Analysis Of White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack

In 1989, women’s rights were on fire, especially in the eyes of feminist Peggy McIntosh. At this time, she created an article titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” that inspected just that: white privilege. As expected, she forms an argument that argues against those who do not recognize their all-too-common- white privilege. After looking into the structure of “White Privilege”, a few obvious aspects make the piece successful in what it does. Overall, the format of the article allows for ease of a compelling reading. By breaking down her writing into three main sections - introduction, numerical list, and conclusion - her argument becomes even stronger. Each portion serves as a crucial point to her argument: the introduction

Throughout the article, McIntosh integrates ethos and a comparison of male privilege to white privilege into her argument. Interestingly, these methods create a reading that, nearly 30 years later, is still shockingly relevant. Accordingly, “White Privilege” works by directly speaking to an audience of primarily white people. When it was written in 1989 at a time when the term ‘white privilege’ was not commonly used, McIntosh was one of the first people to ever write about white privilege from the perspective of a white person. Obviously, this makes for an interesting argument. Because of this, the audience is more likely to listen and consider what she saying rather than if a person of color were to write an article on white privilege; instead white’s would feel targeted, and simply reject what the author had to say. At the time of publishing, McIntosh addressed an audience that was primarily white and primarily male. Now, in 2017, those who read her piece will again be primarily white,

Such privileges range from obvious aspects like, “[turning] on the television or [opening] the front page of the paper and [seeing] people of my race widely represented.” to more conspicuous concepts like the ability to “ choose blemish cover or bandages in ‘flesh’ color and have them more or less match my skin.”. Throughout her 26 bullet points, McIntosh gives reasoning behind her initial claim that white privilege is overlooked by those who are a part of the group. Consequently, the audience is forced to, figuratively, unpack their privilege. With each bullet point, the reader is taken to another privilege that is not listed: McIntosh forces the reader to dig deeper, think further. This effect is just what McIntosh had in mind when she did some serious brainstorming since most of the list does not come to mind at first thought. Yet if she, as a white American, recognizes such advantages, why shouldn’t all white