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Peggy McIntosh Biography

Activist

Peggy McIntosh is an American activist born on November 7, 1934. She is known for her contributions to gender and racial equality, particularly for her critical analysis of white privilege.

Privileges Rassismus Weißdominiert Weiße Vorherrschaft

Book:Weißsein als Privileg. Die Privilege Papers: [Was bedeutet das alles?] – McIntosh, Peggy – Erläuterungen – Denkanstöße – Analyse (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek)

Source: Weißsein als Privileg. Die Privilege Papers: [Was bedeutet das alles?] – McIntosh, Peggy – Erläuterungen – Denkanstöße – Analyse (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek)

“Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate.”

Looks Facts Privilege Permission

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow 'them' to be more like 'us'.”

Thinking Taught Benefits Ideals Average

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege.”

Thinking White Taught Males Privilege White Privilege Male Privilege

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.”

Ifs Needs Years Asks Situation Week Negative Episodes

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.”

People States Hands Seems Action Choices White United Numbers United States Groups Racism Advantage Democratic Males Available Myth Props White Privilege Small Numbers Meritocracy

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“one question for me and others like me is whether ... we will get truly distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred dominance and, if so, what we will do to lessen them.”

Ifs Race Racism Advantage Like Me Dominance White Privilege Outraged

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.”

Trying Seems Opportunity Position Equal Racism Dominance Equal Opportunity White Privilege

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one's life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.”

People Ifs Giving Country Life Is Certain White Virtue Doors Subjects Giving Up Racism Pressure Privilege Myth Elusive White Privilege Fugitive Meritocracy Free Country

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”

Individual Groups Taught Racism Invisible Dominance Meanness

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.”

White Special Clothes Tools Privilege Invisible Checks Maps Blank Provision Passports Visa White Privilege Blank Check

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.”

Persons Done Values Ability Results Groups Talent Privilege Determine Access Outcomes Aspiration Assets Denied

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.”

Persons White Taught Racism Advantage Aspect Privilege I Realized Disadvantages White Privilege

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“White privilege is the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.”

People Choices White Benefits Conscious Advantage Experience Privilege Inequality Equal Rights Entitlement Equal Opportunity White Privilege

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.”

I Can Action Jobs Race Workers Suspects Employers Affirmative Action Affirmative Co Worker

Author:Peggy McIntosh

About the Author

Born: November 7, 1934
Known for: Activist
Quotes: 15

Books & Sources

Weißsein als Privileg. Die Privilege Papers: [Was bedeutet das alles?] – McIntosh, Peggy – Erläuterungen – Denkanstöße – Analyse (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek)Related source material

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