Deconstructing Privilege
In today’s society, the pressing problem of privilege systems severely undermines morality and equality yet without analytical observation or reason to deconstruct these systems, they will continue to go unnoticed and break the possibility of a just society. Allan G. Johnson, an American sociology and gender studies writer, describes a privilege system as “a characteristic of the social system — like a rule in a game — in which everyone participates. A system of privilege — a family, a workplace, a society — is organized around three basic principles: dominance, identification, and centeredness” (Johnson). These systems have been set in place by authoritative figures and tend to rest on past historical structures. These privileged figures are in a place of power where they are exempt from the role of deconstructing privilege; they are able to enjoy unearned advantages rather than using their power to rebuild the systems in place. Peggy McIntosh is one of many who aches to shed light on the privilege that threatens the well-being of today’s society. As an academic in women’s studies, McIntosh has a lot of background in interrogating the intricacies of male privilege and thus female oppression. A key concept of her studies is revealing male privilege and asking them to abandon some of their power to make the unjust gap between men and women smaller. She proposes in her article “WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MALE PRIVILEGE: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies”, that, similar to investigating male privilege, when investigating white privilege, it is vital to ask yourself, “Having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?” (McIntosh 2). McIntosh uses instances of the oppression that she has experienced from males as a lens for which to unveil the people and groups that she has privilege over. By deconstructing the meaning and function of privilege in today’s society, Peggy McIntosh opens doors to new, difficult conversations that lead toward one’s acknowledgment of their own privilege and a newfound yearn to disembody the system set in place by it.
The majority of McIntosh’s argument focuses on her lack of privilege as a woman yet her unconscious privilege as a white woman. Her piece includes multiple instances of personal experience, inviting the reader in on her journey of dissecting her own privilege as a white woman and encouraging readers to look at the ways in which they may be entitled and why the possible ignorance of their privilege is harmful. She addresses the fact that similar to how men tend to disregard their privilege over women, white people tend to disregard their privilege over black people, heterosexuals tend to disregard their privilege over homosexuals, and so on. This is because they are able to disregard it; their ignorance and negligence ultimately cause no harm to them and thus, they see no need to change their thinking or even think about the matter at all.
A powerful point that McIntosh makes is that while men tend to recognize the disadvantages of women and people of color, they don’t recognize their inherent advantages as a man or a white person. This denial is seen in multiple forms of privilege and works to protect privilege from being challenged and thus ended which is what McIntosh hopes her audience will see and care to change. She calls on some of the reasons that this privilege exists and notes that for men specifically, their excuses center around “precedent or sociobiology and psychobiology to demonstrate that male domination is natural and follows inevitably from evolutionary pressures… ‘experience’ or religion or social responsibility or wishing and dreaming” (McIntosh 2). Most of the time, these precedents lead males, white women, and others with the power of privilege to become unconscious oppressors.
Privilege is not limited to certain settings, in fact, just as McIntosh faces the harm of privilege systems in her work in Women’s Studies, juvenile school systems undergo similar destructive repercussions. The New York Times’ Podcast Nice White Parents examines the privilege at play in a scholarly setting and elaborates on the common ignorance rooted in white people in the 1960s. Their second episode titled ‘I Still Believe in It’ speaks on an interesting story following white parents in Brooklyn who turned on their past hopes of integrating their school system. Chana Joffe-Walt interviews several of these parents, reporting on their past prejudices and eventually on her own unconscious prejudices granting an incredibly grasping analysis of privilege for her listeners. Elaine Hencke, the only parent who visited the proposed integrated school, truly did believe in sending her kids there but ultimately did not because it seemed chaotic, noisy, and disruptive, and that the other kids’ “reading levels were way down”… she states that she “saw it as a more difficult project” (Joffe-Walt 33:05). Her answers revealed her unconscious bias against the students of color and her naivety about the reality of segregation and what it would take to undo it. Joffe-Walt states that the false display of integration in society “seems perfectly designed to preserve my innocence, to make me comfortable, not to remedy inequality, but a way to bypass it entirely” (Joffe-Walt 41:06). Further on in the podcast, Joffe-Walt describes the instance where she herself recognized the unnoticed and unearned privilege of white children compared to children of color. While attending a choir concert for her child at their integrated school, Joffe-Walt pondered the fact that she, as a privileged white person, could “feel good about the gauzy display of integration without ever being asked to think about the fact that much of the time, white kids in the school building are having a different educational experience than kids of color”, such as being involved in gifted programs, and their parents carrying the most authority in school-board matters (Joffe-Walt 41:19). As McIntosh argues, these acknowledgments of one’s own privilege are vital in terminating the unconscious oppression rooted in the system.
