Who Came Up With White Privilege?

Since this is my blog it should be up to me to define my idea of what is, or is not, white privilege.

The concept of privilege came into its own in the eighties, when the women's-studies scholar Peggy McIntosh started writing about it.

In her writings she describes her vision of who gets what based on their particular race.

She lists 26 points that she uses to determine if you’re privileged — or not privileged.

My Definition of White Privilege

When I went to college in the 1960s in Texas, gas stations had four restrooms, and two water fountains.

At the theater blacks sat upstairs and got soda and candy only after the last white customer had been served.

At the drive-in, blacks parked in the back — whites in the front. There were no blacks in my college classes.

I would say that’s a glaring picture of white privilege. Blacks in the south in the beginning of the 20^th century were literally second-class citizens by every measure.

White Privilege Today

Since then the two largest cities in the US have had black mayors. We have black and Hispanic Supreme Court Justices. Our federal legislature has black senators and congressmen and women.

We’ve even had a black president that was re-elected to a second term. It would seem that success regardless of race in today’s world would be much easier than in days gone by.

White privilege is not eroding; privilege of all races is expanding.