Peggy McIntosh White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack and Keesha Beckford Dear White Moms

Connections:

Peggy McIntosh wrote White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack to show that white privilege is out there whether we notice it or not. White people have the “invisible knapsack” that allows them to easily survive life, while those who don’t have the knapsack struggle with many hardships. In her piece she writes a list of ways she has privilege in her daily life and there was one way she had white privilege that connected to Beckford’s Dear White Moms and Johnson’s Privilege Power and Difference. McIntosh noted, “Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability” (McIntosh 3). Keesha Beckford also mentions this same idea in Dear White Moms, but her approach is different. She says, “Speak up to the checker who asks for your black friend’s ID to take a check and not for yours” (Beckford). Beckford wants white mothers to defend their black friends, why should they have to show identification at the time of check out and not you. Instead of sitting idly by watching someone be racially discriminated, do something about it and act out. Both of these women commented on the same thing that I first read in Privilege Power and Difference. Allen Johnson is a white, heterosexual male and he is privileged because of these factors he has no control over. When he sat down with an African American woman, he mentioned, “The simple truth is that when I go shopping, I'll probably get waited on faster and better than she will. I'll benefit from the cultural assumption that I'm a serious customer who doesn't need to be followed around to keep me from stealing something. The clerk won't ask me for three kinds of ID before accepting my check or accepting my credit card” (Johnson 7). All three authors have pointed out that if a white person goes into a store to shop, they won’t be followed. There wouldn’t be a question as to whether their card would be declined, so why is it that this happens to some black people? Does the color of their skin really dictate whether or not they’ll steal, whether their card will be declined, or the thought that the card might not even be theirs? It’s unbelievable that these thoughts run through people’s heads while black customers enter their stores.

The store Barneys, in New York, was said to have salesmen who were judging their customers when they entered the shop. They would make bets about the black customer's credit cards, whether they will be accepted or declined. Barneys is a high-end store so it seems like only the “privileged” are allowed to shop there, but no matter what color the customers skin is or the clothes they are wearing, they shouldn't be judged as soon as they get into the store.

I was watching a TV show that hires actors to go create a situation and see how the public reacts and they got a black man to enter a high-end store with a long jacket looking like he was poor. Instantly the salesmen went up to him and kept following him around asking him to leave the store because he clearly didn’t belong there. The customers saw this and some left the store because they didn't want to shop at a place that does that, but others continued to watch the scene unfold. When the cameras came out the salesmen started to laugh a little because they didn’t know that it was a set up, but they didn’t quite seem to grasp that they singled out and followed a customer solely because he was black. This is happening in society and it is completely wrong. There shouldn’t be thoughts like this in today’s world.

Keesha Beckford with her children.

Point to Share:

It may seem like all of this isn't happening in society that everyone is accepted, but that is not the case. Only some are deciding to stand up for those being targeted by racial profiling but they are not enough. Those with "privilege" are scared to act out because they believe that it will diminish their power and it's sad to think that black people can't walk into a store without being judged. In three readings this idea of checking IDs of blacks when they're using credit cards has become apparent to me and I think it is completely unacceptable to target people because of their race or of the color of their skin.