"How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion": Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools

Summary

The speaker explores the concept of 'white privilege' through a personal lens, using the metaphor of an 'invisible knapsack' filled with unearned advantages. They recount their journey from ignorance to awareness of societal systems that elevate certain groups, reflecting on how these systems impact both privileged and underprivileged individuals. The talk emphasizes the importance of recognizing and leveraging privilege to dismantle oppressive structures, advocating for a more equitable society.

Takeaways

• 📏 The concept of a 'hypothetical line of social justice' is introduced as a metaphor for fairness and the societal constructs that place individuals above or below this line.
• 🔽 Below the line, individuals face unearned disadvantages such as bullying, prejudice, and being scapegoated, which are systemic and not a result of personal merit.
• 🔼 Above the line, individuals experience unearned privileges, such as being trusted with responsibility and money, often due to societal biases and projections.
• 🌱 The speaker was raised with the belief in meritocracy, which was later challenged by the realization of systemic privileges and disadvantages.
• 👥 Both men and women, as well as people of different races, experience a mix of privileges and disadvantages, highlighting the universality of these social constructs.
• 🔍 The speaker's personal journey of recognizing white privilege began with noticing male privilege and the inherent biases in academic and societal structures.
• 🎓 In educational settings, the resistance to incorporating women's studies into foundational courses revealed the deeply ingrained belief in male as the norm and women as 'extras'.
• 🤔 The realization of one's own oppressive behavior, even with good intentions, challenges the assumption that 'niceness' precludes one from being part of oppressive systems.
• 🧠 The internalization of racial and gender biases is shown through the speaker's own experiences, such as doubting colleagues of color despite their competence.
• 💼 The speaker acknowledges the unearned advantages of white privilege in professional settings, including easier access to grants and institutional trust.
• 📋 The 'invisible knapsack' metaphor is used to describe the intangible yet significant benefits that come with white privilege, which are often overlooked.
• 🏦 The 'bank account' of white privilege is another metaphor introduced to convey the idea that while one cannot be blamed for being born into privilege, one can choose to use it to dismantle such systems.
• 🌟 The transformative power of using one's privilege to challenge and change oppressive systems is emphasized, promoting a sense of responsibility and action.

Q & A

What is the hypothetical line of social justice described in the script?

The hypothetical line of social justice is an imaginary concept that represents a level where things feel fair. Below this line, individuals or groups may be disadvantaged through various forms of oppression, while above it, they may be advantaged by unearned privilege.

What does the speaker study in relation to the hypothetical line of social justice?

The speaker studies what happens above the hypothetical line of social justice, focusing on the concept of privilege and how it affects individuals in society.

What is the speaker's view on the myth of meritocracy?

The speaker rejects the myth of meritocracy, arguing that it is not true that an individual's achievements at death are solely the result of their own efforts, as privilege systems can influence one's position in society.

How did the speaker come to notice privilege, specifically male privilege?

The speaker came to notice privilege by observing patterns in her seminars at Wellesley College, where male participants consistently opposed including women's studies in introductory courses, revealing an underlying assumption of male superiority in knowledge.

What is the significance of the phrase 'soft stuff' in the script?

The phrase 'soft stuff' is used by one of the men in the seminar to describe the study of women, suggesting that it is not as rigorous or important as other subjects. This highlights the gender bias in academia.

What realization did the speaker have about her own racial superiority assumption?

The speaker realized that her niceness did not negate her basic racial superiority assumption, acknowledging that she had been oppressive to work with due to her unearned white privilege.

How does the speaker describe the concept of white privilege?

The speaker describes white privilege as an unearned advantage that comes from one's racial or ethnic status, which can manifest in various aspects of life, such as access to knowledge, money, and trust.

What is the SEED project mentioned in the script?

The SEED project is the speaker's major project, which has a core staff of nine people of color and five whites. It serves as a platform for her to confront and challenge her own white privilege.

What metaphor does the speaker use to describe white privilege?

The speaker uses two metaphors: white privilege as an 'invisible knapsack' filled with assets that she can cash in daily, and as a 'bank account' that she can use to weaken the system of white privilege.

What transformative realization does the speaker come to regarding her white privilege?

