50 White Privileges From "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh
1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have
learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an
area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to
me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be
followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my
race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that
people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the
existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only
member of my race.
11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in
which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented,
into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a
hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work
against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like
them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own
daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if
they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others'
attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having
people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute
the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and
behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a
person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't
been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and
children's magazines featuring people of my race.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied
in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to
jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a
program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting,
even if my colleagues disagree with me.
30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race
will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist
programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be
more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people
of other races.
33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a
reflection on my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
35. 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.
36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or
situation whether it had racial overtones.
37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and
advise me about my next steps, professionally.
38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without
asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to
do.
39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get
in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection
owing to my race.
43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people
of my race.
45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences
of my race.
46. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less
match my skin.
47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in
those who deal with us.
48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family
unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and
social.

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