Another issue that keeps privilege hidden is that those who do acknowledge that male privilege systems have granted too much power to men typically doubt the possibility of deconstructing the privilege systems. The problem with this is that people in positions of authority tend to find satisfaction in false propositions rather than truly enacting change. McIntosh notes that most men feel inclined to back the idea of working to improve Women’s status, in society, or in the university, but they won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Privilege has become such a tangled issue because rather than being looked at as something we can lessen or dismantle, it is looked to as a standard. In this sense, McIntosh states that “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’” (McIntosh 2). The idea of privilege being a neutral standard comes partly from the unearned advantages that people in power hold over minorities, but also from the realization that some of these unearned privileges should be the norm. McIntosh explains that “the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you” and other privileges should be desired and be expected of a humane and just society, however other privileges, such as not facing any impairment by ignoring voices of the underprivileged, need their association with normalcy to be tweaked, as that should not be expected of a just society (McIntosh 7). Since whites are in the position of power, they are able to “disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms” (McIntosh 6). Several other daily conditions are overlooked because they have come to be known as the norm, as neutral, because they are all that privileged people have ever known. Furthermore, since privileged people are simply able to ignore these conditions, they also are able to ignore the repercussions of these conditions. Most white people do not see the harm in the things they do every day because they simply take those privileged conditions for granted. Moreover, McIntosh describes the positive connotation associated with privilege. Systemic dominance and/or control are deep-rooted in the word ‘privilege,’ yet since it has been looked at as a desirable attribute, these harmful byproducts are ignored. With this mindset, it is nearly impossible to deconstruct the privilege systems unless people educate themselves on how they are idolizing them.
In further strengthening her argument, McIntosh establishes a solid connection with her readers by choosing to write in the first person. In doing so, her argument comes off as less forceful and more open to fit the different race, sex, ethnicity, e.t.c., of every reader, which is crucial since gender and race are not the only factors impacted by privilege systems. She expresses the importance of examining the advantages that come in one’s daily life whether that be based on age, ethnicity, physical ability, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Thus, she successfully broadens her audience by not only dissecting male privilege, but by discussing white [specifically white female] privilege, and later heterosexual privilege. This helps to emphasize the vast applicability of privilege. It comes in infinite forms, and McIntosh’s analysis leads the reader to ask themselves in which ways they are entitled. Moreover, rather than writing in the second person and directly addressing the reader as ‘you’, McIntosh uses personal experience to deconstruct privilege in an attempt to spark any connection with her readers. In doing this, McIntosh’s piece becomes more powerful as it does not feel like she is forcing the reader to do anything, she is simply suggesting one’s reevaluation of their privileges in society and why it is important to rebuild that image.
Regardless of race, sex, socioeconomic status, or origin, McIntosh’s argument will likely make one rethink their position in this society of unearned privileges. This is because she addresses privilege in such profound ways that many people will find necessary to hear. As a precedent for how the reader can deconstruct their own privilege, McIntosh demonstrates a painful yet necessary list of forty-six ways that she has noticed her advantages over her black colleagues, encouraging others to do the same in their walks of life. I say that this list is painful because even if one is not white — and especially if one is a person of color — one can see the blunt disregard for equality in our society. For example, McIntosh states that “I can be fairly sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race… I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another woman’s voice in a group in which she is the only member of her race” (McIntosh 3). This ties directly to her earlier point that privilege goes unnoticed. As a reader, this list hits home because whether or not you can relate to her statements, it is clear to see the injustice that black people face in our society while white people are blind to it because they do not face these injustices themselves.
To conclude, the core takeaway from McIntosh’s argument is the realization that as a human being, you are bound to have an advantage over another person or group based on a group that you can factor yourself into. The reason why privilege systems are still in place today is that there are exemptions rooted in them allowing humans to continue ignoring and oppressing those who have been deemed ‘lesser’ in some form. McIntosh’s argument shows a primary example of how to deconstruct one’s own privilege and why it is important to reconstruct the systems in place in order to make way for a more just society. If you have never thought about your privilege until now, McIntosh’s argument will serve as a basis for interrogating your own advantages as a human being. It is crucial to step down from the invisible high ground that some characteristic has arbitrarily granted you and analyze how you gained that privilege, the harm that privilege potentially inflicts on those around you, and if that privilege should be normalcy to work towards or should be tacked down on the ignored hierarchy of that privilege system.
Works Cited
Joffe-Walt, Chana. “I Still Believe in It.” Nice White Parents, episode 2, Serial Productions, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html
Johnson, Allen G. “What is a ‘System of Privilege’?” Borough of Manhattan Community College, 2013, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-bmcc-sociology/chapter/what-is-a-system-of-privilege/
McIntosh, Peggy. “WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MALE PRIVILEGE: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.” Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, 1988.