The speaker realizes that using her white privilege to challenge and weaken the system of white privilege has been transformative for her life, leading to a more compassionate and fair existence for everyone.

How does the speaker address the issue of white guilt in the script?

The speaker believes that guilt, shame, or blame are not relevant to the arbitrariness of one's placement in privilege systems. Instead, she focuses on using her privilege to work towards a more equitable society.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 The Hypothetical Line of Social Justice

The speaker introduces the concept of a hypothetical line of social justice, which serves as a metaphor for fairness and equity in society. Above this line, individuals are given opportunities and trust due to privilege, while below it, they face oppression and disadvantage. The speaker reflects on their own upbringing with the belief in meritocracy, which is later challenged by the realization of systemic privilege and disadvantage. They discuss the invention of these social constructs and the personal journey of recognizing male and white privilege.

05:05

🤔 Encountering Male Privilege in Academia

In this paragraph, the speaker recounts their experience in a seminar at Wellesley College, where discussions about integrating women's studies into the liberal arts curriculum led to an annual conflict. The speaker notes the resistance from male participants, who, despite being allies, insisted that introductory courses should not include 'soft' subjects like women's studies. This resistance is attributed to ingrained beliefs about the nature of knowledge and the role of men as its creators and disseminators.

10:12

📚 Unpacking White Privilege and Its Impact

The speaker delves into the realization of their own white privilege and its unearned advantages in the academic and funding spheres. They describe the internal struggle with acknowledging this privilege and the transformative process of recognizing its influence in their professional life. The speaker also discusses the 'invisible knapsack' of white privilege, listing 46 elements of unearned advantage that contribute to systemic inequality.

15:14

💼 Transforming White Privilege into a Tool for Change

In the final paragraph, the speaker shifts the focus from guilt to action, proposing a metaphor of white privilege as a bank account that can be used to dismantle the system that created it. They emphasize the importance of using one's privilege to promote a more equitable society, highlighting the personal transformation that comes from engaging in this work and the continuous refilling of the 'bank account' through societal benefits of doubt.

Keywords

💡Social Justice

Social justice refers to the concept of creating a society where all members have equal rights and opportunities, free from discrimination and prejudice. In the video, the speaker uses the metaphor of an imaginary line of social justice to illustrate the balance between fairness and inequality. The concept is central to the theme of the video, as it discusses the advantages and disadvantages people experience due to societal structures.

💡Privilege

Privilege denotes unearned advantages that individuals possess due to their group membership, such as race, gender, or social class. The speaker discusses 'white privilege' and 'male privilege' as examples, explaining how these unearned benefits can lead to an imbalance in opportunities and recognition. The concept of privilege is integral to understanding the disparities discussed in the video.

💡Meritocracy

Meritocracy is the belief that individuals are rewarded based on their abilities and achievements rather than their social status or wealth. The speaker challenges this myth by arguing that societal systems often predetermine success, thus meritocracy does not accurately reflect reality. This term is used to critique the common assumption that success is solely a result of individual effort.

💡Stereotype

A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. In the video, the speaker mentions being stereotyped as a form of social injustice, which can lead to unfair treatment and discrimination. Stereotypes are highlighted as part of the societal constructs that contribute to inequality.

💡Discrimination

Discrimination refers to the unfair treatment of a person or group based on their membership in a certain category, such as race, gender, or age. The video discusses various forms of discrimination, such as bullying and prejudice, as factors that push individuals below the line of social justice.

💡Unearned Advantage

Unearned advantage is a benefit that an individual receives without having to work for it, often due to their social identity. The speaker uses this term to describe the privileges that come with being part of a dominant group, such as being white or male, and how these advantages are not a result of personal merit but societal bias.

💡Invisible Knapsack

The 'invisible knapsack' is a metaphor used by the speaker to describe the collection of unearned advantages that individuals with privilege carry without realizing it. The knapsack is invisible because these advantages are often unrecognized or taken for granted by those who possess them. This metaphor is central to the speaker's exploration of white privilege.

💡Benefit of the Doubt

Benefit of the doubt is a term that refers to the tendency to give someone the advantage of any doubt in a situation where there is uncertainty. The speaker uses this concept to illustrate how privilege can manifest in everyday life, such as when she is let off by police due to her perceived non-threatening status as an elderly white woman.

