The Invisible Knapsack Analysis

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Peggy McIntosh is well known for her work as a women’s rights and anti-racism activist, with most of her speeches and essays revolving around the idea of male or white privilege. One of her most notable writings on the subject is commonly referred to as “The Invisible Knapsack”, which refers to her own description of white privilege being “an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.”(McIntosh) Her article details a list of fifty difference statements that apply to white privilege. She concludes the article by saying that the word “privilege” is not enough to describe her set conditions, and comes to refer to it as “dominance”, but does not offer any sort of suggestion
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