the things you can’t. Some will make it, some won’t. That’s life. You just have to deal with it. Sorry.
If life isn’t fair, then people should not bringing kids in this world, since they know how screw up the world is.
Let me start off by saying I am a middle class, white, male. I believe almost everything in this article, but am used to talking about it in terms that I think are more helpful. I’m a big believer in “Systems Theory” which understands that life is a series of systems. Our homes, clubs, family, teams, businesses, city/state/federal politics are all systems. What’s true in any system is that there are people who exert power in the system and there are people who do not. Parents, coaches, elected officials have their children, players and citizens. For those with power they… Read more »
My sister and I were suburban white kids born to older parents in the late 50’s. By the early 70’s our dad retired and moved us to a river retirement community full of trailer dwellers and drifters. Our mom took us mid year to register at the local school. She told us the story later that when she told them where we lived they looked down their nose and told her to have a seat.. She said the principal came out after a while after looking at our suburban report cards with all A’s and B’s and was so glad… Read more »
I grew up white and very, very poor. There were very few people of color where I grew up, and the very few there were were all better off than my family was. In my hometown you are still more likely to get pregnant/knock up your girlfriend than to go to college. When I went to college, I found it impossible to explain to any white students why I had to get good grades to stay in school (scholarships and grants require a minimum gpa) or why I couldn’t go out with them because I had to work. The only… Read more »
Excellent.
So very true.
This article is fantastic, it describes it well. As a straight, white, cis, able-bodied, middle class male I know it’s certainly like I’ve won a lottery I didn’t even know I was in.
As a straight, white, cis, able-bodied, middle class female, born in the USA, I like your lottery analogy. I added born in the USA, because I believe that our place of birth is just as important when talking about the privilege we are born with. Do you agree?
It is true that there are privileges for many in this world, I certainly don’t look at it that way, but that’s how the world works. I believe each person can be different in their own way and make something out of themselves, that can defeat the purpose of privilege because it can show others something different.
Hey idiots, if you hadn’t noticed yet, more and more people are willing to help others to make their lives easier and better. Race, gender, sex, no matter, every social group get better. I like when you said that you don’t want white people to feel guilty about themselves, when you insensitives creeps are telling white people, especially white, straight guys to feel ”privilegied”, trying to ”put them in their places” instead of treating everyone equally and do wonders. ”Privilegied” or not, people help others, and you better do this yourselves instead of being failures at life. What, you think… Read more »
I am really starting to research intersectionalities and finding that privilege is not really an ascriptive trait such as male or white, but about a combination of things that affect one;s local position.
@Steve When exactly did issues like colonialism get resolved and to whose satisfaction? The reality is most Americans, of whatever color, do not know much about colonialism. Even after colonialism ended European countries continued to rape Africa. Which is similar to what happened to blacks in the south after slavery ended, they were punished by whites for 100 years. I don’t understand ,why was it sooooo wrong for Hitler to do exactly what America, Spain, the English, the French and so many others had done for hundreds of years, for the EXACT same reasons. What all of these groups had… Read more »
Hey buddy, you still around?
Height. For a man, being tall provides privilege in most if not all societies.
I am not tall.
So, does pointing out the existence of “tall privilege” help me?
Perhaps but I don’t see how.
Height does confer privilege. How it might help you? By understanding it’s not YOU but it’s how people are categorizing you and treating you in a way because of something you didn’t choose — and then you can relate to others who get similar maltreatment by who they are but didn’t choose, like being a person of color… how that’s like an inherent “shortness” as treated by the dominant society … but hopefully you’ll feel fine about who you are and be able to relate with people who treat you well because you’re a person who is fine.
Yay, more white liberal self hating post-colonial guilt.I was beginning to think we’d ran out of that stuff. I guess not!
And you got conservatives trying to make excuses for slavery, exploiting workers, etc.
Afraid not.
As an older working poor white male I’d have to agree with the majority of this article. Worked with a friend 3 years ago, he’s black and younger, in his early ’30’s, and kinda dapper, a charmer. I needed to go to my bank, which was located inside a Walmart and the branch of which didn’t open until 10 am. We got there at about 9:20 and I’d been there many times by myself, construction shop clothes, never hassled. That day we found that, “May I Help You” really means May I Watch Your Every Move Because You Are Suspect;… Read more »
I grew up privileged. I was born into a family that loved me. My parents were married before I came along and are still married, more than half a century later. They raised me to be a Christian. I had grandparents of strong faith and honor who taught me and my brothers and cousins a great deal about how to live our lives. My parents worked hard to provide us with a good house, food on the table and a few possessions, although we were by no means wealthy. Their support and our own hard work enabled us to get… Read more »
My mother spoke similarly of how far hard work would take us. She pointed out the privileges that we don’t have and what we have to overcome in comparison to some others, but her focus wasn’t on what we couldn’t do or how society inhibits/inhibited us, it was on how I need to improve myself to achieve it.
Great article. People tend to base their perception on silly anecdotes rather than reality. Census data in the US shows that minorities and women (and especially minority women) are the poorest in the country. I saw this great study regarding upward mobility that you might enjoy reading. It’s lengthy but worth the read and the researchers created a cool interactive map online. http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/mobility_geo.pdf.