💡Oppression

Oppression is the unjust treatment or control of people, often based on their membership in a particular social group. In the video, the speaker reflects on her own role in perpetuating oppression through her participation in and reinforcement of systems that favor certain groups over others.

💡Racial Superiority Assumption

Racial superiority assumption is the belief that one's own race is superior to others, which can lead to discrimination and unequal treatment. The speaker acknowledges her own internalized belief in white superiority and how it influenced her interactions and perceptions, challenging the audience to recognize and confront similar biases.

💡Wellesley Centers for Women

Wellesley Centers for Women is an actual institution that serves as a context in the video for discussing the speaker's experiences with privilege and oppression. It is mentioned as a place where the speaker observed and began to understand the dynamics of privilege in academic and professional settings.

Highlights

The concept of a hypothetical line of social justice is introduced as a tool to visualize the experience of privilege and disadvantage.

Below the line of social justice, individuals may experience bullying, stereotyping, and prejudice.

Above the line of social justice, individuals may be unjustly pushed up due to privilege, receiving more than they deserve.

The speaker was raised with the myth of meritocracy, which later she realized was not true.

Privileged systems are man-made and we are born into them, experiencing both privilege and disadvantage.

The speaker's realization of male privilege and its impact on her life and work.

The struggle to integrate women's studies into the mainstream curriculum and the resistance encountered.

The speaker's personal experience of grappling with the concept of white privilege and its implications.

The idea that knowledge is male and that men are the knowers, which the speaker internalized.

The realization that 'niceness' does not negate the potential for being oppressive to others.

The internalization of white privilege as a knower and its unconscious impact on the speaker's behavior.

The speaker's process of acknowledging and confronting her white privilege and its unearned advantages.

The concept of white privilege as an 'invisible knapsack' filled with unearned assets.

The metaphor of white privilege as a bank account that can be used to challenge the system.

The transformative effect of using white privilege to work towards a fairer and more compassionate society.

The speaker's personal journey from denial to acceptance and action regarding her white privilege.

The importance of recognizing and addressing privilege to create a more equitable society.

The ongoing process of identifying and unpacking the elements of white privilege in daily life.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Cissy Yun Reviewer: TED Translators admin

(Music)

(Applause)

I imagine a hypothetical line of social justice.

A hypothetical line — an imaginary line

of social justice that is parallel to the floor,

also parallel to the Earth.

And on this imaginary line of social justice,

things feel fair.

Below it, one can be pushed down

either as a member of a group or an individual,

through bullying, teasing, being stereotyped, having prejudices

against one or one's group,

being a survivor of genocide, being a scapegoat,

being a discarded person.

What I study, is what happens above the hypothetical line

of social justice.

And in school, I was never taught to even notice this realm.

Above the hypothetical line, one can be pushed up,

believed,

thought worthy of responsibility,

considered to be responsible with money,

considered to be capable of doing the school work,

or any other kind of work.

One can be seen as representative of the best.

That's privilege.

Above the hypothetical line of justice,

one has more than one deserved

because of circumstances of birth and other people's

positive projections onto one.

And below it is disadvantage.

That is unearned disadvantage.

And I believe everybody in this room

has a combination of both experiences.

Having more than we actually earned,

and having less than we've actually earned.

And I didn't used to think this way.

I was raised, as many of you have been,

on the myth of meritocracy, which is, the unit of society is the individual.

And whatever the individual ends up with at death,

is what that individual worked for and earned and deserved and wanted.

Well, it isn't true.

These privileged systems which locate us

above and below the hypothetical line of social justice were invented,

and we were born into them.

And we all know both sides.

And that's a reason for compassion about the sadness of having been

born into systems that gave us such —

and here I quote the poet Adrienne Rich,

such different politics of location.

I came to notice privilege because I noticed male privilege.

And then I noticed, in parallel fashion, white privilege.

And both of these things were very distressing.

I hated learning about privilege systems.

But I found I had to, to explain my life.

Three years in a row, men and women in a seminar I was leading

at Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Women,

got into a bad relation with each other in the spring of each year.

We had monthly seminars. They were great.

