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White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack Analysis

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, she notes that the whites in America are taught not to recognize their white privilege as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. Whites were also taught to see racism as something that puts people at a disadvantage rather than something that puts people at an advantage as well. Therefore, McIntosh decides to unpack her invisible knapsack and list 46 privileges she was granted because of her skin color. In Audre Lorde’s essay, she argues that feminists must critically examine their own use of dominant concepts. She also mentions that academic knowledge is based on an institution that has excluded people of colour. In Eli Clare’s essay titled “The Mountain”, she writes about her disability and how societal attitudes about it affects her experience of her own body. …show more content…

People who fit in one of these three categories often believe that they have earned the privileges and that if other people worked for it, they could also share those privileges. But in actual fact, these privileges are unlearned can’t be earned through hard work. They are simply given to you if you are born into any of the dominant groups, which you have no control over. This is supported by McIntosh (1988) “I have noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged in the curriculum, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged” (pg. 11) as well as Lorde (1984) “As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change” (pg.

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