"White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances."
Examines how white identity and privilege shapes the world and the experiences of people of color.
Structural racism: A term used to refer to the ways in which society is structured to advantage some groups over others based on race.
Privilege: A set of unearned advantages that are accrued by some individuals or groups at the expense of others.
Intersectionality: A theoretical framework that examines how social categories, such as race and gender, intersect and interact to shape individual and group experiences.
Critical race theory: A framework that examines how the law and legal institutions perpetuate and maintain racial inequality.
White fragility: The defensive responses that many white individuals exhibit when confronted with their own privilege, and the ways in which this fragility works to maintain the status quo of white supremacy.
Whiteness: The social construction of white identity and the ways in which it is used to maintain social, economic, and political power.
Microaggressions: The everyday comments, behaviors, and practices that perpetuate systemic oppression and contribute to the marginalization of people of color.
Allyship: The practice of actively working to dismantle systems of oppression from a position of privilege and power.
Decolonization: A process of actively working to unlearn colonial ideologies and practices, and to restore agency and sovereignty to marginalized communities.
Reparations: The idea of repairing historic injustices through the provision of monetary compensation or other types of restitution.
Critical Race Theory: An approach to understanding and analyzing race and racism that seeks to expose and critique the ways in which race intersects with other identities such as class, gender, and sexuality.
Postcolonial Studies: The study of the ongoing legacies of colonialism and imperialism on people of color and the ways in which these legacies continue to impact contemporary society.
Ethnic Studies: The interdisciplinary study of the social, cultural, and historical experiences of ethnic and racial groups in the context of power relations.
Queer Theory: The study of the ways in which heteronormativity and power intersect to construct and regulate gender and sexuality, and how queer individuals resist and negotiate these norms and structures.
Feminist Theory: The study of the ways in which gender intersects with other identities and structures of power, and how this intersectionality creates unique experiences of oppression and privilege.
Disability Studies: The study of the ways in which ableism and power intersect to construct and regulate disability, and how disabled individuals resist and negotiate these norms and structures.
"With roots in European colonialism and imperialism, and the Atlantic slave trade, white privilege has developed in circumstances that have broadly sought to protect white racial privileges, various national citizenships, and other rights or special benefits."
"In the study of white privilege and its broader field of whiteness studies, both pioneered in the United States, academic perspectives such as critical race theory use the concept to analyze how racism and racialized societies affect the lives of white or white-skinned people."
"American academic Peggy McIntosh described the advantages that whites in Western societies enjoy and non-whites do not experience as 'an invisible package of unearned assets'."
"White privilege denotes both obvious and less obvious passive advantages that white people may not recognize they have, which distinguishes it from overt bias or prejudice."
"These include cultural affirmations of one's own worth; presumed greater social status; and freedom to move, buy, work, play, and speak freely. The effects can be seen in professional, educational, and personal contexts."
"The concept of white privilege also implies the right to assume the universality of one's own experiences, marking others as different or exceptional while perceiving oneself as normal."
"Some scholars say that the term uses the concept of 'whiteness' as a substitute for class or other social privilege or as a distraction from deeper underlying problems of inequality."
"They note the problem of acknowledging the diversity of people of color and ethnicity within these groups."
"As an academic concept that was only recently brought into the mainstream, the concept of white privilege is frequently misinterpreted by non-academics; some academics, having studied white privilege undisturbed for decades, have been surprised by the recent opposition from right-wing critics since approximately 2014."
"...the concept of white privilege was rapidly brought into the mainstream spotlight through social media campaigns such as Black Lives Matter."
"Some commentators have observed that the 'academic-sounding concept of white privilege' sometimes elicits defensiveness and misunderstanding among white people."
"They...suggest that the notion of whiteness cannot be inclusive of all white people."
"They note the problem of acknowledging the diversity of people of color and ethnicity within these groups."
"Some scholars say that the term uses the concept of 'whiteness' as a substitute for class or other social privilege or as a distraction from deeper underlying problems of inequality."
"...some academics, having studied white privilege undisturbed for decades, have been surprised by the recent opposition from right-wing critics since approximately 2014."
"In the study of white privilege and its broader field of whiteness studies, both pioneered in the United States, academic perspectives such as critical race theory use the concept to analyze how racism and racialized societies affect the lives of white or white-skinned people."
"They note the problem of acknowledging the diversity of people of color and ethnicity within these groups."
"...the concept of white privilege was rapidly brought into the mainstream spotlight through social media campaigns such as Black Lives Matter."
"...some academics, having studied white privilege undisturbed for decades, have been surprised by the recent opposition from right-wing critics since approximately 2014."