The men and the women were all professors from different colleges

in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New England.

And we were talking about quite a difficult subject, but fascinating.

How to bring materials on women into all

the liberal arts curriculum, in every field？

So how to bring women's history into political science,

economics, sociology, psychology, literature, music,

art, PT, all of the technical fields as well.

And the men were our allies. They were very brave.

They had taken a fair amount of flak

on their campuses for coming to a women's college

to talk about women's studies, and bringing it

to the main curriculum, not keeping it isolated.

These were great men. And very nice men.

And yet, three years running with different groups of men,

there was a falling out that I realized as I looked through my notes,

took this form as a natural occurrence in the spring.

Toward the spring of the year in these monthly seminars,

once we all trusted each other pretty well,

the women would just raise this question.

"Can't we do some of this teaching about women in the introductory courses

that the students take first year in college, the freshman courses?"

And the men, to a person, every year, said,

"We're sorry.

You know, this is a great seminar, we love doing this work,

but you can't put anything on women into the freshman courses."

I was a prodigious note taker, and I found in my notes

one man had said,

"When you're trying to lay the foundation blocks for knowledge

in those introductory courses, you can't put in soft stuff."

Well, thanks a lot.

（Laughter）

And I remember my first thought was, he doesn't understand labor pains.

(Laughter)

But also, let me ask you,

exactly who here has a truly soft mother?

(Laughter)

And in that comment, he was including women in general.

But he was a very nice man.

I had a comment written down from another year

when the women also asked, how can we get this material

into the first year courses?

And a very, very nice man said,

in an explanatory way, "See, that first year, the students

are trying to figure out what will be their major. That's their discipline.

And if you want students to think in a disciplined way,

you can't put in extras."

Now every one of these very nice men is born of a woman.

And she has become extra in his head.

Together with, lots of them were married to women.

His wife, his daughter, his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts,

they've all become extra.

And I'm wondering,

how have they become extra, and this is such a nice man?

And then I was rescued from my dilemma, which was, I had to choose.

I had to choose whether these are nice men,

and I knew they were, and brave. Or whether they were oppressive.

And I was experiencing them as oppressive.

And in the dilemma of thinking I had to choose,

I was rescued by remembering that, back in 1980,

black women in the Boston area had written a number of essays

to the effect that white women are oppressive to work with.

Not just some white women.

White women were oppressive to work with.

I thought, oh dear.

Now, I remember how I responded to those essays.

My first response, the "oh dear" response was

"I don't see how they can say that about us!

I think we're nice."

(Laughter)

And my second response, which is mortifying to admit,

but this is how racist I was in 1980.

I thought, I especially think we're nice if we work with them.

You can hear the white superiority there.

And as I recalled my responses to reading those essays —

by now it was six years later —

I thought, oh, I hope

my attitudes didn't show. I hope I was so nice I covered them over.

But after struggling with that for a couple of years,

I said yes, I was oppressive to work with.

And my niceness didn't cover my basic racial superiority assumption.

And then I thought, maybe niceness has nothing to do with it.

And that's what I believe today.

Niceness has nothing at all to do with this whole matter

of being oppressive to others.

I found that now I went back to the men, these are nice men,

but they were very good students of what they were taught,

and what I was taught also.

Which is men have knowledge, men make more knowledge,

men publish knowledge, men profess knowledge as professors.

Men run all the major research universities,

and men run all of the university presses.

And they have taken in, as I had, too, the idea

that knowledge is male, and men are knowers.

And then I realized why my husband has trouble asking

for directions when we're lost.

(Laughter)

It's the identity he was taught is that he is a knower.

And I thought, in parallel fashion, and this is sickening to realize,

it's messing up my world picture that I deserved everything I've got.

Now, I was taught that whites have knowledge.

Whites make more knowledge, whites publish knowledge,

and whites profess knowledge as professors.

And whites run the big research universities.

And whites run the university presses.

And I drank in the idea that knowledge is white,

and white people are knowers.

And to this day, in my major project, the SEED project, whose core staff

is nine people of color and five whites,

I will, unless I check myself, second guess, and doubt,

and judge everything said — every sentence, every word,

said by my colleagues of color.

