"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."
The social construction of white identity and its perceived superiority in Western societies.
The history of the concept of race: Understanding the origins of the concept of race and how it has been used historically to perpetuate inequality and discrimination.
Intersectionality: Exploring how race intersects with other identities such as gender, class, and sexuality, and the ways in which these identities shape experiences of privilege and oppression.
Privilege: Understanding the advantages and benefits that come with being part of a dominant racial group, and the ways in which these privileges are often invisible to those who possess them.
White fragility: Examining the defensive and reactive responses that many White people have when confronted with issues of racism and privilege.
Colorism: Understanding the ways in which lighter skin tones are valued over darker skin tones in many societies, and the impact that this has on perceptions of beauty and worth.
Institutional Racism: Exploring how systemic racism is embedded in the policies and practices of institutions such as government, education, and the criminal justice system.
Racism and Health Disparities: Understanding how racism contributes to disparities in health outcomes, and how race can be a factor in the quality of healthcare people receive.
Cultural appropriation: Examining the ways in which elements of minority cultures are taken by those in power and used for their own benefit, often without considering the cultural significance and meaning behind them.
Racism in popular culture: Examining the impact of racism in entertainment, media, and popular culture, and how this perpetuates stereotypes and harmful attitudes towards different racial groups.
Racial justice and allyship: Understanding what it means to be an ally and how individuals can take action to promote racial justice and dismantle systemic racism.
White Supremacy: This refers to a belief system that asserts white people's inherent superiority over non-white people. It often involves violence, oppression, and discrimination against non-white people to maintain white dominance.
White Privilege: This refers to the advantages and benefits that white people experience in society because of their whiteness, such as access to better educational and economic opportunities, greater political power, and less discrimination.
White Fragility: This refers to the defensiveness and discomfort that many white people experience when confronted with discussions about race, racism, and privilege. It often manifests as emotional reactions, denial, or avoidance of these topics.
Colorblindness: This refers to the belief that race does not matter, and that we should treat everyone equally regardless of their race or ethnicity. However, this approach often ignores the complex racial dynamics and structures that shape our society and can perpetuate inequalities.
Allyship: This refers to white people's willingness and commitment to supporting and advocating for racial justice and equity for people of color. It often involves actively educating oneself on issues of race, listening to and amplifying the voices of people of color, and taking action to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression.
Whiteness as a cultural identity: This refers to the ways that whiteness is constructed as a cultural identity with its own norms, values, and practices. It often involves an unexamined assumption that white culture is the norm or default and can normalize or reinforce racism and exclusion of people of color.
Racial Passing: This refers to the phenomenon of individuals who are racially classified as white but have some non-white ancestry or identity. It often involves navigating between different racial identities and experiences and can reveal the ways that race is a social construct that changes over time and across different contexts.
"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."