I recently read, "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies", by Peggy McIntosh. I want to share my experience of reading this article. I thought reading the article would enhance my knowledge, and it did. I thought it would give me greater self-awareness of how my own over-empowerment (as a white woman) shows up in my life, and it did. What I didn’t expect was to find myself wiping tears from my eyes as I read it. I did not expect to see myself in quite such a new and uncomfortable light.

Reading this article was like having dye dropped into the clear waters of white privilege in which I swim every day and having that dye light up the many, many ways in which I receive benefits, security, rewards, back-up, protection, ease of passage, entry, admission and acceptance that has been overly-granted to me because of my whiteness and my heterosexuality. I previously reaped unwarranted advantage as a married woman, but, like the house and half the furniture, the advantage disappeared when my status changed to “divorced.” Yes, I’ve done many things to become the woman I am today and I honor my hard work and my journey. But there’s an ugly fly in the ointment called white privilege - unbeknownst to me, I got invisible help along the way that others did not get because their skin was not white.

I used to think “privilege” sounded like a good thing. Doesn’t every one want privileges? I see now that privilege is not all it’s cracked up to be. It comes only at the expense of others. It is robbery. It is a ticket to ignorance, naivety and foolishness. Those who are privileged can easily show up as annoying and even obnoxious to those who are not privileged. Recall the commercials this past December showing people giving luxury cars as Christmas gifts, when others were scraping to have one gift for every child under the tree on Christmas day. Privilege equates to unconsciously living as an oppressor. Privilege is inherently hostile – it takes away from someone so someone else can have more. As a woman, I’ve been on the receiving end of male over-privilege, and it doesn’t feel good.

The McIntosh article was given to me by two African American women who lead a cultural discussion group in which I participate at the hospital where I work as a social worker. I am feeling deep uncomfortableness around being a member of a privileged group that needs to be taught essential lessons by members of a non-privileged group whom my group has and continues to oppress. While the non-privileged group has essential knowledge about which the white group is largely oblivious, it is not the job of the oppressed group to train and educate the privileged group. The privileged group needs to know what it doesn’t know, see what it doesn’t see, and feel what it doesn’t feel. The privileged need to figure out a way to honor the wisdom and truth carried by the non-privileged and learn without expecting the non-privileged group to bear the burden of the teaching. The privileged need to find good mirrors and hold them up. Peggy McIntosh’s article is one of those good mirrors.

With greater awareness comes greater responsibility. I ask myself, what changes do I need to make in myself, in my daily living, in my relationships, in my work, in my spiritual practice, in my community to reduce my participation in white privilege? I am seeking answers here. One action is to share the McIntosh article with the Woman Within Community because we have stepped (or been pushed?) into these murky waters as an organization. I am thankful that this is not a taboo subject in Woman Within, as it is in so many other organizations. Many organizations will talk about and teach diversity (and pat themselves on the back for their up-to-datedness), but will not pull the curtain back on white privilege (or male privilege or heterosexual privilege for that matter).

I cannot cancel my membership in the “white group” or the “heterosexual group.” I cannot immediately (or perhaps ever?) put a halt to the cumulative and future privileges that will come my way simply because I am white. This is my uncomfortableness of being over-granted comfortableness. Unlike the other useless, self-limiting shames that I have worked hard to transform in my life, I do not want to make peace with this uncomfortableness. I do not want to banish it. I want it present. I want to feel it poking and prodding me to remember that there is work to be done, a lot of it, and the time is now.
I am seeking answers here. How can I make amends in my lifetime, give back, be a part of making the invisible visible, and help level the playing field?

I’d like to hear from women (all women) about any actions you have taken in your life or any ideas you have to correct this heart-breaking imbalance. Send comments to: ma_hartnett@hotmail.com I will publish all ideas anonymously (without showing names) in a follow-up Heartbeat article.

Here is the link to the full Peggy McIntosh article. Read it and weep.

Part I: http://www.womenincircle.org/heartbeat/20070904.html (includes link to Part II)

Part II: http://www.womenincircle.org/heartbeat/20071004.html

(White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies", by Peggy McIntosh was published in fulll in the September, 2007 and October, 2007 Heartbeat newsletter)

Mary Ann Hartnett (WWTW Sept. 2000, Lake Delavan, WI) ma_hartnett@hotmail.com