I will do it because my hard drive

is wired with the white privilege that I am a knower.

And among my nine colleagues of color,

the level of knowledge and understanding, and intelligence

isn't as high as it is in me.

But, luckily I have alternative software I can install.

And when I install the alternative software,

I realize these people have been my major teachers.

And I have so much to learn from them.

They are not defective variants of whites.

They are my major teachers.

So once I began to see that, it was churning my stomach to realize

that I had white privilege that I hadn't earned,

but it was putting me ahead.

Then I realized why, at the Wellesley Centers for Women,

I could get big grants my colleagues of color couldn't.

Because I had the knowledge system on my side as a white person.

And I realized also the foundations which gave us money,

or the federal government, it was then —

they still are in general — run by whites.

And I was trusted, then, with money — with big pots of money,

because I was white.

Not because I had earned that trust.

So having seen those things, I asked myself,

what else do I have that I didn't earn because I'm white,

when I compare myself with African-American colleagues

here in my building at Wellesley Centers for Women.

And my conscious mind said, nothing.

So I asked again, on a daily basis, what do I get,

beside the money system and the knowledge system helping me out,

that my colleagues of color can't count on?

And once again, my mind, with the three degrees,

and the good grades, it said, nothing.

But I couldn't believe it. I thought I'd seen something huge

and began to name it white privilege.

Unearned advantage that came because

of my racial/ethnic status or projected worth.

So I decided I had to pray on it.

And I went to sleep one night — angrily, really.

It wasn't the usual prayer in which you ask for something,

I was demanding.

I said, if I have anything I didn't earn

by contrast of my black friends,

except the money system and the knowledge system, show me.

And in the middle of the night, along came an example.

I switched on the light — it woke me up of course —

and I wrote it down.

And over the next three months,

46 elements of unearned advantage came to me.

And they're in my paper, "White Privilege,

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,"

and my paper, "White Privilege and Male Privilege,"

a personal account of coming to see correspondences

through work in women's studies.

And then I decided, because this work was spreading in many places,

I needed to help with the matter of white guilt.

I don't believe we can be guilty, or ashamed,

or blamed for being born into systems both above

and below the hypothetical line of social justice.

They're arbitrary. They have to do with projections onto us,

owing to our neighborhood, or our parents' relation to money,

or our body type, or our hair, or our language of origin.

They have to do with our region of the country —

these projections that are put on to us, and the rewards

or punishments relate to our sex, to our gender,

to our sexual orientation, to our race, to our ethnicity,

to our parents' reputation, to stereotypes people may have

about the kinds of group we were born into.

I don't think blame, shame, or guilt are relevant to the

arbitrariness of our placement in privilege systems.

But I decided, beside the metaphor I originally used of white privilege

as an invisible knapsack I can't see or feel on my back,

but it's filled with assets that I can count on cashing in each day —

beside that, and the assets include the equivalent of freeze-dried food,

emergency blanket, flashlight, maps, code books, guide books,

letters of introduction, even, maybe, blank checks.

But beside that, I decided to put a second metaphor.

And that's the metaphor of white privilege

as a bank account that I was given.

I didn't ask for it, and I can't be blamed for it,

but I can decide to put it in the service of weakening

the system of white privilege.

That is my energy.

That is my financial commitment. That is my daily life.

And it's been transformative to use my bank account of white privilege

to weaken the system of white privilege.

It has absolutely transformed my life to be in work that feels right.

And it's not based on guilt. I don't know exactly the wording for it,

but I I found that, when I put my white privilege in this service of

weakening white privilege, the bank account keeps refilling,

because I get the benefit of the doubt.

So the cops arresting me for speeding tend to let me off.

I get the benefit of the doubt because I'm a little old lady

with white hair.

(Laughter)

And my papers are in order, and my voice is soft.

So I get let off. It's not fair.

But I don't want to say, "Officer, officer, arrest me!"

(Laughter)

Because that'll put our insurance up.

(Laughter)

But every day in every way,

bank account of white privilege refills, and I get the benefit of the doubt.

It has been transformative to use

the power I did not know, I was never taught that I had,

in the service of kinder, fairer, and more compassionate life for everyone.

Thank you.

(Applause)