“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.” PeopleStatesHandsSeemsActionChoicesWhiteUnitedNumbersUnited StatesGroupsRacismAdvantageDemocraticMalesAvailableMythPropsWhite PrivilegeSmall NumbersMeritocracy 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.” IfsRaceRacismAdvantageLike MeDominanceWhite PrivilegeOutraged 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.” TryingSeemsOpportunityPositionEqualRacismDominanceEqual OpportunityWhite 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.” PeopleIfsGivingCountryLife IsCertainWhiteVirtueDoorsSubjectsGiving UpRacismPressurePrivilegeMythElusiveWhite PrivilegeFugitiveMeritocracyFree 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” IndividualGroupsTaughtRacismInvisibleDominanceMeanness 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.” PersonsWhiteTaughtRacismAdvantageAspectPrivilegeI RealizedDisadvantagesWhite Privilege Author:Peggy McIntosh
