White privilege

White privilege (or white skin privilege) is the societal privilege that in some countries benefits white people over non-white people, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. Academic perspectives such as critical race theory and whiteness studies use the concept to analyze how racism and racialized societies affect the lives of white or white-skinned people. According to Peggy McIntosh, whites in Western societies enjoy advantages that non-whites do not experience, as 'an invisible package of unearned assets'. White privilege denotes both obvious and less obvious passive advantages that white people may not recognize they have, which distinguishes it from overt bias or prejudice. These include cultural affirmations of one's own worth; presumed greater social status; and freedom to move, buy, work, play, and speak freely. The effects can be seen in professional, educational, and personal contexts. The concept of white privilege also implies the right to assume the universality of one's own experiences, marking others as different or exceptional while perceiving oneself as normal. Some commentators say that the term uses the concept of 'whiteness' as a proxy for class or other social privilege or as a distraction from deeper underlying problems of inequality. Others state that it is not that whiteness is a proxy but that many other social privileges are interconnected with it, requiring complex and careful analysis to identify how whiteness contributes to privilege. Other commentators propose alternative definitions of whiteness and exceptions to or limits of white identity, arguing that the concept of white privilege ignores important differences between white subpopulations and individuals and suggesting that the notion of whiteness cannot be inclusive of all white people. They note the problem of acknowledging the diversity of people of color and ethnicity within these groups. Writers have noted that the 'academic-sounding concept of white privilege' sometimes elicits defensiveness and misunderstanding among white people, in part due to how the concept of white privilege was rapidly brought into the mainstream spotlight through social media campaigns such as Black Lives Matter. As an academic concept that was only recently brought into the mainstream, the concept of white privilege is frequently misinterpreted by non-academics; some academics, having studied white privilege undisturbed for decades, have been surprised by the seemingly-sudden hostility from right-wing critics since approximately 2014. Although the definition of 'white privilege' has been somewhat fluid, it is generally agreed to refer to the implicit or systemic advantages that white people have relative to people who are the objects of racism; it is the absence of suspicion and other negative reactions that people who are objects of racism experience. It is the flipside of racism and is used in discussions focused on the mostly hidden benefits that white people possess in a society where racism is prevalent and whiteness is considered normal, rather than on the detriments to people who are the objects of racism. As such, most definitions and discussions of the concept use as a starting point McIntosh's metaphor of the 'invisible backpack' that white people unconsciously 'wear' in a society where racism is prevalent. In his 1935 Black Reconstruction in America, W. E. B. Du Bois introduced the concept of a 'psychological wage' for white laborers. This special status, he wrote, divided the labor movement by leading low-wage white workers to feel superior to low-wage black workers. Du Bois identified white supremacy as a global phenomenon, affecting the social conditions across the world by means of colonialism. For instance, Du Bois wrote: In 1965, drawing from that insight, and inspired by the civil rights movement, Theodore W. Allen began a 40-year analysis of 'white skin privilege', 'white race' privilege, and 'white' privilege in a call he drafted for a 'John Brown Commemoration Committee' that urged 'White Americans who want government of the people' and 'by the people' to 'begin by first repudiating their white skin privileges'. The pamphlet, 'White Blindspot', containing one essay by Allen and one by historian Noel Ignatiev, was published in the late 1960s. It focused on the struggle against 'white skin privilege' and significantly influenced the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and sectors of the New Left. By June 15, 1969, the New York Times was reporting that the National Office of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was calling 'for an all-out fight against 'white skin privileges''. From 1974 to 1975, Allen extended his analysis to the colonial period, leading to the publication of 'Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race,' (1975) which ultimately grew into his two-volume 'The Invention of the White Race' in 1994 and 1997.