A Critique of "White Privilege" Theory

How the Progressive Racial Blame Game is Perpetuating Hostility

Heckler on Race in America

During a recent discussion about race in America, I was challenged to read an essay by the feminist academic writer, Peggy McIntosh. The title of her essay is "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack". The basic idea of her essay is fairly simple. McIntosh believes that Caucasians hold power over people of color, and that white people are unable or unwilling to see or admit their position of advantage. She goes on to list twenty-six scenarios from her own personal life that she believes are examples of her privilege as a white person. In her view, whit e people must use their "unearned power" to weaken the social construct that keeps people of color oppressed by the system of white advantage. By the way, she also believes the exact same hidden power structure exists to subjugate woman to men. So, the really bad people, in her view, are white males, as they secretly repress both people of color and woman.

Now, there is no doubt in my mind that racism exists in this country, and anyone who says it doesn't needs to have their head examined. But what strikes me about McIntosh's article is that she attributes the problems of racism in America exclusively to whites, and she leaves the reader feeling that the only solution to the problem is for action on behalf of whites. But, think about it. Is the scope of racism really so broad that it is better labeled a conspiracy that secretly engages an entire race of people, or are racist acts isolated to the ignorant behavior of a few individuals?

In my opinion, it's the latter. The white privilege argument and its many variants are critically flawed, not to mention extremely divisive. One of the fundamental premises of McIntosh's argument is that white people deny, or are unable to see, their designation as an advantaged class. So, reflect for a moment on what she is truly saying about white people. That is, they either deny or are unable to recognize their status as an advantaged class.

In other words, the white people who know they are advantaged will deny it if asked. So, they are all deceitful - liars. If they're not being deceitful about it, then McIntosh says that whites cannot see their advantaged position, or that they have been taught not to recognize it. Does someone who is in a place of authority and advantage not know and recognize it as such? Frankly, to suggest that whites cannot see their advantage is to believe that whites are ignorant. It also asserts that elite academic liberals (like McIntosh) are the chosen ones, enlightened and capable of seeing white racism, since white people are too ignorant and unintelligent to see their position of advantage.

So, in short, McIntosh is saying three things: 1.) white people know they are advantaged, but lie and say they are not advantaged when confronted with their white racism, or 2.) they are too ignorant and closed-minded to see their position of dominance over people of other races, and 3.) only progressively-minded, liberal, elitist academics are brilliant and enlightened enough to perceive white power.

First of all, any theory that bases its argument on the assumption that an entire race of people are either deceitful or ignorant should immediately be discredited as fallacious, and most definitely has no place in a discussion on racism, especially when you consider the assumptions inherent in McIntosh's argument are themselves extremely racist. Saying that whites are too dumb or too deceitful to see their racist ways is egregiously racist and frankly deeply offensive to millions of good, ethical white people.

What would happen if someone put forth an argument, with the fundamental premise being that either most woman or people of color are ignorant, or are all liars? Would that person not be excoriated and permanently branded as an abhorrent bigot that is no better than a cross-burning kkk grand wizard? But since the target is white people, and the proponent is an elite academic, the theory is heralded inside the world of academia as genius! brilliant! - an intellectual discovery as momentous as the discovery of E=MCsq! The reality is that it's very wrong to assume such horrible things about any group of people. The hypocrisy buried in the white privilege theory is stunning.

The truth is, whites are fully aware that they have no special advantages in life, and if they did, the majority of them would admit it and not lie about it. Why? Because white people want to end racism as much as any other group in society. They are tired of the false accusations, the ongoing marginalization, the reverse discrimination, and the divisive rhetoric of the "white privilege" proponents. Do people not realize how demeaning it is to say that whites secretly oppress people of color? If all whites had to do to end racial tensions was to admit their secret hold on power, they would do it in a heartbeat.

The reason the white privilege theory has failed to solve anything, and has been completely ineffective in easing racial tensions is because its premises are false and unfounded. Further, you can't solve issues of racism by advocating more racism. If we are truly interested in improving racial tensions, people from all sides of the issue need to first understand that blaming all whites, or all blacks, or all men, and so forth, only exacerbate and deepen racial divides.